Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Human Sacrifice Today

“First, do no harm.” So begins the Hippocratic oath, the moral foundation of medical practice in the Western world. 

And yet, beyond the obvious obscenity of the physicians and paramedical professionals who are inducing, enticing and seducing children into being sexually mutilated, we also have the phenomenon of assisted suicide.


To be clear about it, the great minds of European medicine have embraced assisted suicide, not just for nonagenarians who are suffering from terminal cancer, but for perfectly healthy, but depressed young people,


Consider the case of Zoraya ter Beek, reported by Rupa Subramanya in The Free Press. Read this description and tell me what strikes you about her reason to commit suicide, at age 28:


[Zoraya] Ter Beek, who lives in a little Dutch town near the German border, once had ambitions to become a psychiatrist, but she was never able to muster the will to finish school or start a career. She said she was hobbled by her depression and autism and borderline personality disorder. Now she was tired of living—despite, she said, being in love with her boyfriend, a 40-year-old IT programmer, and living in a nice house with their two cats. 


She recalled her psychiatrist telling her that they had tried everything, that “there’s nothing more we can do for you. It’s never gonna get any better.” 


At that point, she said, she decided to die. “I was always very clear that if it doesn’t get better, I can’t do this anymore.”


We are not dealing with assisted suicide. We are dealing with induced suicide. She trusts her physician and her physician tells her that she will never get better. He is counseling suicide.


How does he know? How does he know what medical science will or will not discover tomorrow or next month? Whatever gave him the notion that science does not advance, does not discover new treatments.


It reminds one of the climate change activists who claim that they possess scientific knowledge about the future, even the future a century from now.


One must keep in mind an old notion from Wittgenstein, namely that there is no such thing as a scientific fact about tomorrow. The only proper use of the word “never” in this context is that a physician should never give up on a human being.


But, if we are not dealing with science, what are we dealing with? Why not call this for what it is, a modernized form of human sacrifice, an adjunct to the pagan practice of mutilating children in the name of what is called gender equity? Physicians have now forgotten science and have engaged in pagan religious rites.


Now that assisted suicide has become something of a treatment of choice for intractable depression, we can ask how Western cultures have managed to blind themselves to the obvious.


That is, in our neo-paganism we are concerned about feeding the goddess. Apparently, the voracious goddess requires a diet of young people. So, our medical professionals have stepped forth and tried to keep the goddess fed. By the terms of the pagan mythology, a well-fed goddess will protect us, or at least will leave us alone.


Also, for people who inhabit a world of pagan mythology, it is easier to contribute to society’s well-being by offing themselves. It is surely easier than working to produce a good life, for yourself and for others. It is an altruistic act, one that does not require very much effort.


The movement toward assisted suicide has led to an increase in the number of suicides. It has glamorized and glorified suicide:


From 2018 to 2021, countries where euthanasia or assisted suicide is most popular saw sizable increases in the number of people signing up to die: In the United States, where ten states and the District of Columbia have physician-assisted suicide, there was a 53 percent jump; in Canada, 125 percent.


One group in the Netherlands has been trying to make it easier for people to commit assisted suicide. It does not seem to trust the medical profession and wants to allow people to off themselves if they feel like it:


The Dutch group Coöperatie Laatste Wil or Last Wish Cooperative (CLW) is at the cutting edge of the movement. It is pushing for even cheaper, easier to access assisted suicide. One day, if CLW has its way, everyone will have suicide kits—including sodium azide pills, painkillers, anti-nausea tablets, and sleep aids—in their medicine cabinets. The kits will be readily available at the local pharmacy, grocery store, or on Amazon. (To ensure toddlers can’t pop sodium azide, each kit will come with a fingerprint-identification lock.)


But for now, CLW is fighting to de-medicalize assisted suicide—allowing anyone to end their life without the help of a doctor. In late 2022, CLW filed a lawsuit against the Dutch government arguing that its regulation of assisted suicide violates the European Convention of Human Rights. The suit is ongoing, with 80 percent of Dutch people voicing support for the bill in a poll last October.


So, the Dutch do not trust their medical professionals. Like good pagans, they want to allow anyone, for whatever reason, to engage this form of self-sacrifice, the better to improve living conditions by feeding the goddess.


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1 comment:

  1. In Canada, the two people I know personally that took the medically assisted dying route didn't believe in God.

    ReplyDelete