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Posted on 11/12/2006 6:06:35 AM PST by NYer
The Church of England believes doctors should be given the right to withhold treatment from some seriously disabled newborn babies in exceptional circumstances, The Observer reported.
The view comes in a submission from the church to a British medical ethics committee looking at the implications of keeping severely premature babies alive through technological advances, the weekly newspaper said.
The Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, was said to have written that "it may in some circumstances be right to choose to withhold or withdraw treatment, knowing it will possibly, probably, or even certainly result in death".
Last week, Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists called for a debate on whether deliberate medical intervention to cause the death of severely disabled new-born babies should be legalised.
The college said it did not necessarily favour the move -- which prompted accusations of "social engineering" from disabled groups -- but felt the issue should be discussed.
Its views were expressed in a similar submission to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, which was set up two years ago and which is due to publish its finding later this week.
The Observer reported that the church, led by the head of the world's Anglicans Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, could not accept the view that the life of any baby is not worth living.
But it added there were "strong proportionate reasons" for "overriding the presupposition that life should be maintained", the weekly added.
The high price of keeping very premature and sick babies alive with invasive medical treatments as well as the consequences for parents should also be taken into consideration, the bishop reportedly says.
"There may be occasions where, for a Christian, compassion will override the 'rule' that life should inevitably be preserved," the south London bishop is said to have written.
"Disproportionate treatment for the sake of prolonging life is an example of this."
The church reportedly said it would only back withholding or withdrawing treatment if all reasonable alternatives had been fully considered "so that the possibly lethal act would only be performed with manifest reluctance".
Ping!
Slippery slope alert!
Not anymore ~ they reached the bottom.
Ah, "compassion." That was one of the arguments for abortion, as I recall, from the 1960s. I was living in New York at the time, and all sorts of flakes from liberal Protestant churches used to float up with petitions based on the "compassionate" need to permit abortion. And guess what - the pitch worked, and they won.
The church has eloquently stated its non-position.
The Equivocation award goes to the Bishop.
If they now endorse abortion, how does the Church feel about Sharia Law?
LLS
Like if they had an ugly mother? Who determines what this horrible disability is?
The Church of England believes doctors should be given the right to withhold treatment from some seriously disabled newborn babies in exceptional circumstances, The Observer reported.Wow!
Oh well, ya learn something knew everyday.
When Sharia law comes they will say that the right to life for any "Christian" is not absolute.
Hence, the slippery slope.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans, will make his first official visit to Pope Benedict on November 23 at the Vatican. Given this news report, he should come prepared for a tongue lashing!
When I see articles like this, I always recall the horrible situation a family friend experienced.
They had a baby that was born with only a brain stem. They knew it would happen, pre-natal exams revealed that the baby was not developing a brain. The doctor, a good Christian man, recommended an abortion. The family refused.
They later came to regret it. After the baby was born, it was like taking care of toadstool. He just laid there with a feeding tube for 18 months before he died. He never cried, never ate, never opened his eyes... it was as if he were a breathing piece of flesh and nothing more. It still creeps me out when I think of it.
How much longer before simply tossing a newborn in the garbage is considered an acceptable form of abortion? After all, no baby is capable of sustaining its own life, and mere inaction is enough to result in the infant's death.
If the Anglicans had half a brain, they would be in Rome on their knees begging the Pope to take them back. "Bless me father for I have sinned...."
I hope so. However, I was very depressed to learn in the parish bulletin that I got at Mass today that our Cathedral is hosting an "ecumenical" get-together on Thanksgiving Day with the Episcopal Church, where "Mother" Somebody-or-another will preside. What in the world are they thinking of? And in our Cathedral?
We're not in communion with the Episcopalians/Anglicans, even on the one-sided basis with which we are in communion with the Orthodox, and they oppose the Catholic Church on virtually every one of its moral teachings. I'm so disgusted I hardly know where to begin.
Our bishop is very orthodox, but the pastor (dean) of our cathedral parish is an absolute flake.
Who cares what the cost is, it is a human life and we must fight for the lives of the little ones lives.
This descent into the pit is "justified" by accepting the argument that it is merciful and compassionate thing to put badly deformed and physicologically compromised newborns to death shortly after birth.
There are influential voices on the left (Peter Singer in the US) that have already moved well beyond this limit and are arguing that parents (or a parent) ought to be allowed to choose to put a child to death up to a month after birth for any reason, after a "test drive."
Full circle depravity will have been achieved when innocent and helpless human beings at any stage of life may be put to death (abortion, euthanasia) for any reason deemed acceptable by leftist idealogues.
That could include reasons of pure convenience.
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