Plan 75 .. a few thoughts on Euthanasia

 

There was a TV series years ago called Logan’s Run set in a dystopian society where the people lived until 30 and then had to ‘make room’ for the next generation and were forcibly Euthanized:- of course in those days Euthanasia, Doctor assisted dying or assisted suicide were still quite unthinkable; preposterous. 

There was an interview recently given by a Canadian doctor who had herself dispatched 300 people so far under the Doctor assisted dying program in Canada, which has the most liberal laws in the world with respect to Euthanasia. No serial killer or mass murderer can get near such a tally without being apprehended. But she found her work to be quite satisfying- the state bestowing its compassion on the vulnerable sectors of the population. 

Others in Canada, particularly the old, disabled and infirm are finding the policies lacking. One chap, who was a veteran and in need of a ramp to leave his house in his wheelchair was offered Euthanasia as an alternative. Others too who had run up large medical bills or were taking up bed-space in hospitals are also frequently nudged in that direction. So a combination of withholding the assistance needed for a good quality of life or the pressure to not become a financial burden has sent many to an early grave under the veil of ‘state compassion’. 

Last year there was a movie by a Japanese film-maker that really nailed the subject as he took a peek into the near ‘possible’ future. It was called ‘Plan 75’ – a government initiative to deal with the problem of an ageing population and low birth rate. In it the elderly, who were often neglected and struggling to survive, often alone, were offered a euthanasia package (by good looking, youthful sales reps and call center agents) whereby they can receive a government grant of $1000 to spend as they wish (could be for a party or inheritance to their descendants) in exchange for being euthanized. A further benefit could be obtained – a free cremation and burial if they agreed to a mass cremation/burial as it was more efficient. This may sound familiar as was the method of their death, by being gassed. 

Often as people age or are afflicted with illness or disability their external identity diminishes. This is due to loss of jobs, finances, or apparent usefulness. Their roles shrink as their families grow-up and leave and they retire, perhaps alone when spouses die. And a God-less society is not capable of seeing true worth or dignity anymore. But the reality is so far from this as we know as believers. Because despite the losses we take in life, despite deterioration of body and mind we are and will always be children of God, sons and daughters, co-heirs of the kingdom of God, We have immortal souls with a dignity far greater than we can possibly imagine; destined to an eternity of joy and bliss should we choose it. Our old age is often a time of the greatest growth as human beings, and our sufferings are that final purification to ready us to meet a Holy God. 

We are not garbage to be thrown out, nor meat to be butchered. To truly die with dignity is to do so in the manner and time that God provides for, regardless of how it looks to anyone else.

Special Treatment

The commemoration of the 75^th anniversary of the D-day landings was important not only to remind us of the courage and sacrifice of the previous generation in fighting the evils of Nazism but also to remind us that contending with evil now falls to this generation. There is always something that needs to be revealed, opposed and conquered.

There are dark clouds gathering over Europe once again; it is the same atheistic spirit that moved the Nazi’s and the Communists to the horrors they inflicted on humanity. And like them they conceal their works and objectives with their own new language to rationalise and sanitise.

Now that people have gotten used to eliminating the unborn; it’s natural for their eyes to fall upon the elderly, the infirm, those with mental or physical disability and push society towards mercy killing or special treatment as the SS used to call it.

Assisted suicide, a precursor of voluntary (and not so voluntary) Euthanasia is already well established in Holland, Luxemburg and Belgium. The laws were made loose to enable its extension or a liberal interpretation of them and already from an initial position of being for those in unbearable pain with no hope of recovery it is already found its way to the disabled and even the depressed at the ‘end of life clinics.’ In Holland a child of 12 can request Euthanasia.

We need to show that every life and every stage of it is important, has its own dignity and purpose, regardless of appearances and each human being has an immortal soul, a unique role in eternity.

It’s as important to keep this kind of legislation away from our shores as it was to keep an invading foreign power away. This is our fight, (or one of them) and as with all spiritual battle only prayer will decide the outcome.

Duty to Die

In America, physician assisted suicide is legal in a few states and under various stages of review in other states. It was anticipated that it would be only occasionally used but this is no longer the case.

Even the most basic health insurance plans include a minimum level of care for terminally ill patients, that being to provide ‘a pain management protocol’ for however many months, weeks or days until the patient’s natural death.

With the legislation change, allowing assisted suicide, the insurance companies can now state (and have done so successfully) that their requirement now is simply to provide for this new minimum level of care, i.e. - the cost of the lethal injection. ($100 instead of thousands of dollars.)

This leaves the patient with the ‘choice’ to pay for their own pain killing medicine, if they have the means, or if they cannot pay the options are dying in agonizing pain or agreeing to assisted suicide by lethal injection.

Some have opted for assisted suicide to spare their children the cost burden of their medication in these circumstances, being made to feel that they are obliged to die.

Whether these clever loopholes were not foreseen by lawmakers or whether the legislation was deliberately and conveniently vague is not known, but this version of euthanasia is getting a hearing now in most first world countries and could easily slip into the mainstream medical system if not opposed vigorously. 

Death Spiral

Japan’s finance minister, Taro Aso made an astonishing statement recently, to the effect that Japan’s elderly, infirm and others financially dependent on the government, should ‘hurry up and die’.

This was prompted by the rising cost of care for the elderly, the ageing population, and a very low birth rate. With little or no immigration and having fully embraced the western contraceptive culture, many analysts say that Japan, as a nation, is in an irrecoverable ‘death spiral’ facing extinction. The average age is already in the mid-forties, compared to say Arab countries where it’s in the mid twenties.

This hostility to the old, weak and vulnerable members of society represents a massive shift in Japanese culture over only a few decades. Whilst it never embraced Christianity in the mainstream; the values of the Japanese were always transcendent.

Their code of honour (Bushido) was one of respect for their elderly parents and ancestors, a sense of duty to protect the weak and helpless, self-discipline and a focus on the higher values and virtues. In the pre-war and ancient times traders and merchants were the least regarded in society.

Post World War II, Western ideas were embraced and led by industrialists who enshrined profit, production, technological achievement and economic might as the new values. Now as one of the most developed, richest and advanced nations, it is coming to realise that it sowed the seeds of its own destruction in its choices. The contraceptive culture, contains within itself the subtle command to ‘empty the earth’ in opposition to God’s command to Adam and Eve to ‘fill the earth’.

Now in a panic to save itself, the nation turns in on itself all the more, willing to sacrifice its old and helpless on the altar of the Yen, to postpone their inevitable fall.

Truly, the only remnant of Bushido in Japan resides, paradoxically, in the hearts of the countries Christians; they alone will fight for life, for the weak and vulnerable, and hold fast to the integrity and honour that once made Japan the cradle of Eastern civilisation.