Sidesspot: The Creeping Evil of Good Intentions

The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid 'dens of crime' that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices.

C.S. Lewis speaking there, quoted by Mark Sides at Sidespot.His post responds to reports that Dutch medical people have reported euthanizing infants.


Whenever Christians point to an act with horror and alarm, the secular thought leaders always seem to (i) scoff at the lack of sophistication of people of faith and (ii) speak soothingly of their humane intentions, that the latest act is really no big deal, and certainly is NOT comparable to what occurred in Nazi Germany. Yet the slide towards that very moral state occurs decade by decade. It is creeping in like the fog, and is imperceptibly, but most definitely, beginning to envelop us. First abortion, then do not resuscitate, then withhold food and water, then consensual doctor-assisted suicide, then selective reduction, then designer babies (the Ubermensch is coming!), now non-consensual killing of babies.

Don't worry. The slide will go no further than this.

Right. No further than this...we can pray.

There is something obscene about the term "mercy killing." The two words do not go together. In this case I don't have what it takes to discuss the issue. All I can do is refer the reader to the comments and observations of others. The Sidespot link has a good list.