Baby Knauer was born in late 1938 in Nazi Germany. Sadly, one of the new infant's legs and part of one arm were missing when he was born. He was also born blind. His grieving father wrote to Hitler and requested permission to have doctors put his son "to sleep." Hitler had the matter investigated and gave the father and doctors his thumbs up. Not only Hitler, but the German doctors involved agreed that there was "no justification for keeping the child alive."
Within a few months, a system began to be set in place to euthanize infants born with birth defects or congenital diseases. It wasn't long before Hitler began "cleansing" his regime of disabled adults as well. Hitler's Germany denied the intrinsic value of human life, and it led to the murder of millions of people.
While Germany no longer supports legalized euthanasia, their neighbor to the west - the Netherlands - has practiced legal assisted suicide for many years now. Not only are they killing off the terminally ill, but the plain ill, the elderly, and now the very young are also at risk.
In 2004, Groningen University Medical Center in the Netherlands admitted that it has been practicing infant euthanasia for years. The Dutch government has not officially legalized infant mercy killing, but it isn't prosecuting doctors who perform it.
It's a hard issue, of course, because the Dutch infants who have been euthanized have been killed under the condition that they have a terminal, painful illness or defect with no prospect for improvement. It's easy to sympathize with parents who sit and watch their baby suffer day after day while doctors tell them there's no hope for recovery.
Yet, just as there is with adult assisted suicide, there are two major problems. First, doctors can be wrong. A "terminal" illness may take years or decades to run its course. People for whom doctors have said, "There's no hope" have recovered after all.
Secondly, once the door to "mercy killing" is opened, then doctors and patients do not necessarily stop at the prescribed guidelines. There are multitudes of cases in the Netherlands today in which doctors have assisted a patient commit suicide without proper consent. People can decide to die or be aided in dying for reasons that have nothing to do with terminal illness or physical pain. When doctors feel free to end the lives of terminally ill infants, it's not long before they become willing to kill those who are merely disabled.
You cannot ignore the intrinsic value of human life without finding that all human life is put in jeopardy. According to the Dutch organization Cry For Life, at least 3000 lives have been ended without consent in the Netherlands. In other words, the common use of assisted suicide has made doctors in Dutch hospitals feel free to murder 3000 of their patients.
Ludwig Minelli, the founder of Dignitas - a clinic in Zurich Switzerland which helps medically ill people commit suicide - now wants to help the mentally ill end their lives "competently." His basic reasoning is, "If they want to die, let them. In fact, help them so they don't mess up and just permanently injure themselves." He's willing for long-term depressed people, or Alzheimer's patients to seek suicide as an end to their suffering.
"Minelli does not understand that attempting suicide is a call for help," said Dr. Peter Saunders, general secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship. "Once the physical and psycho-spiritual needs are met the desire for suicide tends to go away. It is laughable to suggest that someone with Alzheimer's, who cannot remember two minutes later what they told you, could have the capacity to understand and weigh up and make a decision on suicide. The potential for abuse is horrendous."
Then, there's Leslie Lemke. Lemke was born in Wisconsin with cerebral palsy, glaucoma, and brain damage. His eyes were removed and he is totally blind. He has an extremely limited vocabulary and cannot care for himself. Yet, he plays the piano with a virtuoso's skill. He plays by ear, capable of repeating the most complicated piano pieces, even while they are still being played to him. Audience members can shout out a song, and he'll play it from memory.
Had Leslie Lemke been born in Hitler's Germany, he would certainly have been killed. If he were born in today's Netherlands, he might be considered unfit to live. Yet, thank God that our Creator does not look out the outward appearance (1Sam 16:7). He looks beyond our physical, and even our mental, deformities or weaknesses, and He sees what beautiful things He can make of our lives - if we let Him.
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty (1Cor 1:27).
