Beware the Laws of Unintended Consequences – and champion the supreme human right: the right to life.
As the campaign intensifies to legalise euthanasia in the UK it is worth recalling that a law – 53 years old today – which was only going to be used in exceptional, limited and compassionate circumstances has led to a staggering 9,563,907 babies in the womb having their lives ended in Britain. That’s one new life is ended every 3 minutes – some, right up to birth.
As Catherine Robinson, of Right To Life, said earlier today “Every one of these abortions represents a failure of our society to protect the lives of babies in the womb and a failure to offer full support to women with unplanned pregnancies.
In Holland, following the legalisation of euthanasia, there has been a similar exponential rise in the numbers of deaths – with one in twenty five of all deaths as a result of euthanasia. That, too, represents a failure to provide practical care and support, with disabled and elderly people increasingly told that they area “burden” and have a duty to die.
Legislators should be wary of laws of unintended consequences. What is done in the name of choice, rights, and even compassion, can have shocking consequences on a vast scale – and we must always search for alternatives based on defending life, not destroying it. The right to life is the supreme human right – and, without it, all the other rights are worthless.
