Cross-posted at The Christian Watershed
On May 8, 1945 the German government officially surrendered to the Allied Forces, thus ending the War in Europe (the War in the Pacific would continue another three months). The Nazis was a horrible government that aside from its treatment of the Jewish people and other “unwanted,” regularly practiced infanticide. Their justification for such an action was they believed the perfect human (read: healthiest human) was the Aryan human; all other babies of unwanted races or that were not healthy at birth were killed off.
63 years later we are faced with a Nazi-like mentality once again – this time, however, the threat is occurring in the nations that defeated Nazism in the first place. The London Times has reported that parents are on the verge of having an easy, non-invasive procedure done to determine if their child has Down’s Syndrome. If so, the parents are then left with the choice to abort the pregnancy or prepare for a child with special needs.
I must ask, how is this way of thinking any different from the Nazi mentality of killing off weaker children in order to have a better society? I know that such a question will automatically get people to accuse me of downplaying the Holocaust, attempting to compare a medical procedure to the horrors of the Holocaust, and that somehow I’m an anti-Semite for bringing this issue up (even though I’m an ethnic Jew), but I believe it is a very legitimate question. How is the mentality that it’s okay to abort a child with Down’s Syndrome – because he won’t lead a productive life, is weak, and will be “inadequate” according to our definition of normal – any different from the Nazi way of thinking?
The chilling answer is simple; there is no difference. By choosing and allowing parents to abort unwanted children due to a “weakness” in the child (a physical or mental abnormality) we, as a society, are saying that such people actually do harm society and therefore really don’t deserve to live. If the parents want to keep the child, mazel tov to them, but as a society we could care less if parents want to kill handicapped children in the womb.
My question is, why stop in the womb? There is no logical justification for this (see my post, “A Philosophical Argument Against Abortion” to see how the lines are very blurry when attempting to define the beginning of human life if “conception” is not the base definition). As a society we’ve devalued life so much that if an individual life does not aid in furthering society, or contribute to the evolution of the community, then that life is looked upon with disdain. Why not begin killing life outside of the womb once it has lost its capability to produce or evolve society?
Is grandmother costing you too much and not making any money? Put her to sleep like a dog. Did your child fall three stories and now has severe brain damage, unable to feed herself? Take her to the doctor, get an injection, and be done with this weight on society. Just found out your son has severe Autism? No worries, we can just kill him.
This brings me to my bigger point; this may not be the end result of Naturalism, but it is literally impossible for someone with a Naturalistic mindset to argue adequately and logically against this ethical system. In fact, such an ethical system is far more logical within Naturalism than one that attempts to protect the weak and feeble minded.
(Continue reading post at The Christian Watershed)