In the spirit of Swift, I wish to offer the endorsement of the principle now under earnest debate in the American public and press - the killing of Grandma.
Euthanasia involves the deliberate termination of an innocent life. We use the supposition of "innocence" to distinguish this act from lawful homicide, which is the express provenance of the criminal court system.
Using the principles of "innocent until proven guilty," therefore, one is led to suppose that Grandma's termination is a "mercy killing," not some sort of State administered punishment.
Let us assume, for sake of argument, that Grandma is about seventy years old. She would have been born in the period of the Great Depression I, around 1935-1940 and grew up with three major influences in her young life; the Great Depression (I), World War II, and the Cold War. Grandma knew of matters such as civilization, and its ability to cause and cure suffering.
She was then given as an unmerited gift, great abundance, success and opportunity beyond her wildest dreams. Women of her childhood had little opportunity; she had more than even the children of the wealthy did in her parents' generation. She was educated, dressed, and respected in a manner unheard of in her parents' generation.
And regrettably, it spoiled her. Grandma caught perhaps a glimpse in her youth of a future based upon the pillars of Prosperity, Freedom and Abundance - and then spent the rest of her years of ability spurning the future, and spending it into penury. "I'm Spending My Children's Inheritance!" read her bumper sticker (no longer seen, as it might provoke vandalism.)
She allowed her country to do things and become things which were shameful, shocking and sorrowful in earlier days. She crafted a system for medical care and financial support for her retirement - and then pulled up the gang-plank for later generations, which would be spent into penury by waste and abuse.
She shrieked about "Government involvement" and then cashed her Federal Paycheck.
She raised two generations of snot-faced descendants unschooled in the ways of the Republic, the manners of civilization, and like her, immersed in selfishness and greed.
And now, her uncivilized and irrational crew, illiterate and innumerate, cannot understand anything of the law but what is told to them by lunatics on the radio, such as Father Coughlin, only without even HIS scruples.
And we are asked to argue for Grand-ma's life by those who cannot tell the difference between an Extermination Panel and an end-of-life conversation with a physician?
Mene, mene, tekel, uparsim. You are what you bring forth, grandma. The petard upon which you are hoisted, is your own. If you have now a State which will endorse euthanasia - in a generation which accepts military torture and the killing of civilian noncombatants - you should perhaps fear what you have wrought.
Euthanasia involves the deliberate termination of an innocent life. We use the supposition of "innocence" to distinguish this act from lawful homicide, which is the express provenance of the criminal court system.
Using the principles of "innocent until proven guilty," therefore, one is led to suppose that Grandma's termination is a "mercy killing," not some sort of State administered punishment.
Let us assume, for sake of argument, that Grandma is about seventy years old. She would have been born in the period of the Great Depression I, around 1935-1940 and grew up with three major influences in her young life; the Great Depression (I), World War II, and the Cold War. Grandma knew of matters such as civilization, and its ability to cause and cure suffering.
She was then given as an unmerited gift, great abundance, success and opportunity beyond her wildest dreams. Women of her childhood had little opportunity; she had more than even the children of the wealthy did in her parents' generation. She was educated, dressed, and respected in a manner unheard of in her parents' generation.
And regrettably, it spoiled her. Grandma caught perhaps a glimpse in her youth of a future based upon the pillars of Prosperity, Freedom and Abundance - and then spent the rest of her years of ability spurning the future, and spending it into penury. "I'm Spending My Children's Inheritance!" read her bumper sticker (no longer seen, as it might provoke vandalism.)
She allowed her country to do things and become things which were shameful, shocking and sorrowful in earlier days. She crafted a system for medical care and financial support for her retirement - and then pulled up the gang-plank for later generations, which would be spent into penury by waste and abuse.
She shrieked about "Government involvement" and then cashed her Federal Paycheck.
She raised two generations of snot-faced descendants unschooled in the ways of the Republic, the manners of civilization, and like her, immersed in selfishness and greed.
And now, her uncivilized and irrational crew, illiterate and innumerate, cannot understand anything of the law but what is told to them by lunatics on the radio, such as Father Coughlin, only without even HIS scruples.
And we are asked to argue for Grand-ma's life by those who cannot tell the difference between an Extermination Panel and an end-of-life conversation with a physician?
Mene, mene, tekel, uparsim. You are what you bring forth, grandma. The petard upon which you are hoisted, is your own. If you have now a State which will endorse euthanasia - in a generation which accepts military torture and the killing of civilian noncombatants - you should perhaps fear what you have wrought.
(PS: No Grandmas were actually harmed in the writing of this essay.)
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