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(The following article illustrates
the division in western culture over the value of life):
Pundit
Says, "I would suffocate a child to end its suffering."
___Television
pundit Virginia Ironside prompted outrage yesterday after saying
she would suffocate a child to end its suffering. Shocked BBC viewers
complained after the agony aunt said she would hold a pillow over
the face of a child in pain. Minutes earlier the controversial writer
said "a loving mother' would abort an unwanted or disabled
baby, and praised abortion as "a moral and unselfish act."
___Commentators
accused the controversial writer of advocating eugenics, and disability
rights campaigners branded her views 'despicable'. The mother-of-one
and grandmother said it was better to terminate a pregnancy than
to condemn a disabled or unwanted child to a lifetime of emotional
or physical suffering. She told BBC1's religious discussion programme,
Sunday Morning Live, that abortion could be an act of kindness in
those circumstances. She said: "Abortion can often be seen
as something wicked and irresponsible, but in fact it can be a moral
and unselfish act... Sometimes the decision of a good mother is
not to have the child."
___Programme
host Susanna Reid appeared visibly shocked by her comments during
the live debate, gasping: "That's a pretty horrifying thing
to say, that you would put a pillow over a suffering child."
The writer said she recognised that disabled people could lead active
and fulfilling lives. But she said there were millions of disabled
and unwanted children around the world who were left suffering in
institutions. "To go ahead and have a baby, knowing that you
can't give it some kind of stable upbringing, seems to me to be
cruel," she said.
___The
controversial author and journalist has previously argued that doctors
should not fight to save very premature babies. Her latest comments
were made as doctors prepared to lobby for a change in the law to
allow people to help the terminally ill to die. Disability campaigner
Clair Lewis accused Miss Ironside of using physical suffering as
an excuse for advocating eugenics, through the abortion of disabled
children. She said: "The problems that disabled people face
will not be fixed by killing off unborn children."
___GP
Peter Evans, of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said: "For
us to make judgments that people are not worth life, not worth the
opportunity to live, is a very dangerous thing." Viewers left
a series of complaints on the programme's website message board,
although some praised the writer's outspoken comments. One wrote:
"How on earth has this woman been able to put such views, care
of the BBC, it is despicable? [sic] To put a view of murder on a
TV program she should be arrested and charged with encouraging the
act of murder on babies." Another branded her views "disgusting,"
adding: "How can she suggest that a child's quality of life
can be so bad that they would be better off dead?"
Allen,
V. (2010, October 5). Outrage as agony aunt tells TV audience 'I
would suffocate a child to end its suffering.' U.K. Daily Mail.
Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk
See the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RAAhTL4Arg&feature=player_embedded
SCRIPTURE
READING:
________John 3:1-17
_____________________ "Now
there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the
Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, 'Rabbi,
we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do
these signs that you do unless God is with him.' Jesus answered
him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless
one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.'
Nicodemus said to Him, 'How can a man be born when he is old?
Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?'
Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to
you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter
the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I
said to you, "You must be born again." The wind
blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know
where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who
is born of the Spirit.' Nicodemus said to Him, 'How
can these things be?' Jesus answered him, 'Are
you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness
to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I
have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you
believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into
heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son
of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal
life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through Him.'
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