Culture of Death Update

In Texas, family doesn't matter -- certainly a family's opinion on the life or death of children.

National Review Online's Kathryn Lopez short excerpt caught my eye and broke my heart: SUN HUDSON, R.I.P..

Ed Morrissey (aka Captain Ed) has more details and he links to the CNN/AP story.

Captain Ed challenges the assumptions embedded in the CNN/AP report:

Thanatophoric dysplasia is an unpleasant and rare form of dwarfism that occurs once in about 35,000 births in the US. CNN does not properly describe the prognosis of the disease, however. It is not always fatal, although nearly so in the neonatal stage. Usually, thanataphoric dwarves (the name is Greek for "death bearing") only live for hours, or days at the most. Once a baby gets past the neonatal stage, survival is possible, although the child will never have hope for a normal life. The limbs usually have significant deformities and the spinal column as well.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but those of us with special children harbor deep, deep revulsion at the thought of the State defining when innocent life is terminated.

I do not claim that this was an easy decision for anyone, but the Culture of Death is the easy route in these cases.

However, it is never the Right Route.

Captain Ed reminds us Texas law has a more lethal reach than European law:

That surpasses even the Groningen Protocol, which specifically calls for parental approval before euthanizing infants. Understandably, this case has its share of difficult decisions, but it's hard to understand how the court can overrule the wishes of the next of kin in making a determination to kill a child, simply because the doctors didn't want to go on treating him. Something tells me that we've stumbled over a line here, and what's on the other side has little purchase and a long fall.

Indeed.

(Please also note that I had incorrectly stated that the Groningen Protocol did not need parental consent. As Captain Ed notes in his correction, "the parents must always give their consent.")

Can Texas be more radical in their support of euthanasia than the Dutch?

Whew, this World is upside down!

UPDATE:

Be sure to read Captain Ed's Update as well.

More cases like this are coming in Texas.

Sounds like some heat needs to be applied in Austin.