Modern Liberalism - Politics of Death

Marlowe's Shade writes this about the Business of Death.

The numerous conflicts of interest in the Terri Schiavo case parallel the situation of abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL being allowed to "counsel" women on their decision and then being paid for the services. The abortion industry has proved to be very profitable but it isn't really a growth industry due to the "Roe Effect". By aborting more of their children than their opponents, abortion supporters are also decreasing the potential market for abortions in the next generation. Cigarette manufacturers can sympathize.

Death is seen as a valid option for unborn children, euthanasia and assisted suicide, [covers the seriously ill, aged, and almost all other people - ed.]

The idea that euthanasia and assisted suicide should only be practiced if a patient has a terminal condition has never been accepted in the Netherlands.(20) Under both the previous guidelines and the new law in the Netherlands, unbearable suffering of either a physical or mental nature has been the factor that qualifies one for induced death.(21)

It appears that not even the prerequisite of subjective unbearable suffering will be maintained for much longer. Discussion now centers on whether assisted suicide should be available to elderly people who are healthy but "tired of life." Dutch Minister of Justice Els Borst has said, "I am not against it if it can be carefully controlled so that only those people of advanced age who are tired of life can use it."(22)

Assisted suicide for non-terminally ill patients has also been advocated repeatedly in the United States. [emphasis mine, the indicated footnotes are available at the linked site - ed.]

Now with Terri Schiavo we have a case where a soft-headed judge has ordered that her husband kill her because her existence is inconvenient;

Michael Schiavo said his wife never wanted to be kept alive artifically, but she left no written directive.

The Schindlers dispute their daughter had such wishes and say their son-in-law stands to gain from his wife's death, both financially and personally. They have offered to take care of her if Michael Schiavo, who has a new family with another woman, would divorce her.

And kill her by depriving her of food and water. If I did this to my dog I would be put in jail, and rightfully so.

This is not liberal. The kind of liberalism that protected people's lives and freedoms (and national security too) has become malignant. The liberalism of the 19th century philosopher and writer John Stuart Mill and more recently, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and John F. Kennedy, is dead.

Modern liberalism does stand against capitol punishment;

Be it resolved that because social science research has demonstrated the death penalty to be racist in application and social science research has found no consistent evidence of crime deterrence through execution, [not consistantly applied - ed.] the ASC publicly condemns this form of punishment and urges its members to use their professional skills in legislatures and the courts to seek a speedy abolition of
this form of punishment (ASC Annual Meeting, Montreal, 1987).

It seems that, according to this modern, malignant form of liberalism, the only people that shouldn't be killed are murderers.