False compassion

In Edinburgh for a conference, Wesley J Smith reads a story about a mother who, feeling abandoned and beleaguered by the responsibility for a seriously disabled daughter, wishes for her a comfortable death. Smith:

.... What is really being said—in the way we abandon many families such as the Myersons to their own devices and look upon people like Emmy as if they are aliens—is why should we have to put up with these people? Not only are they unproductive—but more unforgivably—they remind us of the vicisitudes and mortality of our own lives.

Don’t get me wrong: I am not condemning Myerson. She has clearly loved her daughter very well in the face of official and societal indifference. But I also don’t think it is a coincidence that the Independent decided to feature her story on the front page—not in the context of demanding improved care and concern for people like Emmy—but rather, at a time when there is an increasing desire to see them, one way or the other, made dead. ....

A deadly form of the eugenics virus has returned to afflict us. It pretends to be about choice and compassion, but it is really about disdaining and abandoning the weak. ....

It’s Scary Time For People With Disabilities in the UK » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog