Dutch officials say doctors did the right thing in killing a disabled 1-year-old child, but Cardinal Willem Eijk argues euthanasia can never be justified.
(LifeSiteNews) — The killing of a 1-year-old Dutch child through euthanasia is a “fundamental violation” of the toddler’s dignity, Cardinal William Eijk of the Netherlands said recently.
Controversy has grown in the past several weeks after further details emerged on the murder of an almost two-year-old boy in the Netherlands. Though the killing occurred last year, Dutch authorities only recently released their review of the matter, sparking renewed interest. The euthanasia occurred just one year after the Netherlands expanded its assisted suicide regime.
The child, nearly 2 years old, had been born at 26 weeks’ gestation. He had severe brain damage, cerebral palsy, seizures, and a developmental age of about six weeks. Although the child was not dying, doctors and parents chose to sedate and kill him, as LifeSiteNews first covered in June.
The report argues that the child “had multiple, very severe disabilities, both mental and physical, and the prognosis was that the child would be dependent on support with all activities of daily living for the rest of their life,” with a “very high probability of the child dying at a very young age due to complications.”
“In the course of the child’s short life, there was a complete lack of development or improvement,” the report claims, with parents and physicians “convinced that the child was suffering unbearably and without prospect of improvement.”
Some doctors objected to the killing, so the child’s parents simply found other doctors who supported euthanasia and endorsed their plan.
But killing disabled children is not compassionate, Cardinal Eijk told Crux during a recent interview.
“The word ‘merciful’ is often used nowadays to justify ethically questionable actions. However, is it merciful to violate the fundamental dignity of the human person by ending their life,” he asked.
Euthanasia violates the dignity of the human body, Eijk said.
“Objectively speaking, however, a human being is not merely his body, nor is he merely his soul, but both soul and body,” he said. “The body is an essential part of the human person. The termination of his body is therefore a fundamental violation of his inherent dignity.”
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