Giving death when more love is needed

No more looking back at the history of the Old Continent to hope that its catastrophic failures – the end of the Roman Empire, the fall of great medieval monarchies, the deaths of two world wars – may bear the weak sign of recovery. However, it is necessary to preserve the burden of indignance and protest, activating the tools to implement an ethics of resistance, that doesn’t only denounce the scandal but that is also committed in identifying possible remedies. The fact that the stories of Western humanism, nurtured by its Jewish and Christian roots, continue to unfold amidst the distorted plots of human endeavours is under everyone’s eyes to see. Even the fact that children – the weakest generation bracket with old people – are involved in the process of desertification and darkness, carrying the burden of anguish and desperation, passes unnoticed. Some might say that Belgium’s euthanasia law affects terminal patients and therefore there is an ‘ethical need" to put an end to their suffering and to their parents’ unbearable waiting period… overlooking the fact that there is always a doctor near the bed of the young patients, called to treat them, to reduce their suffering with appropriate therapies, and not a cold-blooded executioner of the child’s last will claimed to have consulted with mummy and daddy before deciding to make that big step. Are we facing a ghastly spectacle, that repels common sense… or are we praising self-determination? That’s the paradox. The Belgian law, depicted as a sign of individual freedom, ends up dumping its deadly effects on children, needy of support and love, and not of encouragement to self-inflicted death. Even the opportunity of giving legitimate consensus – on the part of the parents and children alike – to such circumstances should be the object of reflection. When empathetic processes are so intertwined it should be realized that that feeling of mutual protection causes the “condemnation” of the weakest. Conversely, it seems more comforting to rely on the progress of science on pain management and palliative treatment, which even if they don’t cure the patient, succeed in mitigating useless suffering. The scandal of physical pain should never make us forget that the suffering of the innocent is not solved with the violence of early death, but with human means of closeness and love, that no law will never be able to promote or prevent.