Child Survives Double Attempted Murder
Perhaps you’ve seen this disturbing story of one brother of a set of twins who survived two attempts to kill him in the womb.
When I read this, I found it to be sickening. Not only is it considered reluctantly acceptable to kill an innocent child, not only is it excused or ignored: In this story, it is actually the occasion for boasting in the child’s miraculous survival.
The whole tone of the story is: “How adorable! My baby survived my two direct attempts to kill him.”
Obviously, the mother was devastated when doctors told her that one of her children would likely die in utero and that his death would probably lead to the death of his brother. But, why would anyone accept the advice to induce the death of the child?
Sadly, I can begin to imagine something of the rationale behind the decision. Of course, it’s based on purely consequentialist ethics.
The perverse line of thinking goes like this:
1) If I do nothing, I end up with two dead children.
2) If I kill one of the children, I end up with one dead child.
3) Therefore, I should kill one of the children.
Horrifyingly, we are all conditioned to think this way in our current culture. This is one reason, for example, that people (e.g., The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Catholicism) either can’t or refuse to understand the difference between a proper application of double effect and doing evil to achieve good.
Everyone wants to look at what is considered to be the result, the outcome of the action. From that point, it’s just a matter of calculating what will achieve the “best” result.
No one wants to ask the question: “What are we actually doing?” that is, “What is the object of the action?” Even the mother’s quote: “Doctors carried out an operation to let Gabriel die …” betrays a confusion about what is actually being done.
The whole tone of this article is reprehensible. It makes the situation sound wholesome when, in fact, it is monstrous.
But after the operation which was meant to end his life, tiny Gabriel had other ideas.
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“The doctors couldn’t believe it when they could still hear his heartbeat the next morning.”
