Tea at Trianon: Embracing Eugenic Logic

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, July 12, 2021

Embracing Eugenic Logic

From Bobby Schindler at Townhall:

In 2014, Richard Dawkins, a British evolutionary biologist, author, and a one-time University of Oxford Professor, advised a woman who was pregnant with a Down syndrome baby that she should "Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice."
There is no way to quantify the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling to legalize abortion and the effect it has had on our consciences let alone its impact on our culture. It is reasonable to conclude given the remarks like Dawkins that Roe has desensitized us to the meaning of life – the unborn and born included – and our God-given sacredness to what has become a utilitarian way of thinking.
This kind of eugenic logic led to a mob of media, politicians, and individuals attacking my family for wanting to care for my sister, Terri Schiavo. These people believe disabled people like Terri should be killed while an apathetic majority does nothing.
Terri had difficulty swallowing due to her brain injury and needed a feeding tube to administer her food and water but was not sustained by “life support,” nor was she sick or dying. Nonetheless, she received a death sentence ordered by a Florida judge at the request of her estranged husband because he viewed her as a “burden” with a “quality of life” that he loathed and was unwilling to support.
In response to Terri’s death, my family established the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network to aid families in situations like what my family experienced with my sister. Since that time, we have watched the protections for our medically vulnerable shrink as an acceptance that would make Dawkins proud infects our culture like an uncontainable sickness.
For example, I recently received the following email from a brother who needed help to protect his sister from having her life ended by their mother (names have been omitted for reasons of privacy):
"I need help regarding my disabled sister’s right-to-life. She has had many surgeries and my mom no longer wants to care for her and is doing everything in her power to bring in hospice, so they can give her morphine to suppress her lungs so that she passes away. She’s a happy thriving individual who loves life - she rides her bike, watches movies, communicates using sign language, and is in general the happiest person you would ever meet. Dying would not be her wish."
Sadly, this is all too common, as we have received similar calls for help. But when our dignity is marginalized, particularly in persons with disabilities and other medically unsafe persons, this is the consequence.
And this human dignity has been marginalized previously in our recent history. Only three decades prior to Roe, the world watched in horror as fanatics (using Dawkins-esque rationale) orchestrated “The Euthanasia Program” – the prearranged and calculated murder of institutionalized patients with disabilities in Germany.
These heartless tyrants – mostly German doctors – targeted those they deemed "life unworthy of life.” In other words, individuals with mental and physical inferiorities were killed, in part, because they were financial burdens on German society. (Read more.)