Letter: Something fundamental is changing in how we view life and health - Death can become a treatment and hospitals can become places where death is designed to take place
A letter from Rev Peter McIntyre:
Why is human life worth more than the life of an animal? Why do we have legislation for murder but nothing comparable for the killing of an animal?
It is because our natural conscience informs us that human life ought never to be violated. This extends to murder, manslaughter, the neglect of life, the infringement of laws designed to protect life and to suicide, the tragedy of our times. It is the most natural tendency to protect life and to consider all human life as being precious. We all have a value and a purpose. We must strive everyday to affirm that value and to help others understand that life is a wonderful gift. The vote in Westminster yesterday has begun a process where, in the words of Robert Jenrick MP, we are not so much on a slippery slope but on the “cliff edge”.
Something fundamentally is changing in the way in which we view life and the health care system. Death can become a treatment, practitioners can practice death, hospitals can become places where death doesn’t just happen but where death is designed to take place and some lives are deemed to be not worth living. Is this the kind of society we want to live in?
Rev Peter McIntyre, Clogher Valley Free Presbyterian Church