Should children have the right to ask for their own deaths?
In Belgium, where euthanasia is now legal for people over the age of 18, the government is considering extending it to children — something that no other country has done. The same bill would offer the right to die to adults with early dementia.
Advocates argue that euthanasia for children, with the consent of their parents, is necessary to give families an option in a desperately painful situation. But opponents have questioned whether children can reasonably decide to end their own lives.
I know the slippery slop is a logic fallacy that we shouldn't employ, but I'm thinking this might be the exception that proves the rule. Once you remove a long-held taboo, the tendency is to just push it and push it until you have left all reason and common sense behind. Once you accept the notion that suicide is acceptable in a civilized society, there are going to be more and more categories of people encouraged to take the quick way out.
Children not able to "reasonably decide"? Well, duh.
