Legislating Evil: Killing Babies and Old People

Imagine you had to pick up the newspaper today and the headline shouted, 

"Government Gives Go Ahead to Terminate Elderly Dependents

In a surprising development, government has announced a radical new plan to rejuvenate the economy in South Africa. Government has come to the decision that all elderly people past the age of retirement who are dependent upon the state or family will be phased out of the system through the systematic introduction of involuntary euthanasia.

In recent years, multiple independent studies have highlighted the economic burden that the elderly place on younger generations. One government official was quoted as saying, “Old people drain vital resources from our already strained communities without giving anything back. The time has come to put an end to this unsustainable societal burden.”

The new legislation will pave the way for the wholesale termination of all elderly dependents. As these elderly dependents are no longer able to sustain themselves financially, their right to life will pass to those who have become financially responsible for their upkeep.”

Legislating Evil

Would you vote for a government which promoted such a law? If a law like this had to be announced today there would be pandemonium. It would be such an unthinkable evil that even to suggest such a thing would be absolutely ludicrous, right? But is there a difference between legislating the termination of elderly dependents and legislating the termination of unborn children? Does the fact that unborn babies “drain vital resources from our already strained communities without giving anything back” make murdering them a viable solution?

The murder of millions of unborn babies is without question the greatest tragedy that has ever happened in South Africa. It’s worse than civil war, worse than any genocide, worse than the homicide rate in our violent cities. It's easy to forget this fact when we go to the polling stations. The murder of unborn babies has become a non-issue on the campaign trail for some reason. Is service delivery more important than this modern day slaughter of innocents?

As Christians is there anything that we can do to put a stop to this madness? If there were something I could do, I would do it. The only thing I know of that is powerful enough to cure the madness in our heads is a person – Jesus. So I keep preaching Jesus and I see the world changing. But one thing I would never, could never, cannot even conceive of doing, is voting for a party that actually promotes the legislation that allows for such a monstrous evil.