Sparta & The Netherlands.

When babies were born in ancient Sparta, Spartan soldiers would come by the house and check the baby. If the baby did not appear healthy and strong, the infant was taken away, and left to die on a hillside, or taken away to be trained as a slave (a helot). Babies who passed this examination were assigned membership in a brotherhood or sisterhood, usually the same one to which their father or mother belonged.

Source: Ancient Greek Education http://www.crystalinks.com/greekeducation.html

Now read this:

Nearly half the newborn babies who died in Flanders over a recent year-long period were helped to die by their doctors, a new study reported yesterday. Paediatricians in the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium either discreetly stopped treating the babies or, in 17 cases, illegally killed them with lethal doses of painkillers.

Source: The Lancet via THE CULTURE OF DEATH IN BELGIUM Michelle Malkin http://michellemalkin.com/archives/002036.htm

Belgium now has self-appointed judges of who is fit and who is not fit to live. The hospitals of the Belgium are now the hillsides of ancient Sparta.

Isn't it convenient? This is a troubling development and the sad thing is it gets little play in the MSM. In fact, this too happens to the elderly as well, even if they patient expresses otherwise. This is not mercy, this is convenience.

I remember some years ago seeing a little factoid in the comics section of a newspaper. The cartoon was talking about some protozoan or similar microbe. It stated the environs in which it lives would be like us slogging around in mud all the time. The comic then told us not to worry it was quite normal to the microbe. One of those things so glaringly obvious most people miss it.

The disabled infant knows no different, the child is not less happy because they are disabled to them it is completely normal. It is to US that things are less than happy. It is us who are put off of our plans, it is us who wallow in pity. Does the elderly person cling to life less steadfastly? I say they do not and for us to say "just set us off on an iceberg" in the prime of life is cheap talk.

Do not be afraid of death, but always fight for life!

Update:

• 4/9/2005 10:40 am
I mistakenly referred to all of this as happening in The Netherlands. Silly me, Flanders and the story is from BELGIUM! I replaced occurrences of "The Netherlands" with "Belgium" in the story, but leave the title the same so the trackback I left with Michelle Malkin's blog does not break. Mea culpa!