Life Issues Are a Lost Cause

"Merry Christmas: Illinois has become the latest state in the Union to add medically assisted suicide to its panoply of modern horrors. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Medical Aid in Dying Act into law on December 12, which will allow adults with a terminal diagnosis of six months or less to seek death. Twelve states and the District of Columbia now allow some form of assisted suicide, and seven more are considering legalization measures."

"This is a social revolution in the Western world; legalized suicide raises serious questions in the Anglo-American tradition of law, not to mention the practicalities of a program that now accounts for roughly 4 percent of all deaths in Canada. Yet it is happening quietly-very quietly. One might reasonably expect the opinion pages to be full of raging debate. But by my (possibly fallible) count,"

"What does it all mean, Mr. Natural? Well, laying aside Freudian or Spenglerian speculations about the increasingly literal death drive of Western culture, it concretely means that social conservatism as conventionally understood is politically kaput. The culture war is over; the Christian right lost soundly. Pope Leo and Chicago's Blase Cardinal Cupich [NB: "CARDINAL" IS IN THE CORRECT POSITION] personally lobbied Pritzker against signing the latest bill. It didn't matter."

Illinois enacted the Medical Aid in Dying Act permitting terminal adults with six months or less prognosis to seek death. Twelve states and the District of Columbia now allow assisted suicide, with seven more considering legalization. Legalized suicide prompts profound legal and practical challenges and already accounts for roughly 4 percent of deaths in Canada. Media and national political attention to the issue has been surprisingly limited, with few opinion pieces and major conservative leaders largely silent. The shift signals a substantial weakening of social conservatism and the Christian right's influence over cultural policy. High-level religious objections failed to prevent the law.

Read at The American Conservative