Since they introduced euthanasia for those aged 18 and older in 2002, Belgium has seen a nearly 500% increase in deaths by euthanasia. Now, Belgium’s Parliament is considering extending euthanasia to children 17 years and younger.

The Senate approved a bill last December and Belgium’s lower legislative house will vote on the legislation this Thursday.

A video has been making the rounds online of the family of a four-year-old girl who was born with a severe cardiac malformation, pleading with King Philippe not to sign the bill, which is expected to pass. The family is from Canada where lawmakers are considering legislation to legalize euthanasia.

Wesley Smith, who is not a fan of the video’s use of children to make their point (and I tend to agree), said it does illustrate three important truths about euthanasia:

First, once euthanasia creates a beachhead, the killing agenda spreads. Permission in one jurisdiction then becomes the excuse to permit it in another.

Second: Once you let the euthanasia vampire in the door for one subset of people, the beast quickly starts feeding on others. For example, Quebec hasn’t legalized euthanasia yet and the Human Rights Commission already has recommended extending the killing to children.

Third: Pediatric euthanasia is the logical extension of euthanasia for adults. Indeed, infanticide has already become a relatively routine part of Netherlander neo natal medical practice. According to The Lancet, 8% of all babies who die in the Netherlands are killed by doctors, even though it remains murder under the law. Indeed, doctors are so confident they won’t be punished for killing sick babies, they published the Groningen Protocol, a bureaucratic check list detailing which babies can be euthanized.

A physician’s job is to heal, not kill. Death is never medicine, no matter how permanent the diagnosis or how much pain the patient is in. We are in for a world of trouble once we start making death an acceptable “treatment” for pain and suffering.