This Yoke is not Easy
Daniel WoodworthJuly 29, 2017
Today, while most of us were at work, the British government carried out the final act in murdering a child. Charlie Gard, the little boy who the highest courts in the UK blocked from receiving treatment, died today after being removed from the machine that helped him breathe.
Great Ormond Street Hospital, which took his parents to court to prevent them from seeking treatment outside of the UK’s government healthcare system, claims that the treatmentoffered by American and Italian doctors hadn’t been tried on a patient with Charlie’s exact variant of mitochondrial depletion syndrome ( MDS), the disorder that eventually took his life, and from this argued that it wouldn’t have done any good. The doctors offering the treatment disagreed–it was a long shot, but not impossible up until a few days ago–but we never got to find out, because the hospital and the British government dragged their feet long enough that MDS ran its course, and Charlie was beyond help from any treatment.
In a final assault on decency, once Charlie’s parents recognized that his condition had advanced too far for the treatment to do any good, the courts refused to allow them to bring him home for his last days, giving the rationale that he needed intensive care to live, but also ordered that his ventilator be removed, to end his life. The government not only granted itself power over Charlie’s life, but even over his death.
This is callous disregard not just for human life, but for human emotion, and it is precisely what we ought to expect from a government that sees no higher law over it, limiting it. For any human institution, if there’s no clear objective standard that dictates what falls inside its purview and what is outside, the drive will be strong to expand in scope and authority. The kings of England, when they claimed absolute power, at least did so feigning God’s blessing on their status, and were to an extent limited by it. The British government today makes no such pretense, but begins to claim the same power–not just over government’s proper roles of making and enforcing laws and providing for defense, but over everything, from matters of life and death to something as minute as whether or not a child can die in his mother’s arms. It sees no authority above itself.
The UK is hardly alone. Americans should have no doubt that their own country is close behind. Our flag already flies over the legalized murder of children, and our government already sees no real boundaries on its power but its own forbearance. It’s a short step from there to government deciding who’s capable of becoming a “functioning child,” to borrow the language of the Great Ormond Street employees, and who should be allowed to live or die.
Having rejected the just and merciful God who by right holds authority over life and death, our society has instead embraced with the capricious and merciless god of the state, who usurps the same power. As those who loved Charlie Gard know, its yoke is not easy.
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