Marlowe's Shade

From Newsbusters

Even with the departure of Rosie O'Donnell, The View continues to to be the lowest circle of that outer darkness known as daytime TV. In yesterday's program, Whoopi Goldberg gushes over Jack Kevorkian's run for Congress.

...euthanasia, like race, is one of those things nobody wants to talk about. It makes people very uncomfortable. I think euthanasia is, is an important thing and it should be there for people to make that decision if they chose to. It should be available to them with counseling like a lot of other things. And I’m a big fan of Jack’s because he believed that he could help people who were in, in a place where no one was helping them. And where, where it was too much.

Like most of Jack's fans, Whoopi doesn't have her facts straight. Most of Kevorkian's victims were not terminally ill, and it is likely if they were properly treated for depression they would still be alive today. We don't know if Whoopi is aware of the ghoulish experiments on the dying that Kevorkian performed or planned, or if it would change her opinion of him.

What is clear is that is that the media will always portray Kevorkian as an icon of social activism despite all evidence to the contrary. I don't know how Whoopi came to the conclusion that euthanasia is like race, but it's led her to the same tired propaganda that this attention starved malignant and mentally ill character is somehow a brave crusading pioneer of human rights...

From AGI News in Italy

Hugo Claus, the Belgian writer considered the greatest in Dutch-Flemish, has died through euthanasia: his publisher 'De Bezige Bij' announced this from The Netherlands, quoted by the Belgian press. Claus suffered from Alzheimer, and he announced his desire to die this way a long time ago, even specifying the precise hour of his death: today, in the clinic of Antwerp. He was 78 years old. Born in Brussels, writer, poet, dramatist but also scriptwriter and painter, anti-conformist, Hugo Maurice Julien Claus obtained his biggest success in '83 with what is considered his masterpieces: "The sorrow of Belgium", on the Nazi occupation of his country.

While it's not exactly shocking that a post-modern angst-filled writer would opt out of existence this way in a country where it is legal, I found the language interesting. "Died through euthanasia" sounds so innocuous, doesn't it? The reality is of course Minheer Claus was incapable of ending his own life so he went to a clinic and some medical staffer was apparently happy to assist him. For some [and perhaps a diminishing number] this would present a moral problem with more consequences for society than can be reliably foreseen by mortals. But this isn't a concern for most of Europe. We are accustomed to phrases like "died after a long illness" and "passed away quietly at home" in the obituaries. Expect "died through euthanasia" to be making more frequent appearances in the future...

The Culture of Death in Australia has take a new technological twist:

AN 81-year-old Gold Coast man built, and yesterday used, an intricate suicide machine to remotely shoot himself, after downloading the plans from the internet.

The Burleigh Heads man, who lived alone, left notes of his plans and thoughts as he struggled to come to terms with demands by interstate relatives that he move out his home and into care.

He spent hours searching the internet for a way to kill himself, downloaded what he needed and then built a complex machine that would remotely fire a gun.

He set the device up in his driveway about 7am yesterday, placed himself in front of it and set it in motion.

His notes explained that he chose the driveway as he knew there were tradesmen working next door who would find his body. The plan worked as the workmen heard the gunshots and ran to investigate.

The Gold Coast Bulletin will not reveal how the machine worked, but it was attached to a .22 semi-automatic pistol loaded with four bullets.

It was able to fire multiple shots into the man's head after he activated it.

Are the post-Christian societies of England and Holland truly free and liberal if they are unwilling to to give asylum to a gay Iranian 19 year old who faces certain death if he returns to his country? Apparently they love the sin but not the sinner.

The Independent:

A gay teenager who claims he faces the death penalty in Iran after his boyfriend was executed there two years ago has spoken of his anger and disappointment at losing his legal battle against deportation.


Mehdi Kazemi, 19, who sought sanctuary in Britain in 2005 when he discovered that his partner had been hanged in Tehran for engaging in homosexual acts, is expected to be returned to Iran in the next few weeks.

Mr Kazemi fled to Holland from Britain last year after the Home Office rejected his claim for asylum. But yesterday, a Dutch court ruled that he should be sent back to Britain after refusing to consider his claim for asylum.

Speaking from an immigration detention centre in Rotterdam, Mr Kazemi told his uncle, a British citizen, that he was "very, very angry" at the decision, which will see him returned to Britain within 72 hours.

He believed he would have had a much better chance of protection from deportation to Iran in Holland, according to his uncle. But yesterday, Holland's highest administrative court rejected his lawyers' arguments that the UK asylum and immigration system did not take proper account of international conventions that uphold the rights of refugees.

If the secular world won't save Mehdi Kazemi, who will? As Christians who value life, can we reconcile our Biblical view of homosexuality with the plight of this young man? Would we be willing to work with those we usually oppose in the struggle over whose values should guide our culture?

If not, Mehdi may be facing his executioners in a matter of days.