Does it not seem unnatural and fiendishly wicked that another human would deem an individual or group of people no longer worthy of life, no longer able to contribute to society and now ready for the chop before their time?
What actually brings a person - a human being - to think like this?
Where is the empathy, the compassion, the wonder and the love of life in these individuals?
Perhaps they are soulless entities trapped in a dark mind-set, hollowed out and filled to the brim with ego and self-importance.
I don't like these "entities", I don't need them in my life and, indeed, perhaps the world would be a better place without them? But, the difference is, it's not for me to permanently remove them, nor is it for me to wish their demise before their time. We're all experiencing this journey together whether we agree with each other or not.
It's an excellent article. I have a personal interest in this because in 2010 my mother was one of those deemed 'not worth treating' and put on the Liverpool Care Pathway. It took 3 weeks to starve and thirst her to death (often in agony as the morphine pump kept failing). Although the LCP was supposed to be phased out after 2013 I'm not convinced it ever was. The 'do not resuscitate' guidelines introduced in 2020 for covid seem to have killed people who could have been saved with proper treatment.
Excellent, well-researched and informative article, David, thank you. It's chilling that this issue is raising its head yet again. I can't help feeling that in the NHS, one of the problems is that the patients are not viewed as 'customers' by quite a lot of staff (thank God not all), but almost as so many 'lumps of meat'. I experienced for myself 12 years ago the absolute disdain that some medics have for those in their care. Historians in generations to come will, I'm sure, point to the demise of Christian values as one of the root causes of this sad situation.
The relegation of human processes to commodities to be picked, chosen, shaped with no sense of morality or even possibility beyond the understanding of science has seeped into so many more aspects of life then the eugenists originally set out to do. I think about this in all aspects of birth - from surrogacy to artificial insemination to abortion on demand. What may have started (for most/some) as compassionate answers to human longing (to be a parent, or not), have morphed into something entirely different. Who decides when life begins and ends? Chesterton's quote seems most apt "Say to them "Murder your mother," and they sit up quite suddenly. Yet the two sentences, in cold logic, are exactly the same." Through scientific logic we have distanced ourselves from the cold hard reality of our failed human choices. I read CS Lewis's "That Hideous Strength" for the first time this year. How prescient is was.
David, hi, it's Tania71inOz from UK Column viewership. How are you? Are you aware of the video interviews Majid Nawaaz did on Odyssee platform (I can never remember how to spell it I just know it's not the usual way) with Stuart Wilkie? I think Stuart is a statistician I'm not sure. I take in too much content and minor details blur but the main points stay clear! I have never forgotten this interview. In it Stuart Wilkie reveals that there is an annual target within the NHS for culling. No, let's say it how it is, an annual target for killing. They just change a consonant and verb and make it sound nicer. The annual target in the UK is over 400,000, around 480,000 from memory (there I go again). The programme is given a name, that which shall not be breathed in the halls of Westmonster. Operation Cygnus. (Dying swan?) Stuart relates an interesting account of how he came to find the paperwork in a dusty corner within, I think he said, a library in the House of Lords (again, minor detail, sorry). Someone tipped him off about it and apparently this "Operation" originated in Australia (wince, though I'm not Australian) and was shared with the UK. Possibly other countries as well. Commenters here are correct the LCP never expired it just evolved. The interview is still up on Majid's archive it is number 17. Majid's newer work is behind a paywall, I think he has a substack. Certainly you might be able to contact him that way and if he would be good enough to put you in touch with Stuart Wilkie you could discuss it directly. The interview took place a little after Jackie Deevoy's first film, A Good Death. I cannot forget this interview and refer many people to it. It chilled me to the core. God bless.
Thank you for this, David. I’ve read it late at night when the brain is a little tired so I’ll re-read it tomorrow and also keep it flagged for reference. Why? Because I came to the realisation a few years ago when I first heard about the LCP that the NHS killed my mother in 2006. I was naive, didn’t understand what was going on and trusted the doctors and nurses. That trust has gone, never to return. Now in my 70s I am determined to keep my wife and myself out of hospitals and “care”homes which I view as little more than death camps for the elderly.
Thank you for this thoughtful and valuable article.
The whole concept of the NHS and the welfare state would appear to go against the principle of natural selection - we are effectively paying the least successful in society to have children, and also saving the lives of people who would otherwise die as a result of their own or their parents' decisions and abilities.
These policies are good for individuals, but bad for society as a whole over time because they consistently promote those who contribute the least as well as encouraging the tragedy of broken homes and fatherless children who are known to have consistently poorer outcomes in life.
Yet overlaid on these anti-selection policies is the particularly nasty kind of eugenics that says that if you become too old to be of use to the state through no fault of your own, then you should do the decent thing and pop your clogs, thus saving the government the money they are paying for your pension and your NHS treatment that you probably never claimed during your working life when you were paying for it.
As for the policy on Downs Syndrome people, it is so disgusting that I believe future ages will look back with horror and bewilderment and ask why we accepted this mass killing and effective eradication of a whole group of people purely because the predator class at the top believes that not enough energy can be harvested from a Downs Syndrome person throughout their life.
So we've substituted natural selection based on ability and a share of luck, with eugenics where selection is based on how much energy the predator class can harvest from you.
Great start to your substack David.
Does it not seem unnatural and fiendishly wicked that another human would deem an individual or group of people no longer worthy of life, no longer able to contribute to society and now ready for the chop before their time?
What actually brings a person - a human being - to think like this?
Where is the empathy, the compassion, the wonder and the love of life in these individuals?
Perhaps they are soulless entities trapped in a dark mind-set, hollowed out and filled to the brim with ego and self-importance.
I don't like these "entities", I don't need them in my life and, indeed, perhaps the world would be a better place without them? But, the difference is, it's not for me to permanently remove them, nor is it for me to wish their demise before their time. We're all experiencing this journey together whether we agree with each other or not.
Besides, judgement will come for those that walk this dark path. It's only a matter of time.
It's an excellent article. I have a personal interest in this because in 2010 my mother was one of those deemed 'not worth treating' and put on the Liverpool Care Pathway. It took 3 weeks to starve and thirst her to death (often in agony as the morphine pump kept failing). Although the LCP was supposed to be phased out after 2013 I'm not convinced it ever was. The 'do not resuscitate' guidelines introduced in 2020 for covid seem to have killed people who could have been saved with proper treatment.
Norman, I believe the NHS culled my mother before her time in 2006. I think the LCP simply changed identity to become NG163 and now NG 191.
Excellent, well-researched and informative article, David, thank you. It's chilling that this issue is raising its head yet again. I can't help feeling that in the NHS, one of the problems is that the patients are not viewed as 'customers' by quite a lot of staff (thank God not all), but almost as so many 'lumps of meat'. I experienced for myself 12 years ago the absolute disdain that some medics have for those in their care. Historians in generations to come will, I'm sure, point to the demise of Christian values as one of the root causes of this sad situation.
The relegation of human processes to commodities to be picked, chosen, shaped with no sense of morality or even possibility beyond the understanding of science has seeped into so many more aspects of life then the eugenists originally set out to do. I think about this in all aspects of birth - from surrogacy to artificial insemination to abortion on demand. What may have started (for most/some) as compassionate answers to human longing (to be a parent, or not), have morphed into something entirely different. Who decides when life begins and ends? Chesterton's quote seems most apt "Say to them "Murder your mother," and they sit up quite suddenly. Yet the two sentences, in cold logic, are exactly the same." Through scientific logic we have distanced ourselves from the cold hard reality of our failed human choices. I read CS Lewis's "That Hideous Strength" for the first time this year. How prescient is was.
David, hi, it's Tania71inOz from UK Column viewership. How are you? Are you aware of the video interviews Majid Nawaaz did on Odyssee platform (I can never remember how to spell it I just know it's not the usual way) with Stuart Wilkie? I think Stuart is a statistician I'm not sure. I take in too much content and minor details blur but the main points stay clear! I have never forgotten this interview. In it Stuart Wilkie reveals that there is an annual target within the NHS for culling. No, let's say it how it is, an annual target for killing. They just change a consonant and verb and make it sound nicer. The annual target in the UK is over 400,000, around 480,000 from memory (there I go again). The programme is given a name, that which shall not be breathed in the halls of Westmonster. Operation Cygnus. (Dying swan?) Stuart relates an interesting account of how he came to find the paperwork in a dusty corner within, I think he said, a library in the House of Lords (again, minor detail, sorry). Someone tipped him off about it and apparently this "Operation" originated in Australia (wince, though I'm not Australian) and was shared with the UK. Possibly other countries as well. Commenters here are correct the LCP never expired it just evolved. The interview is still up on Majid's archive it is number 17. Majid's newer work is behind a paywall, I think he has a substack. Certainly you might be able to contact him that way and if he would be good enough to put you in touch with Stuart Wilkie you could discuss it directly. The interview took place a little after Jackie Deevoy's first film, A Good Death. I cannot forget this interview and refer many people to it. It chilled me to the core. God bless.
They don't want life.
Thank you for this, David. I’ve read it late at night when the brain is a little tired so I’ll re-read it tomorrow and also keep it flagged for reference. Why? Because I came to the realisation a few years ago when I first heard about the LCP that the NHS killed my mother in 2006. I was naive, didn’t understand what was going on and trusted the doctors and nurses. That trust has gone, never to return. Now in my 70s I am determined to keep my wife and myself out of hospitals and “care”homes which I view as little more than death camps for the elderly.
Thanks Iain, lang may yer lum reek
Thank you for this thoughtful and valuable article.
The whole concept of the NHS and the welfare state would appear to go against the principle of natural selection - we are effectively paying the least successful in society to have children, and also saving the lives of people who would otherwise die as a result of their own or their parents' decisions and abilities.
These policies are good for individuals, but bad for society as a whole over time because they consistently promote those who contribute the least as well as encouraging the tragedy of broken homes and fatherless children who are known to have consistently poorer outcomes in life.
Yet overlaid on these anti-selection policies is the particularly nasty kind of eugenics that says that if you become too old to be of use to the state through no fault of your own, then you should do the decent thing and pop your clogs, thus saving the government the money they are paying for your pension and your NHS treatment that you probably never claimed during your working life when you were paying for it.
As for the policy on Downs Syndrome people, it is so disgusting that I believe future ages will look back with horror and bewilderment and ask why we accepted this mass killing and effective eradication of a whole group of people purely because the predator class at the top believes that not enough energy can be harvested from a Downs Syndrome person throughout their life.
So we've substituted natural selection based on ability and a share of luck, with eugenics where selection is based on how much energy the predator class can harvest from you.
What are you saying?