Quote of the Week

He finally put to words that obscure, creepy and unsettling feeling I get when I think about how many in the pro-death camp really think they are doing the right thing. They really believe that from stem cell research, to end-of-life medicine, to abortion, death is the answer.

I can hear them now: "But, it is only Death for the inconvenient human life that can be marginalized somehow. That is the only way to make things better for the rest of us. Need stem cells? Kill the embryo. Unplanned pregnancy getting in the way? Kill the fetus. Dying in pain? Its just easier (and cheaper) to kill the patient instead of their pain. See people? Death solves everything. It is you backward people who are "pro-life" that are mean, uncompassionate and deaf to the cries of the suffering."

To me this thinking is like a strange mix of ignorance, arrogance and misguided compassion all rolled into one.

In Plague Journal, O'Brien's character, Nathaniel has a dream about an evil serpent that shape shifts into a bear, then a leopard, then a dragon. Nathaniel writes about this dream in his journal:

...I'd been trying to reclaim the lost sleep and in it there was another dragon-snake-bear dreams: the world was in choas, and legions of grey men and grey ladies were trying to fix it. In measured tones they assured us that, if we killed all the "dysfunctional" children and the geriatrics, it would make everything right again. I was arguing with them, but it didn't make the slightest difference. They were absolutely convinced that they were saving humanity. The more I argued the nicer they became, but it was a strained gentility, a professional veneer to keep us powerless until the leopard-bear-dragon arrived.