On the BBC-TV’s Sunday Morning Live, advice columnist Virginia Ironside surprised viewers by saying, “If a baby’s going to be born severely disabled or totally unwanted, surely an abortion is the act of a loving mother. . . . If I were the mother of a suffering child—I mean a deeply suffering child—I would be the first to want to put a pillow over its face . . . if it was a child I really loved, who was in agony, I think any good mother would.”During the same TV program, Ironside said that “abortion can often be seen as something wicked and irresponsible, but in fact it can be a moral and unselfish act. Sometimes the decision of a good mother is not to have the child.”Clair Lewis, an advocate for the disabled, said that “the problems that disabled people face will not be fixed by killing off unborn children” and complained that Ironside’s approval of the abortion of disabled children was merely an excuse for eugenics.Some praised Ironside’s comments, but the majority of viewers agreed with the TV program’s host, Susanna Reid, who was visibly appalled by Ironside’s opinion and said, “That’s a pretty horrifying thing to say, that you would put a pillow over a suffering child.”As shocking as her comment was, it is consistant with a belief system that rejects Gods authority and reduces human beings to animals rather than beings created in the image of God. In Genesis 9:6, God explains that human life is sacred because man is made in the image of God. Someone who rejects God’s commandments as authoritative is left to create his own morality. After all if there is no absolute standard of morality and we are just animals, as evolution says, why shouldn't a "good mother" kill her own child if he/she is suffering? Or kill her unborn baby to avoid having it interfere with her lifestyle and the expense and inconvenience of taking care of a baby? Or better yet, get rid of any unproductive or wanted individual of any age for the betterment of society?Ironside's statement makes you wonder exactly how she defines a "good mother"(or good for that matter) if a "good mother" is supposed to be willing to kill her own child in order to put an end to his/her suffering. And given the applause she recieved for her horrific statement it seems, sadly, that the audience has bought in to the same belief system that rejects God authority and sanctity of human life.Historically such things-along with other atrocities-have been justified through human reasoning. Without Gods moral standards as presented in the Bible to keep him in check, there is nothing to stop man from reasoning his way into a dark world where the only arbiter in all matters, including morality, is fallen, sinful man himself.
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