The Most Disturbing Thing You’ll See Today

May 2, 2012 By

A guest on Dr. Phil has severely disabled adult children, and she wants the right to be able to euthanize them. A mother of disabled  children in the audience is rightly appalled by this, since it’s cold-blooded murder. Dr. Phil asks his audience for a show of hands for all those who think a mother should be allowed to kill her children. What happens next will chill you to your core (the video is in the link: I couldn’t embed it): about 90% of the audience agrees with her.

The mother from the audience (the one who chooses life over death) is so stunned she can only say “Oh my God.” I feel for her. It’s like she is suddenly given the ability to see into the souls of everyone around her, only to realize that she almost alone in a sea of monsters.

Sometimes I think we’re so far gone we’ll never come back. We’ve lost our way. Modern medicine and technology has insulated us from the realities of the human experience of suffering so much that we are incapable of facing adversity, or of even seeing Christ in the face of the last and the least. When even mothers believe they can kill their children in good conscience, and an average audience supports that idea, we’re all in deep trouble.

Filed Under: Abortion, Bioethics, Medical Tagged With: , ,
About Thomas L. McDonald
  • victor

    I’d expect to see this on maybe a Dutch (or Canadian, apparently) TV program, sure, but it’s shocking to realize that It Can Happen Here (and I’m definitely not surprised to see Geoffrey Fieger ont he panel. Michigan cannot apologize enough for him). One can only hope that the Dr. Phil studio audience is not representative of Americans in general. Still, the most remarkable (and encouraging) thing about the video: in the midst of that circus, one mother had the courage to stand up and speak up. God bless Ruthi!

  • Ben

    Got a malware warning for the first link…Anyone else?

    • Ben

      Forget the Malware thing, it’s fine. Sorry!

      • http://www.virtue-quest.com/ Robert King

        Fine? Does the ad just go away? I couldn’t find a way to close it and continue to the actual page.

        • http://www.godandthemachine.com Thomas L. McDonald

          I changed the link. The malware warning probably had to due with the ad server, or the fact that it’s Glenn Beck’s site and someone has flagged it as “threatening” for ideological reasons.

          • Tom B

            First to the malware, I think any site that redirects you to another site, is seen as a possible threat by some malware detectors.

            Now for the post: it’s literally stomach churning; let us pray.

  • Gregg the Obscure

    Given the remarkable prevalence of pre-natal euthanasia in this country, how can widespread support of post-natal euthanasia be a surprise?

    • Julie Mitchell

      Yes so true. I don’t support abortion but I wouldn’t expect all those who opt for it to go on TV and ask for support of viewers and the nation.

  • Rocco

    ..and everyone thought Hitler died..not..he migrated, is balding and now has a talk show, he really wants to finish what he started and no one is going to take his thunder away!

  • Rachel

    I firmly believe that the majority of societies problems can be linked to the legalization of abortion. If a woman can kill her own child legally, why on earth should anyone respect anyone (including themselves)?? The lack of respect for human life can be linked to the collapse of civilization (which is, I believe, where we’re headed). God help us all!

    • Rachel

      *society’s problems (oops) :o )

  • Michael

    It’s all about me not being inconvenienced with lifes struggles, pains and disappointments. Why should this mother have to care for her severely handicap children? The pain and suffering the mother has to go through just is not fair and why shouldn’t she be able to “terminate” the situation? Those statements were made with a sarcastic tone-which is very hard to relate to readers when you’re typing something. It is a sad state of our country when people care more about saving the whales, seals, owls, etc… than human life. Makes me extreemly sad. Pray for them.
    Peace

  • http://realcatholicloveandsex.blogspot.com/ Kate

    Sick! That woman doesn’t deserve the title mother.

  • Wisconsin Mom

    Welcome to the Hunger Games. May the odds be ever in your favor. We are there.
    …
    “For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world!”

  • R in Indiana

    Sometimes, I think that we are too far gone and there is no going back, but we (Catholics) have survived the persecution of the Roman empire where humans of all ages were torn apart by wild animals in front of cheering crowds. Not only did we survive, we converted an empire. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a lot of work ahead of us. However, even the gates of hell shall not prevail against us.

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  • Patrick

    Note that the mother is begging for the right to put them down with “mercy.” She already argues that she has the right to starve them to death. So the issue isn’t about if she should kill them, but how.

    Reminds me of Churchill’s quote – “We know what you are Madam, now we’re just haggling about the price.”

  • http://adifferentperspective1.blogspot.com/ Jack Quirk
  • Jack

    All that woman wants to do is exercise her choice. Why should it be abridged just because her children have been outside her womb for 20 or so years? You don’t actually think this revokes her right to choose, do you?

  • Jack

    BTW , I hope people notice that my reference to this wicked woman’s right to choose was meant ironically.

    I’m just showing where the argument leads.

  • Costernocht

    Welcome to the post-Christian era.

    • FRed

      Welcome to the post-reality era

  • elGaucho

    It is so strange to hear a lawyer, someone trained in legal argumentation, say that we don’t want the government to be telling people what to do so let’s not criminalize euthanasia. Another way of saying this is we don’t want anyone to tell us it is immoral to kill human beings. It doesn’t matter what the disability is, those two children are human beings… human beings. Defining a human by any measure other than an instance of the human form is a tragic lie that no doubt has far reaching implications. But I think we have to embrace that life is tough because life is not really living if we can just exterminate the difficulties.

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  • http://www.mum6kids.wordpress.com Shell

    As a disabled person who is getting sicker and more disabled as time goes on I am fast coming to the conclusion that a time will come in the next few years (if I make it that long) when my family will face untold pressure to have me put down – mercifully of course – or just starved and dehydrated to death. Who cares? I am just a middle ages cripple – not a person right?

    • http://www.mum6kids.wordpress.com Shell

      sorry that should say middle aged.

  • Fr.JP

    It’s not suprising that Jeffery Fiegler is in on this. He was Kovorkian’s defense attorney. Why are we suprised at this? We have laws that kill unborn children and call it a right and a personal choice. It’s only a matter of time before this becomes legal, as will it be for the aged as well.

  • Jon White

    From ancient times, human societies have been perfectly happy killing the infirm and helpless among them. It was Judaism and Christianity that bucked the trend, and when Christianity became dominent in societies, the killing of the infirm became illegal. However, the human inclination to eliminate the infirm and helpless did not disappear just because its acting out did. Such things happened (and happen!) in Christian societies (just check out the crime reports from 325 A.D. to the present in all Christian societies) – the difference is that, when discovered, they are considered crimes and are punished. We are all fallen, and it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are able to do good by living lives of virtue and service to others. One of the lies of secularism is that it purports to be able to make human society more moral than a Christian society because the seculars are based solely on “REASON”. Of course, that is a monstrous lie – reason does not trump human corruption; rather, it enables it to enact laws assisting its practice by eliminating Christianity’s moral barriers.

  • Mouse

    I saw this on another site, and it did make my blood run cold. And the image that immediately came to my mind was an old newsreel of the Germans lining the streets, smiling and waving and cheering for Hitler…right before he instigated one of the most horrendous genocides the world has ever seen. And he started with handicapped children, by the way, before he started killing the Jews. Friends, we are on the same path, only even more dangerous, in my opinion, because it’s not centered on some fanatical leader but is now just what everyone thinks is ok. Basically it appears to me that the whole world has been infected by the Nazi mentality.This is the inevitable outworking of the mentality that allows human beings in the womb to be killed.

    We need to resist now before it is entirely too late. And if it is too late (which I sometimes think) then we need to be on the right side and be willing to suffer, no matter what the whole culture is doing. Those of us who resist will be remembered like we remember the heroes of WWII, who saved Jews…those of us who do not resist will be remembered the way we remember all those who did nothing while the Nazis took over and killed millions…

  • http://www.newadvent.org Stephanie

    I’m convinced that Dr. Phil, like Oprah before him, is on the Antichrist short list. He is preparing Americans for the New World Order (with the Chinese Army as the enforcers). You know what else I think? I think the audience was prepped for this and the “unacceptables” were weeded out. You know what else I think? I think watching Dr. Phil is dangerous to one’s soul.

    • http://www.authenticbioethics.blogspot.com AuthenticBioethics

      I agree totally with you Stephanie. To those who are discouraged by the show:
      a) the audience was full of plants. I mean that in the figurative and literal sense. Figuratively, they were chosen for the reaction they would give. Literally, they were chosen because they can’t think for themselves.
      b) TV shows in general, and garbage shows like that one in particular, are poisonous. Cancel your cable/satellite. OK, you’ll miss out on some sports, but you’ll save your soul. And you’ll have greater peace. We haven’t had cable in over a decade, and all I can say when I see TV these days is that it sickens me.
      c) As my wife constantly tells people, the victory is already WON!! It may look dark, and it will probably get darker and darker before it gets brighter, we may indeed be in store for some very difficult times ahead — but blessed are those who persevere until the end. The battle may go badly right now but the war is God’s and HE NEVER LOSES!

      • http://www.newadvent.org Stephanie

        From a 2009 article, which shows that Dr. Phil is part of the culture of death agenda:

        Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – Some of the richest people in the world met secretly in New York recently and talked about their favorite causes. The group, which includes some of the most well-known business people in the world, adopted population control, which would undoubtedly include abortion, as their main cause.

        The London Times indicates the rich elites spend 15 minutes each during the meeting talking about their favorite passions and issues and, led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, they adopted reducing the world’s population as the main issue to put their money behind.

        Patricia Stonesifer, former chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, indicated the billionaires would continue meeting over the next few months.

        The newspaper indicated the meeting took place at the home of Sir Paul Nurse, a British Nobel Prize-winning biochemist and president of Rockefeller University, and that Gates was the organizer of the gathering.

        The “billionaires club” meeting, according to the Times, included such notables as Bill Gates, David Rockefeller, Ted Turner, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett, George Soros and Michael Bloomberg.

        They all have a history of promoting abortion and using their vast fortunes to benefit groups like Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business.

        That Gates pushed the wealthy group into settling on population control as their “umbrella cause” isn’t surprising given that he outlined an ambitious project in February to reduce the world’s population by one billion, would eliminate one of out every projected nine people on the planet, or 11 percent.

    • Mouse

      I totally agree with you – except I would add that just about the whole of the mainstream media, and part of the non-mainstream media, is a part of what I would call the devil’s propaganda machine.

  • http://causa-nostrae-laetitiae..blogspot.com Leticia Velasquez

    I asked Dr Phil’s show to let me go on and discuss my book “A Special Mother is Born” 34 stories from Catholic parents of special needs children and thus give voice to our side as Catholics. Still waiting for a response.
    Does anyone have a connection with the producers of the show?

  • Marianne

    And I wonder if Dr. Phil would feel the same way if one of his grandchildren had been a “special needs” child … ?

  • Sherry

    A similar incident happened to me last summer in Rhode Island. We had recently moved there and I went to the Book Discussion Group that was held at the lovely library in town. I don’t remember the name of the book but it was about early onset Alzheimer’s disease of a Harvard Professor. She had developed a plan that when she reached a certain point in her disease, that she would kill herself with an overdose of some pills. However, upon reaching that stage, she couldn’t remember where the pills were or what she was supposed to do. However, she did get to love and appreciate her new grandchild.

    The discussion leader asked for a show of hands in terms of how many thought she should have been able to take her own life. I was the only one – of about 12 “lovely” people, men and women, who did not agree with the taking of her life. And, these people were not “plants” – they looked like kind and respectable people.

    I, too, was chilled to the core!

    The book, “Lord of the World”, by Robert Hugh Benson, is a book from the beginning of the 20th century that describes this environment most presciently. People somehow need to be made aware of the “slippery slope” they have signed up for…

  • craig

    and what happens when the mother becomes too old to take care of her children? they die in a horrible way. children generally take care of their parents eventually, not the other way around. eventually the mother is going to die and who takes care of them then? someone who doesnt love them, doesnt care for them, and could potentially end up mistreating them. if they are going to die without her help then i understand how she could be justified and i have no problem with it. get over your self righteous selves.

  • Muzhik

    You need to talk to whoever handles the advertising for your web site, as when I was reading this article, the ad immediately to the right of the headline was for “Essure Permanent Birth Control”, a quick and easy 10 minute office procedure to sterilize women. NOT a particularly Catholic-friendly product.

    • http://www.godandthemachine.com Thomas L. McDonald

      Thank you. I have reported it.

  • Thomas R

    I wish I were more surprised by this than I am. I really do. (I have Osteogenesis Imperfecta. People have been mostly nice, but I’ve mostly avoided near-death accidents and have been “kind” enough to “not breed.”)

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  • Les

    Eugenics is alive and well. Abortion is proof of that, and this is another in a long line of offenses to God we will have to explain. The Issue, we as Catholics have, is whether we have the Grace to care for the least able in our world if they need help without killing them to make life easier ( for whomever misses the cut).

  • http://www.withouthavingseen.com Ryan Haber

    World War II was a calamity of tremendous proportions. Something similar happened in the Napoleonic Wars: the totalitarian dictator desired to re-create the world in his own image and was ultimately defeated in battle, but only after scattering his ideas far and wide.

  • joseph e.

    It is, I suppose, the moral moor that it is absolutely wrong to deny to others the opportunities we ourselves have enjoyed. This is precisely what I see contravened when abortion and euthanasia are being discussed. Enjoying the opportunity of living we maliciusly work towards ceasing from others this most prized gift. Maybe some of us don’t see life as a gift even though we refuse to relinquish it. This self-centredness is absolutly wicked to the core. May God have mercy on us all. Amen.