Human Dignity And The West’s Uneasy Conscience

Mark September 2026 as a month when we are learning where Western culture’s uneasy conscience stands on the question of human dignity.

On September 9, a Dutch oversight committee released a report on the first euthanasia case of a child from age one to twelve in the Netherlands, where laws were recently revised to allow for such actions under strict protocols. The child who was put to death was nearly two years of age. Born prematurely, the child suffered severe brain damage, had cerebral palsy, epileptic seizures, could not speak, and had mucus inhibiting its breathing. The child was deemed to be experiencing profound suffering, and his condition, we are told, was hopeless. Obviously, this story pulls at our heartstrings, as the sight of a suffering child is nearly unconscionable.