The doctors are not talking about witholding extraordinary treatment. They are not talking about giving only pallitive care for babies who are beyond the hope of medical science. They are not talking about ending life support when brain function ceases. They are talking about active euthanasia. Active euthanasia is a code word for murder. It is based in the teachings of utilitarian ethics which hold the good of society is always superior to the rights of an individual.
This is the polar opposite of Judeo-Christian teaching which holds that person's life is a gift from God and is not the property of any nation, state or other person. It says that societies' and governments' legitimate function is the protection of this and other God given rights.
Killing babies is wrong. It is wrong when they are in the womb and it is wrong when they are born.
Nice post.
In addition, of course, the good doctors always use extreme cases. Since a survey recently showed that a substantial number of women would abort a baby if it seemed that the baby had a genetic predisposition to be fat, I think we can see how broad the definition of "disability" becomes once the door is opened.
Even aside from that, however, medical science essentially owes all its advances to an attempt to cure and heal or at least palliate in the case of conditions that, once upon a time, all seemed hopeless. The unwillingness to let death and pain sneak by unopposed is based on our view of ourselves as having a certain human solidarity with even the most damaged among us. Not surprisingly, it has worked out that the attempts to heal the most wounded have brought advances for all of us and resulted in medical discoveries and cures and prevention that have benefitted us all. In other words, even leaving aside ethics and religion, trying to cure the very ill has been good for us all, from a purely utilitarian point of view.
If doctors and society are willing to just shrug and say "kill him," what's the point of scientific research and development? It's much cheaper and easier to just let somebody die or even actively kill him than to seek to heal.
No man is an island, and the good doctors and their credulous listeners do not realize that by designating a group of human beings as having a "life not worth living," they have just undermined the very basis of their profession and in fact the future of medicine for us all.