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Assisted suicide Death and dying Euthanasia Population Control

Brooks misses the real problem

Thanks to Richard for posting the links to Wesley Smith and Ryan Anderson’s reactions to David Brooks. Independent of Brooks’ endorsement of abandoning our efforts to extend human life (something more easily embraced from an American armchair than, say, an African AIDS hospital), Brooks misses the bigger issue for our budget.

Most of our social welfare programs assumed an increasing population, but with more and more Americans choosing to have no children or only one or two, there are not enough young people to support the old. As a culture we have increasingly decided we don’t want the burdens of parenting, yet we are surprised when we lose its benefits as well. With all due respect to Mr. Brooks, the problem is not that people are increasingly dying lingering deaths. It is that they are dying alone.

Teresa Collett

Teresa Stanton Collett is a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she teaches bioethics, property law, and constitutional law. A nationally prominent speaker and scholar, she is active in attempts to rebuild the Culture of Life and protect the institutions of marriage and family. She often represents groups of state legislators, the Catholic Medical Association, and the Christian Medical and Dental Association in appellate case related to medical-legal matters. She represented the governors of Minnesota and North Dakota before the U.S. Supreme Court as amici curiae regarding the effectiveness of those states’ parental involvement laws. She has served as special attorney general for Oklahoma and Kansas related to legislation designed to protect the well-being of minors and unborn children. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and has testified before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittees on the Constitution, as well as numerous legislative committees in the states.