The Church of England has endorsed the killing of disabled newborns. Midwest Conservative Journal's Christopher Johnson parses the church's statement, which says that parents are permitted to have their babies killed if they do so with "manifest reluctance" after considering the alternatives as well as their own financial situation. Yes, money is a necessary factor, the church states, in deciding who shall live and who shall die. The church's "principle of humility ... asks that parents restrain themselves from demanding the impossible from the medical profession and indeed from themselves and their own capacity to cope."
This is the same Church of England that last year said in its statement on the G-8:
"There is no place for apathy in a world which sees 30,000 children die each day because of poverty-related conditions. The bible [sic] teaches that whatever we do to the poorest we do also to Jesus. We believe God judges nations by what they do to the poorest. This means all of us in the prosperous world, governments, churches, the media and populations stand under judgement, to the degree that we fail to respond to such a situation with costly compassion and generosity, so that we may help in God’s name and by God’s grace to secure justice for the poor."
So, in the eyes of the Church of England, one's own monetary situation should be no barrier to helping children in other countries — only when deciding whether one's own child should live or die. "Costly compassion" can cost only so much.
Not surprisingly, the church's statement on euthanasia, unlike its G-8 statement, makes no reference to standing "under judgment." If the parents who kill their disabled newborn do come under judgment for it, the church does not think they need to be aware of that possibility during this life.
