Noa Pothoven: Dutch Teenager Tragically Starves Herself to Death

Life ends with death.




Joel Kontinen

A Dutch teenager starves herself to death, without informing the parents of her decision.

Noa Pothoven’s death “was associated with profound psychological suffering after experiencing sexual abuse at ages 11 and 12 and a double rape when she was 14.”

She wanted to be euthanised – but she couldn’t, as she was under the age of 21, which is the legal limit for patients suffering from “serious dementia” to limit their lives, to euthanize herself, according to Dutch laws.

She wanted to die, the pain crushed her. “When the medical caretakers and family accepted medics and her family that the girl should ‘refrain from eating and drinking to hasten death,’ as the procedure is known in the Netherlands.”

So She died, refraining from eating and drinking. but not from euthanasia although Dutch doctors can kill patients suffering from it.

Can evolution explain suicide?

Who would think about the soul of the girl?

Source:

Smits, Jeanne. 2019, Dutch teenager tragically starves herself to death. Life Site News (6 June).

The Netherlands is Getting Thousand Killed by Euthanasia

Joel Kontinen

Joint suicides by elderly couples used to be considered a tragedy. However, in the Netherlands, doctors killing elderly couples is a considered a medical treatment – by the doctors.

In the Netherlands, there were nine such killing in the country. The details of most cases has not been made available, “but one one involved a husband dying of cancer. His wife had MS. She asked to die with him because she would be unable to live independently and didn’t want to be cared for by strangers.”

For instance the year 2018 “67 patients were killed by psychiatrists and doctors for mental illness” and “three children between the ages of 12 and 17 were put killed” and there were “205 cases of homicide by doctors as a supposed treatment for two or more ‘elderly disorders,’ i.e., issues such as hearing loss, balance issues, cognitive decline.”

This has also repercussions elsewhere.

Source:

Smith, Wesley J. 2019. Nine Elderly Couples Euthanized in the Netherlands. Evolution news org (11 May).

Culture of Death: Can Evolution Explain Suicide?

Jesus paid the ultimate penalty for our sins.





Joel Kontinen

"Is suicide a tragic variant of an evolutionarily adaptive set of behaviors?"

This is the title of a recent article posted on Science Daily. It seems that articles dealing with some aspects of the culture of death make headlines more often than other stories.

It summarises a paper published in Psychological Review by Thomas E. Joiner and colleagues, and at first it gives some background information:

“What do snapping shrimp, naked mole rats, ants, honeybees, and humans all have in common? They all share a similar colony-like organizational system that biologists have termed eusociality. Eusocial species have been remarkably successful in both surviving and thriving through the use of colony-level cooperation. One cooperative behavior used by all eusocial species is the self-sacrifice of individuals to defend the colony.”

They see humans as just another species among many others, prompting them to conclude: “Joiner et al. propose a framework in which suicide is viewed as a tragic variant of what typically serves as an adaptive tendency towards self-sacrifice among humans.”

“An adaptive tendency” suggests it has something to do with natural selection that is often invoked to explain all kinds of behaviour.

However, we should not forget that we have free will (although some evolutionists would see it as an illusion).

The tendency of seeing parallels between animal behaviour and that of humans is based on Darwinian evolution that basically denies the high status the Bible confers on man:

“You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.” (Psalm 8:5, NIV).

According to the biblical worldview, all people have intrinsic value. We are made in the image of God, and Jesus Christ came to die for all human beings, regardless of their background.

That was the ultimate price God was willing to pay for you and me.

While we still see the consequences of Adam’s sin in our world, God has already solved the sin question.

His empty tomb testifies of the greatest miracle of all times: He has conquered death.

Source:

American Psychological Association. 2016. Is suicide a tragic variant of an evolutionarily adaptive set of behaviors? Science Daily (14 January).

Dutch Doctors Allowed to Kill Patients Suffering from “Serious Dementia”

Jesus paid the ultimate penalty for sin. In Roman times, the culture of death prevailed. It seems that the Grim Reaper is very much at home in our world, also.




Joel Kontinen

Christianity knows death as the last enemy, but some people seem to take a very different approach to the issue. ISIS fosters a culture of death in the Near East and elsewhere, just 70 years after the holocaust.

Its not so different in the western world, where organs are harvested from aborted babies, and the Grim Reaper is on the march.

Assisted suicide has become legal in Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland, Canada and some U.S. states, such as California.

In Belgium, there was a case in which a Dr. Death killed a non-terminal patient without informing close relatives.

Now, neighbouring Netherlands has relaxed its laws on euthanasia, so that a doctor can help patients die even “if they [are ] incapable of making their current feelings known.”

In principle, euthanasia laws are strict: “The patient must be suffering unbearable pain and the doctor must be convinced the patient is making an informed choice.”

The law also stipulates that a patient has to have “a written euthanasia request” and it requires the doctor to ask a colleague’s opinion.

However, once one lets the Grim Reaper into the ward, he tends to find loopholes for getting past existing regulations.

Source:

Dutch News. 2016. Euthanasia rules relaxed for people with serious dementia. (7 January).

Harvesting Organs From Aborted Babies à la Planned Parenthood

Big business? Image courtesy of Hourick, public domain.





Joel Kontinen

When society turns its back on Christian values, it usually opens the door to morally questionable issues, such as a disregard for human dignity and even human life.

It will ultimately lead to a culture of death.

This lesson was brought home by a video in which Dr. Deborah Nucatola, a senior executive at Planned Parenthood, discussed the prices of baby parts over lunch with two actors who were pretending to be buyers.

Unaware of being filmed, Dr. Nucatola explained how one could get body parts from aborted babies without wrecking them.

The video has caused outrage and rightly so. However, some newspapers have tried to play down the issue. What they have failed to see is that too many unborn humans have no human rights at all.

Fortunately, even among a culture that celebrates death, there are voices, such as abortion survivor Gianna Jessen, who would rather celebrate life as a gift from God than to succumb to the culture of death.

Source:

Smietana, Bob. 2015. Abortion Video Leads to Claims of Modern Day Grave Robbing. Christianity Today. (15 July).

Belgian Dr. Death Kills Non-Terminal Patient without Informing Close Relatives

The culture of death is a disturbing phenomenon. Image courtesy of Ketounette, Creative Commons.





Joel Kontinen

In April 2012, the son of a woman suffering from psychiatric problems received an e-mail informing him that her mother Godelieva De Troyer had been euthanized.

An article published in The New Yorker looks at this case – and similar ones – in detail.

It seems that the culture of death that allows doctors to assist terminal patients to end their lives is interpreted very loosely:

“Last year, thirteen per cent of the Belgians who were euthanized did not have a terminal condition, and roughly three per cent suffered from psychiatric disorders. In Flanders, where the dominant language is Dutch, euthanasia accounts for nearly five per cent of all deaths.”

The article goes on to say:

“Although most of the Belgian patients had cancer, people have also been euthanized because they had autism, anorexia, borderline personality disorder, chronic-fatigue syndrome, partial paralysis, blindness coupled with deafness, and manic depression.”

The Belgian Dr. Death who killed Godelieva De Troyer is Wim Distelmans, an oncologist and a professor of palliative medicine at the Free University of Brussels. He seems to have a very un-Christian view of ‘palliative.’

The article suggests that humanism with its idea that there is nothing beyond this life lurks behind the popularity of the culture of death. As according to their worldview people are just accidental specks in an uncaring universe, it is no wonder some would prefer to press the exit button.

In contrast, Christianity with its living Christ can bring hope even into the deepest of despair. This has happened countless of times and can still happen.

Source:

Aviv, Rachel. 2015. Letter from Belgium: The Death Treatment. The New Yorker (June 22).

Assisted Suicide: The March of the Culture of Death

Some would hasten death - in the name of compassion.



Joel Kontinen

The Bible calls it the last enemy and the ultimate wage of sin. However, for some secularists, death is increasingly becoming a choice.

It started with abortion, but now the emphasis is on assisted suicide. At first, doctor-assisted killing was legal in only a few countries, such as Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland. Now, however, the phenomenon is gaining momentum in several other countries as well and is making headlines all over the world.

Sounds like echoes of the Third Reich.

New Scientist reports:

“THE fight to legalise doctor-assisted suicide for people who are terminally ill will take centre stage in the US this year, with bills filed in 20 states plus the District of Columbia.

‘I think it's a watershed year,’ says Peg Sandeen, head of the non-profit Death with Dignity, based in Portland, Oregon, which campaigns for doctors to be able to prescribe lethal doses of barbiturates to terminally ill people. The practice is already legal or has been decriminalised in five states.

Sandeen says public opinion may have shifted significantly after Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old with terminal brain cancer, moved to Oregon last year, where doctor-assisted suicide is legal. A video by Maynard in which she explained her reasons for choosing assisted suicide has been watched over 11 million times.”

The article also mentions some disturbing facts: not all people diagnosed as terminally ill are actually terminally ill. Others might understand assisted suicide as an order to cease being a financial burden on others.

Moreover, some Christians have prayed for people for whom their doctor gave only a few months to live. After prayer, these “incurable” individuals have lived many years, in some cases over ten years after their initial diagnosis.

We should not forget that our God is a God of miracles who created everything out of nothing by His Word and has not changed since.

Source:

Wilson, Clare. 2015. 2015 a watershed year for assisted suicide in the US. New Scientist 3010. (3 March).