One of the classic conservatives ways to argue social issues, be it abortion or homosexual marriage, is when does the erasing of the line end. In the case of homosexual marriage the question is "how do you then stop polygamy". An extremist position on abortion used to be "if you don't respect life in the womb what stops you from disrepecting life of a new-born, especially the sick and those with downs syndrome, etc." The natural response being, "no one would consider that, that is lunacy".
But...but...apparently it is no longer lunacy (via Hugh Hewitt, found via Instapundit)
...The Groningen Protocol [in the Netherlands] is the proposal of doctors in the Netherlands for the establishment of an "independent committee" charged with selecting babies and other severely handicapped or disabled people for euthanasia.
...On Tuesday the AP carried a second story, and Drudge broadcast the news to the cyber world: The protocol was already in effect, and at least four babies had been deemed disposable, and killed.
This is either a low point, or a point of no return. The establishment of "independent committees" to dispatch non-consenting humans is nothing but a death penalty committee for innocents. Once begun, it is impossible--simply impossible--to limit the concept with any bright line. Abortion, of course, has always been limited by the physical act of birth, and once out of the womb, only the most extreme "reproductive rights" advocates have argued that the baby's natural right to live can be compromised by the mother. But now the Netherlands has gone farther--much, much farther. If the "severely retarded" may be killed upon appropriate motion, second, debate, and majority vote, why not the moderately retarded? Why not the mildly retarded? Why not, in fact, anyone the "independent committee" deems as usefully dispatched.
