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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 14, 2026

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[...] Assessment Committee for Late-Term Abortion and Termination of Life in Newborns and Children Ages 1 to 12 [...]
My first thought while reading this article, apart from general horror at what was done, was "The WHAT committee?" My second thought was to Philip K. Dick's now officially prophetic short story, The Pre-Persons.

There is no pleasing the pro-lifers, is there?

In this case, the story seems obviously that rather than simply blanket-allowing abortions until birth (like AK, CO, MD, MA, MI, MN, NJ, NM, OR, VT do), the Dutch decided that a late-term abortion was basically the same as infanticide and should follow the same MAID standards -- e.g., is it in the patient's best interests to die (as opposed to merely being in his legal guardians interests).

The Dutch have generally legalized MAID for all age brackets, and the board responsible for Late-Term till age 12 exists because here the patients can not independently request MAID, and are likely subject to stricter standards. Other committees exist for older people! If a competent adult tells you that they want to die, that is tremendous evidence in favor of letting them die. With a three-year-old, the evidence is much weaker, and their legal guardians might be biased by considerations besides the best interests of the child.

As understandable from @ToaKraka's extensive quotes, this was not a case of "for economic or social reasons, parents kinda wished they had aborted their kid, and the local law did not give a fuck about children so they allowed them to have their kid killed". To reiterate his quote:

It quickly became apparent that the child had suffered severe brain damage, resulting in severe cerebral palsy and a visual impairment. This was compounded by frequent and severe epileptic seizures, which were largely unresponsive to medication. This left the child restless and unable to sleep for long periods. The child also had mucus in its lungs, which made breathing and swallowing very difficult.

[...] The extensive brain damage had severe consequences for the child's functioning. There was a very severe developmental delay with an estimated developmental age of six weeks, while the child was nearly two years old.

If someone kept a dog under these conditions instead of putting it down, I would argue that it was animal cruelty. For someone who is not a speciecist, there is no good reason to treat humans worse than non-human animals. Instead, it is the Christians with their sacredness of human life doctrine who argue for prolonging the suffering as much as modern medicine will allow, which becomes more problematic as modern medicine progresses.