The front page of the U.K. Sunday Times featured a disturbing article yesterday. The question it explored was this: Should babies born before the 25th week of pregnancy be left to die?

Yes, you are reading correctly. Britain's state run National Healthcare Service (NHS) is overextended and some think that the considerable resources spent on this kind of patient could be used more effectively and wisely elsewhere. This view is increasingly espoused by the doctors comprising the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists who began referring to these babies 'bed blockers.' In a recent statement, the College said:

Some weight should be given to the economic considerations as there is a real issue in neonatal units of 'bed blocking.'

However chilling this debate may seem, it is the natural and expected outcome of socialized medicine. The State can only provide a limited amount of resources and the pie must be divided somehow. In the process some people will be inevitably denied the care they need to live. The question is who. The most defenseless are an easy target.

You may wonder why the parents themselves do not carry the financial burden of caring for their premature offspring. The answer is that for many it is simply unfeasible. Governments that aspire to provide free healthcare, free education, and free this and that can only get the money by raiding the pockets of their citizens. As a result, many of them are not left with enough to afford things like private healthcare when they need it. In theory this is not supposed to happen, since the State has promised to provide all the necessities its citizens need. But, of course, it does not work that way in practice and hence the debates such as this one. Holland, one of the most socialized European countries, has already settled the question. Babies born there before the 25th week of pregnancy are not given medical care, and are simply left to die.

It is an unspeakable abomination and a portent of tragic things to come when a society in the heart of the developed (and supposedly civilized) world makes no attempt to save its most defenseless.

Rotten indeed is the fruit of socialization. Are you listening American liberals? Are you listening Mrs. Clinton?

Vasko Kohlmayer   3 27 06