Assisted Suicide is Barbaric

When British historian Andrew Roberts told the British House of Lords last month that opponents of assisted suicide were “antediluvian monsters” defending “medieval and sadistic practice,” he revealed not only a philosophical schism within contemporary conservatism, but hinted at a larger directional question for the entire West: do supra-rational concerns like the Soul, the Good, duty, honor, love, tradition and community, have any place in the world to come? By framing Burkean and Christian resistance to technocratic fiat as hopelessly antiquated and barbaric, Lord Roberts opened up a line of hyper-rational utilitarian argumentation that equates all suffering with evil, and any policy that permits suffering with historical regression.