Killing is getting a lot of good press lately – at least if the killing involves taking the life of yourself or a "defective" newborn.
Michael Medved notes that between news coverage of the Hunter Thompson death and the Academy Awards given to films like Million Dollar Baby and The Sea Inside, suicide seems to be the trendy thing to do. At the same time, The LA Times gave space on its op-ed page for Peter Singer to argue that we should actively kill viable newborns that don’t meet certain (arbitrary) quality of life standards.
What kind of society prefers death over life? One which believes life is ultimately meaningless. What we are seeing is the fruit of a worldview that says existence has no inherent meaning or purpose and is therefore of no value – a worldview that starts with the belief that there is no God.
If, in fact, there is no God, then the killing of all types of people (not just deformed babies or depressed kids and adults, but anyone who does meet whatever arbitrary standard is currently in vogue or in power) makes perfect sense. However, thankfully, we do not live in such a universe, and therefore this killing is repugnant.
Life isn’t inherently valueless. Humans have meaning and worth because they are created in the image of God to exist for His glory. Life is worth living no matter what temporal qualities it possesses (or lacks). Suicide and infanticide are morally wrong for just this reason.