Three recent media controversies – an award given to a movie that depicts the assassination of President Bush, a flap over fake photos of Tiger Woods’ wife, and the consideration NBC executives are giving to a prime-time airing of Madonna’s mock crucifixion – have highlighted an important truth that media elites ignore at their peril: Freedom of speech and of the press are rights, but they can be abused. And too much abuse can lead to a backlash that stifles the very exchange of controversial ideas so critical to the functioning of a free society.
Euthanasia advocates hail the Dutch model as progressive and reasonable, offering a humane escape from this fallen world for everyone from terminally ill cancer patients to depressed adolescents and sickly infants. If they want to die (or, in the case of newborns, if their parents wish they had never been born), who has the right to stop them?
