The Daily Mail headline was beyond disturbing!

Transsexual, 44, elects to die by euthanasia after botched sex-change operation turned him into a ‘monster’

This story appeared on the Daily Mail website back in the first part of October. When I first read it, I was shocked and saddened. (The MailOnline story also provided details about Belgian twins who have been euthanized. I’ll restrict my comments to the person referred to in the headline.)

Today, I happened to read additional details about this individual. What a tragic tale that made me grieve all the more! Born Nancy Verhelst, she grew up feeling terribly unloved. Indeed, the mother who wanted sons has freely admitted her daughter’s choice of lethal injection “… does not bother me. I feel no sorrow, no doubt or remorse.”

I am totally unable to fathom the detachment of this mother to her offspring!

Reading about Verhelst, I was reminded of another individual, one whose lot in life was certainly fraught with complexity. If ever an individual had the right to be bitter and disillusioned about the challenges and “unbearable suffering” (as the doctor in Verhelst’s case referenced) such as he knew firsthand, it would be Nick Vujicic. But this young man has tackled life from a totally different perspective. Also, check his other website, Life Without Limbs.

Every time I’ve watched this video, I can’t help but be amazed at the positive outlook Vujicic models! Whatever my complaints, I realize how insignificant they are compared to Mr. Vujicic’s daily battles!

I will leave it to other commentators to wax eloquent on the wisdom of sex-change operations. Clearly, in Verhelst’s case, the anguish she experienced as a woman only compounded following her surgical procedures. But I believe Verhelst’s death was unnecessary and tragic! The doctors who performed anatomical changes failed to minister to her emotional/psychological distress.

I will be less reticent about the movement toward euthanasia in Belgium and elsewhere. No matter how benign we dress it up, no matter how we cloak it as just one more life-choice, I believe it’s barbaric and a short path to worse evil. I shudder to imagine the world we’re leaving our grandchildren.