According to NJ.com, New Jersey has taken a major first step toward the legalization of assisted suicide.

The state’s Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee voted in favor of the Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act. The aye’s had it, 6 to 3.

The legislation will allow adults to acquire prescriptions for drugs to end their lives. The only requirement? That a doctor determine the individuals have 6 months or less to live.

As emailed to Fox News, Dr. T. Brian Callister, who opposes the bill, was surprised by the Thursday proceeding:

“I thought the hearing was highly irregular. They did not allow many if not most of the people who oppose the bill who signed in hours ahead a chance to speak. As an example, there were six high influential physicians there with me in opposition to the bill, including the medical ethics director from Columbia (University), and only two were able to speak — one New Jersey physician and myself. … It seemed very irregular — really a charade of a hearing with the outcome apparently a foregone conclusion.”

Even if the law passes, Callister remains skeptical of its actual application:

“If it does pass, my experience has been that most physicians and pharmacists, even if they were tacitly for it, want nothing to do with actually participating in assisting with suicide.”

Euthanasia has had its fair share of media coverage over the last several months, and not in a good way.

In October, I wrote about Canada eyeing doctor-executed death for children, without parental consent. Please see that incredible story here.

In November, I covered a Belgium woman’s medical killing due to her Asperger’s syndrome (here). The country also slays the depressed.

Additionally, Belgium has killed a 9-year-old and an 11-year-old.

It seems to me that New Jersey’s move is not a good one. As with socialism, we can see in the world the place to which such legislation can lead. Doctors are — and should be — trained to preserve life. The moment our medical institutions begin to train those employed to heal to instead destroy, we’ve begun a macabre and unAmerican chapter in the history of America. But why would we not? Haven’t we already? In the last several days, Democrats have talked of killing babies during or after their birth (here). Everything else is just a question of how big the human being we’re willing to snuff out. If we can take the lives of the most innocent among us, surely none of the guilty — which is to say, none old enough to entertain their baser nature — are safe.

What do you think of the issue? I look forward to hearing from you, in the Comments section below. But before you share your thoughts — related to this topic — PLEASE watch the moving video of Frank Stephens’s congressional testimony here.

-Alex

Relevant RedState links in this article: here, here, here, and here.

See 3 more pieces from me: Loyola vs. Ben, racism vs. ridiculousness, and a model vs. the Left.

Find all my RedState work here.

And please follow Alex Parker on Twitter and Facebook.

Thank you for reading! Please sound off in the Comments section below. For iPhone instructions, see the bottom of this page.

If you have an iPhone and want to comment, select the box with the upward arrow at the bottom of your screen; swipe left and choose “Request Desktop Site.” If it fails to automatically refresh, manually reload the page. Scroll down to the red horizontal bar that says “Show Comments.”