A Free Society Needs a Moral Code Superior to Legislative and Constitutional Fiat

One of the tell-tale signs that a society is drifting toward an inhumane, authoritarian regime is that citizens begin to idolise the law of the land. People begin to treat the laws that come out of a human assembly or lawmaking body as the ultimate guide to what is right and wrong, as the overriding Code of Conduct, whose validity does not depend on any independent standard, whether common sense, natural law, or ethics.

Unfortunately, we in the West are already quite far down the path of blind and infantile submission to the law. Many citizens have embraced shamefully inhumane practices just because they believed the law required them to do so. For example, the surgical, elective termination of the lives of our offspring has been accepted by many as normal, just because it has the blessing of the law.

Irreversible hormonal treatments for children confused about their sexual identity have been accepted as part of a parent’s prerogative, largely because legislators have approved them. Euthanasia, or “mercy killing” of the sick and elderly, is being legalised in many Western countries and the public response appears to be, “if it’s legal, it must be ok.”