Posted on 01/29/2007 5:09:42 PM PST by neverdem
Remember Jack Kevorkian? He's the American euthanasia doctor behind bars for second-degree murder. He's also the one who wanted to look into the eyes of those in the process of dying for his "obitiatric research".
Despite his ghoulishness, Kevorkian is revered by those such as Derek Humphry, co-founder of the pro-euthanasia group the Hemlock Society, who described Kevorkian's incarceration as "a tragedy for an honourable man". Kevorkian assisted or lethally injected at least 130 people, mostly middle-aged women. More than 70 per cent were not terminally ill. Most were disabled or depressed.
Recently, the Swiss group Dignitas, which has assisted hundreds of suicides and promotes euthanasia, has petitioned the Swiss Supreme Court for permission to assist the suicides of the chronically depressed and mentally ill.
In Australia, our most vocal euthanasia advocate, Philip Nitschke, is on record for advocating a suicide pill for the depressed, the elderly bereaved and troubled teenagers.
At the heart of this issue is the belief that everyone should have the right to die on their own terms: when, where, and how they want, with social, legal, and medical support from the state. While in the first instance this would take the form of legislation for difficult cases, it would not stop there.
As we have learnt from the Netherlands, legislating for hard euthanasia cases cannot be contained. Once the state legislates for the killing of any of its innocent members, even upon their request, it has breached a principle that protects us all. When the state legalises euthanasia, all are at risk.
In the Netherlands, assisted suicide soon turned to euthanasia. At the outset, only for the terminally ill. Now the chronically ill. Initially for physical illness. Now for psychological distress. At first, strictly upon voluntary request. Thousands of cases of euthanasia now occur without a request from the patient. Some doctors just know best. The Dutch recently legislated to permit euthanasia for 12- to 16-year-olds, and dozens of disabled babies have been illegally euthanased at Groningen Hospital, by doctors who are now pressuring the Government for permission to terminate infant lives.
Despite the rhetoric about strict criteria, mandatory reporting and tight regulation, it is impossible to safely manage legalised euthanasia. As Herbert Hendin, medical director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College, puts it: "One hardly knows which is more chilling, the widespread flouting of the scant and effectively toothless legal regulation of euthanasia in Holland, or the sangfroid with which it is defended by the Dutch practitioners."
This is why every major body of inquiry worldwide has rejected voluntary euthanasia, and why modern communities should continue to do so.
Greg Pike is director of the Southern Cross Bioethics Institute.
(Little did I realize that simply saying, "Uhhh" would lead to so many insults.)
Also interesting that you evade my entire point to make your misplaced insult.
So why do you think my response to Heinrich Heine would be any different than it was to you? And why do you assume that using it in your context matches the context in which he used it? He was not exactly an atheist.
Problem is when people are allowed to decide this for themselves, it won't be long before it is no longer your own choice, it will end up a choice made by others. All people do not act in the best interests of another. How many will be killed by the choice of another?
Don't be a such freaking drama queen.
You always have a choice. You have the right to refuse medical treatment. You have the right to stop eating and drinking. If it's your choice, you choose, don't choose for the rest of us by getting the state involved in the 'put to sleep' business.
Once euthanasia is made legal, the day will come when sick (or maybe not so sick) elderly, depressed or disabled people will be lined up against a wall and 'mercifully' offed for no other reason than the rationalization that "they are going to die anyway" and they are a "drain on resources" or "useless eaters."
Some may even have their organs harvested so other people may live...noble cause, indeed. Not to mention profitable. Come to think of it, it's already happening in Communist China. Human life is really not a big deal over there, they're so overpopulated, they think of government-approved killing as culling the herd. This is what happens in a country that has no regard for human life itself and people are commodities, not individuals.
If you are really concerned about being a burden on your family, get a living will with a durable medical power of attorney and state your wishes in writing.
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