Swiss may expand assisted suicide law (slippery slope alert)

Yahoo News ^ | February 2, 2007

[Clintonfatigued]

A ruling by Switzerland's highest court released Friday has opened up the possibility that people with serious mental illnesses could be helped by doctors to take their own lives.

Switzerland already allows physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients under certain circumstances. The Federal Tribunal's decision puts mental illnesses on the same level as physical ones.

"It must be recognized that an incurable, permanent, serious mental disorder can cause similar suffering as a physical (disorder), making life appear unbearable to the patient in the long term," the ruling said.

"If the death wish is based on an autonomous decision which takes all circumstances into account, then a mentally ill person can be prescribed sodium-pentobarbital and thereby assisted in suicide," it added.

[Clintonfatigued]

When this was first allowed, didn't its supporters assure the public that it wouldn't come to this?

[BenLurkin]

But if they have a serious mental disorder . . .


Don't they suppose that crazy people will want to kill themselves because they ARE crazy?

[wagglebee]

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[farlander]

Jeez, ooookkk. That crazy insane guy just told me the voices told him that he wants to die. Ah, it's an autonomous decision . Give him the death pill. Yep. Save some money for the state.That whole mental health thing is expensive.

How long before they have 3 guys left in the mental wards ?

You wanna die ? Just shake your head. Yes. You saw that too, Helga ? Ok. Get on the truck.

[wagglebee]

Ping

[donmeaker]

Perhaps the legislature could be committed, and given appropriate treatments....

[HangnJudge]

Hippocratic Oath alert

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath

I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.

To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.

I do not accept the moral relativism inherent in the laws permitting assisted suicide. The very oath that empowers the Physician irrevocably binds his behavior.

[Clintonfatigued]

Indeed.

[muawiyah]

One does hope ICE has Switzerland on the list of countries from which medical personnel may not be admitted.

[Clintonfatigued]

So do I.

[billorites]

Well, that Swiss chocolate is to die for...

[HangnJudge]

...If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot.

[Bahbah]

So they are going to start killing the mentally ill then. The useless eaters. Who else might they think qualifies. This list may get rather long.

[KarinG1]

The crazy people need help to kill themselves? Don't they have bridges and skyscrapers in Switzerland? I thought gun control was virtually non-existent there. They've just been coddled too much and won't take the initiative to solve their own problems anymore.

[lepton]

If the death wish is based on an autonomous decision which takes all circumstances into account

If they are mentally ill, can they take all circumstances into account, and are they competent to do so?

[Rembrandt]

This may have an upside -- just imagine a "liberal" cocktail.

[TigersEye]

A ruling by Switzerland's highest court released Friday has opened up the possibility that people with serious mental illnesses could be helped by doctors to take their own lives.

So it would be a double suicide? Both doctor and patient. Or a triple; throw in one of the judges in each case.

[8mmMauser]

Pinged from Terri Dailies

8mm

[Avoiding_Sulla]

*Death Cultivation Ping!

Oh c'mon people. You have nothing to fear here. </sarcasm>

From Wiki: In the Soviet Union, psychiatric hospitals were often used by the authorities as prisons in order to isolate political prisoners from the rest of society, discredit their ideas, and break them physically and mentally. The official explanation was that "no sane person would declaim against Soviet government and communism".

Simply be polite as your politically correct instructors are teaching you and there's nothing to worry about.

When confronted with the evidence and the 270,000,000 cases of malaria and the millions of lives lost every year to infections that could have been prevented [by the use of DDT], Dr. Charles Wurster, chief scientist of the Environmental Defense Fund is quoted to have stated, "this was as good a way for getting rid of (overpopulation) as any".

One American burdens the earth much more than twenty Bangladeshis... This is a terrible thing to say. In order to stabilize world populations, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it's just as bad not to say it." -Jacques Cousteau, UNESCO Courier, 1991

For the perpetually paranoid majority of you: You may find it "healthier" for you to double-think how much fear you display!