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Posted on 01/12/2008 12:19:01 PM PST by wagglebee
A man of optimism and often-impish humor -- his voice was once likened to Elmer Fudd on helium -- ex-Gov. Booth Gardner seems like the last person you'd associate with the Grim Reaper.
Gardner is, however, pressing ahead with his "last campaign," an initiative to legalize physician-assisted suicide in the state of Washington. The cause is controversial even in definition: Advocates speak of "death with dignity." Critics call it "legalized euthanasia."
"My life, my death, my control," Gardner, who has Parkinson's disease, told a New York Times Magazine profiler.
Oh, my, what a self- absorbed guy. The magazine revealed what sympathetic local news stories have not disclosed, that opposition to his campaign has welled up within Gardner's own family.
To balance the former governor's announcement, I've turned to a hiking buddy who is an old Gardner acquaintance.
Chris Carlson, 61, found out eight years ago that he has Parkinson's disease, and was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer late in 2005. His physicians were unable to locate the generating tumor, which usually means the patient will be dead within six months.
He has fought back with an experimental treatment and regained lost weight and describes the cancer as "dormant." It's still "a matter of time," Carlson observed, but he isn't planning on checking out at any time soon.
He has hiked in Hells Canyon, welcomed a new granddaughter into the world, rejoiced as a son return safely from Iraq and watched Boise State University's dramatic 2007 Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma.
"I believe personally that Booth Gardner is flat wrong," Carlson said. "I think suicide is a very selfish act that breaks faith with family and with society. The pain with surviving relatives and loved ones, and I can testify to this, lives on."
Carlson's father committed suicide, as did one of his partners in founding a Northwest-based public affairs consulting firm.
The Catholic Church underwrote opposition to a 1991 assisted-suicide measure narrowly defeated by Washington voters. A leading Christian conservative, pastor Joe Fuiten, is among the sponsors of the Washington Coalition Against Assisted Suicide.
Still, in Carlson's view, people across the political and religious spectrum, including the nonreligious, should recognize a threat to society.
"It goes to the first rule of the social compact," he said, "that people come together to protect life."
Curiously, at least in the Northwest, support for assisted suicide is a "liberal" cause.
Didn't John F. Kennedy, in a message to Congress, quote historian Arnold Toynbee's conclusion that a society's durability is best measured "by the respect and care given its elderly citizens?"
Hubert Humphrey, a progressive hero of the 20th century, declared: "The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped."
A radically different attitude is voiced in the book "Freedom to Die" by Derek Humphry, co-founder of The Hemlock Society.
"A rational argument can be made for allowing physician assisted suicide in order to offset the amount society and family spend on the ill, as long as it is the voluntary wish of the mentally competent terminally ill and incurable adult," he wrote.
In other words, Uncle Johnny should think about killing himself if he becomes a "burden" to loved ones or his HMO.
As they say on the 2008 presidential trail, it gets personal. My father initially wanted to "go quietly," for my mother's sake, after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. He was to live two more years, and died at home looking out at lilac bushes he planted.
Gardner, heir to a Weyerhaeuser fortune, is a good example of those who have prominently advocated physician-assisted suicide. They tend to be well off, value control and stand for what attorney-author Wesley Smith calls an "unbridled, near- absolute individualism."
Individual freedom is, however, not absolute. It can be limited when an individual's actions harm the self, the family or the human family.
The coalition against Gardner's assisted-suicide initiative includes a variety of organizations representing the disabled, the hospice movement and physicians and nurses. They understand both moral and political ramifications, especially if the assisted-suicide advocates use The Evergreen State to resuscitate their movement across the country.
Nat Hentoff, the civil libertarian and columnist for New York's Village Voice, has put it with brutal bluntness: "It is a political issue about who has power and who does not, who is expendable and who is important.
"It is an issue about protecting the most weak and vulnerable among us. When you are near death is when you are the most vulnerable to coercion, intimidation and to powerlessness."
In short, it's not about Booth Gardner. Nor should his medical struggle be used to snuff out debate on his last political goal.
Will our society accept killing as compassionate when it has the world's most advanced medical treatment, has made leaps in controlling pain and developed legal devices such as living wills that set limits on treatment?
"It is an issue about protecting the most weak and vulnerable among us. When you are near death is when you are the most vulnerable to coercion, intimidation and to powerlessness."
Excellent points!
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We talk alot about abortion here at FR, and someone made some statements the other day about some of the candidates claiming to be prolife, when they are pro-euthanasia.
Do we have any official statements from the candidates about their positions on euthanasia, and of course, whether or not they defended Teri Schiavo or others who have been killed?
btt
Duncan Hunter is totally opposed to euthanasia and was a strong supporter of Terri’s family in their fight to keep her from being murdered.
I think I am getting sick of these people.
After running into legal problems, Michael Schiavo was forced to shut down TerriPAC:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1880654/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1899823/posts
If anyone wants to know more about what a monster Michael Schiavo is, this is a great site:
http://www.michaelschiavo.org/index.htm
Apparently this clown believes he created himself ex nihilo.
Not wanting his loved ones last memory to be watching him die a pathetic, drawn out death drugged to a haze in a hospital bed. Not wanting to burn his life’s savings doing it when he could leave that money to help his family. What a selfish decision that is.
“He has fought back with an experimental treatment and regained lost weight and describes the cancer as “dormant.” It’s still “a matter of time,” Carlson observed, but he isn’t planning on checking out at any time soon.”
He’s lucky to have qualified for experimental treatment. Most either don’t or can’t afford it.
please ping me for your euthanasia posts.
I generally ping “Moral Absolutes” and I also ping the pro-life ping list holders to pro-life threads. Now and then I ping a few other FReepers to threads I know will interest them. I will try to remember to ping you to euthanasia threads; however, you should really get on 8mmMauser’s “Terri Daily” ping list, it should have EVERYTHING that gets posted about euthanasia.
I live in Washington State and do not, nor have ever, understood, the prevailing fascination with death: abortion, suicide rates, and now euthanasia. Is it the weather?
Funny thing, we got libs trying to get their right to die legalized. The irony is that their kids probably are in favor of offing them too because of the burden they’d be to them. Total madness and evil coming back around to get you. I’m not a Buddhist, but the libs know what I mean when I say “Karma is a b1tch.”
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