just damn....
Posted on 03/28/2008 5:25:10 PM PDT by Grzegorz 246
Teenagers should be given the right to medically assisted suicide and the parents of terminally ill younger children should be able to choose euthanasia under proposals from members of Belgium's coalition government.
The plans to extend rules allowing doctors to perform euthanasia on terminally ill people suffering "constant and unbearable physical or psychological pain" comes amid heated Belgian debate on the issue.
Under existing Belgian laws, in place since 2002, patients, other than newborn babies, must be over 18 to qualify for assisted suicide, a situation that Bart Tommelein, leader of Belgium Liberals, wants changed.
Mr Tommelein, whose party is a key member of Belgium's coalition government, has pledged to bring forward new legislative proposals extending euthanasia to children and old people suffering from such severe dementia that they are unable to choose for themselves.
"We will seek, as Liberals, parliamentary majorities," Mr Tommelein said.
The ethical debate will mean another headache for Belgium's new Prime Minister Yves Leterme and his fragile government, which took power last week after a nine-month political crisis.
Cardinal Danneels, Belgium's Catholic Cardinal, used his Easter sermon to start a polarised national debate on euthanasia.
"Avoiding suffering is no act of bravery," he said. "Our society seems unable to cope with death and suffering."
The Cardinal has reacted to Belgian media "glorification" of the "brave" euthanasia least week of Hugo Claus, a Flemish writer suffering from Alzheimers disease.
There are more than 39 cases of euthanasia declared by doctors in Belgium every month, but the true figure is thought to be double that.
Euthanasia is currently permitted on infants and more than half of the Belgian babies who die before they are 12 months old have been killed by deliberate medical intervention.
In 16 per cent of cases parental consent was not considered.
“Euthanasia is currently permitted on infants and more than half of the Belgian babies who die before they are 12 months old have been killed by deliberate medical intervention. “
Good Lord.
Just flat out evil.
No, no, no... give them the option. The more idiots we get out of this world the better. I know several teens and early 20-somethings who are so miserable and whacked out on Xanax that they’d be better off. It’s really a sad state of affairs, but welcome to the next Generation!
Take heart liberals, Europeans agree with you. The unborn, the old and the infirm should be eliminated.
I’d like to see all fetuses have a right to be born and then, once they are old enough, let them decide if they would like to continue living.
I’m sorry but do something for the kids you ‘know’ instead of offing them. Get them off the prescription drugs, talk to the parents. Talk to them about God and that every life having a purpose.
I’m not saying their condition is your fault or that you are responsible for them bieng that way. But don’t just give up on ‘em. They need a reason to feel useful and that there is some plan for them being here, right now - and it ain’t about them committing suicide.
Just a guess here but God has to be done with Europe.
Ya know, I keep thinking that the Nazis won in the end... The EU is lot like what a Nazi German dominated Europe would have looked like.
‘Bout the only they don’t have is “Lebensraum” in the East.
Presumably this does not include abortions.
So Brussels is where the devil stays when he's in europe?
Ping
“where the devil stays”
I am sure he feels right at home. Isn’t Brussels where the EU is headquartered, also?
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Actually Belgium is behaving like they have moral authority in case of human rights, democracy etc. when in fact with laws like this one they should be treated like an ass of the world.
Tell me again why we wasted American blood saving these demons from the Nazis.
All they had to do was sell contraception. Abortion soon followed - after abortion, it isn’t much of a journey to kill anyone at any stage of life.
They just can’t kill enough people fast enough, can they?
Ping....
just damn....
...Maybe they could re-print these in French and Flemish.
Unfortunately the largest population of retards are in political office.
Sick, sick EuroTrash on the way to well deserved extinction.
Allu Akbar, Belgium!
The people refered to are terminally ill and CHOOSE to die. It’s far more ethical than abortion, where the unborn baby has no say.
Considering american abortion laws are even more liberal than they are in most European countries, I would say calling all belgians or europeans ‘demons’ or ‘eurotrash’ is a little hypocritical is it not?
I guess if you think that killing young children is abhorrent, then you are "polarizing". Fine, I'm polarizing.
Relatively speaking. Which I suppose is fine by those who practice moral relativism. And of course, only in theory, since in practice some of the euthanasia victims have no say.
I guess my commentary was misunderstood. I didn’t mean to say that they should off themselves. It’s more that they are and even see themselves as a drain on society. It’s not so much my commentary as more that it’s their own sad view of themselves. These pharmaceuticals are turning people against themselves in a really sinister way.
Such an innovative idea that it could only have come from Europe. Sickening. Offering the most vulnerable in the population a permanent way out of a temporary problem. Socialized medicine will weed out the weak and infirm. These people and our own Left are sounding more and more like they want a more superior citizenry. Too scary for words.
God forbid that people should place their own value on their own lives. If I was costing a hundred grand a year to keep alive I’d definitely off myself.
Okay, maybe I’m dense. But first, I reckon that your average teen is perfectly capable of offing himself or herself, by accident or on purpose, without any help from the public health system whatsoever. And second, it was my impression that Europe is having enough trouble staying populated as it is.
Well, duh! Did you think God promotes evil? Sheesh!
Now they want to kill teenagers who are in psychological pain?? Um... I hate to tell them, but that’s kind of how most teenagers are most of the time, from what I can see and remember.
Terri Schiavo, RIP.
No, no, no No, monsieur. Laws are for other people, never for those fit to make the laws.
Elitism. It's everywhere.
Yes you are correct. It is critical to get people off the drugs that enhance their feelings of worthlessness and despair and suicidal tendencies.
Before Hitler killed the Jews or the Gypsies or the Communists, he killed the terminally ill and the mentally challenged.
Now it begins again.
What 2 year old chooses to die?
There is no choice. Only the illusion of choice.
If a person’s future is hopeless and they don’t want to live any more, why do they need assistance? Why involve and burden the medical profession?
Peter Singer must be serving as a consultant somewhere for these people.
You think a 16 year old can make that decision wisely?
What about 6 month old ? This is already legal.
Wow. Just wow at that propaganda you found and posted.
All human problems can be eliminated by human extinction.
Brilliant method of responding to the human condition. A kind of idiot arithmetic, consisting solely of subtraction.
Old enough?
9?
19?
90?
Variable, depending on assessment by the State Board of Quality Control and Compassionate Niceness?
Not quite yet. Pope Benedict has a couple of cards up his sleeve.
If you believe that all human problems can be eliminated by pharmaceuticals, then you're essentially shoring up your own argument.
Have you ever seen someone who's so whacked out on Xanax that they can barely enunciate their words and have just enough energy to get from their bed to the toilet and back? I have a friend who's a "victim" of anxiety, and he's popping 3 - 5 Xanax a day. And his damn doctor continues to fill his scripts! 90 pills for a 30 day period... are you serious? You don't think that's excessive?
I'm not a proponent of his demise, but seriously... what sort of life is that to live? I tried to drag him out of the house to the gym with me, kayaking, bike rides on local trails, even GeoCaching... he just wanted to go home halfway through the experience for one reason or another.
As long as the medical establishment looks at curing the maladies of man with a pill as the answer, we're not getting any better as a society. I, too, suffer from anxiety, but I've learned that exercise, proper diet, a little spirituality and good, old fashioned positive thoughts keep me on even keel without the help of Big Pharma.
Don't mistake my commentary for idiot arithmetic. These people have to want to get better. Their want to die is their own problem. We shouldn't have to legislate for them to be allowed to off themselves, but we should bring more scientific scrutiny to an industry that may very well be turning the minds of these people into suicidal miasmas.
But why would you "off" yourself?
Why wouldn't you just stop spending the hundred grand, and get youself into a simple decent place where you can live -- clean, fed, clothed, sheltered --- and a few chosen kin or dear ones can sit by, pray, open beers and trade wisecracks, until your well-and-truly natural death comes and claims you?
That would be the better option. Take my word for it.
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