Posted on 06/20/2008 4:17:03 PM PDT by wagglebee
SYDNEY, June 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Euthanasia provider and activist Dr. Philip Nitschke has released controversial statements that essentially instruct anyone who believes they are suffering from Alzheimer's disease to avoid obtaining a diagnosis in favour of seeking a doctor who can help them commit suicide as quickly as possible. These comments come on the heels of yesterday's New South Wales jury ruling that convicted two women for the "euthanasia" death of a 71-year old Sydney man, Graeme Wylie, in 2006.
As reported by the news service, The Age, Shirley Justins, the wife of Wylie, was convicted of manslaughter for giving him a suicide drug, and Caren Jenning, who journeyed to Mexico to purchase the lethal drug, Nembutal, was convicted as an accessory to manslaughter. Both women, who claimed Wylie wanted to die this way, face up to 25 years in prison and will likely receive their sentences in November.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the trial centred on whether or not Wylie had the mental capacity to choose to be euthanized. Considering that just four months before his death, the husband and father could not recall his birthday or how many children he had and what sex they were, the jury decided Wylie was not able to choose suicide, and therefore convicted Justins and Jenning with manslaughter.
The court also brought to light the fact that Wiley's will was changed just one week before his death. The new terms stipulated that Jenkins was to receive all but $200,000 of the $2.4 million dollar estate; over double the amount she was to originally receive.
Dr. Nitschke, however, opposed the jury's decision, saying, "Many people said this person [Wylie] knew what he was doing. I thought he knew what he was doing. Yet they base it on the medical evidence that he had lost his ability to make a decision, that he had lost his ability to say whether he could die or not."
Dr. Nitschke, who heads the assisted suicide organization, Exit International, also said the ruling sends a "dreadful message" to Alzheimer's patients, and urged those suffering from the disease to avoid a doctor's diagnosis and seek assisted suicide as quick as possible in order to protect one's family from similar legal battles.
"Don't go to your doctor. Don't have the tests done. And if you do have the tests done that show that you're starting to lose mental capacity, make sure it is not recorded," said the doctor, indicating that those who contact Exit International would be receiving the same message.
"We'll be advising people not to (declare they have Alzheimer's)," he said.
"A person with Alzheimer's disease, means that they may have to move more quickly, and end their lives more quickly before this whole issue of capacity to make a decision comes to the fore," he finished.
The jury's decision and Dr. Nitschke's comments have sparked commentary from several professionals in related fields.
In a LifeSiteNews.com interview, Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, applauded the jury's decision, given the fact that a Swiss euthanasia centre refused to assist in Wylie's suicide because of his increasing dementia. The Swiss centre made this decision despite advice from Dr. Nitschke, who advised them to go ahead with the assisted-suicide after he had made an "assessment" of Wylie's condition.
"The fact is the man was incapable to make these decisions, and they were made on his behalf and it was done against the wishes of his children. One of his daughters in particular was very upset," explained Schadenberg.
He then addressed the shocking statement issued to Alzheimer patients by Dr. Nitschke.
"Dr. Nitschke is hell bent on death," said Schadenberg.
"You have to put this into context. He was the one who told the National Review that the peaceful pill [a suicide pill] should be available to troubled teens."
Schadenberg then commented on the "bigger picture", explaining how Dr. Nitschke is not just fighting for a terminally ill patient's right to assisted suicide, but for "anyone's right to die."
"He sees suicide as a human right. It is not about the right to die of terminally ill people. It is about what they would call the human right to die. The right for anyone to die at the time of their choosing," he concluded.
Glenn Rees from Alzheimer's Australia said Dr. Nitschke's counsel was "worrying on many levels".
"Diagnosis is vital for people with dementia, so they can get all the support they need to avoid depression and the things that might lead to this (euthanasia), so it's ridiculous to say they shouldn't get it," explained Mr. Rees.
Rees finished by asserting that, "The last thing they should be doing is running away from a diagnosis."
University of New South Wales psychiatry professor Brian Draper, alluded to the fact that many Alzheimer's patients can enjoy their lives, saying Dr. Nitschke demonstrated "incredible ignorance" of Alzheimer's disease.
"Don't go to your doctor. Don't have the tests done. And if you do have the tests done that show that you're starting to lose mental capacity, make sure it is not recorded," said the doctor, indicating that those who contact Exit International would be receiving the same message.
He doesn't even want the person to know if there is something wrong with them, he just wants them dead.
Pro-Life Ping
The culture of death is no longer even trying to hide their bloodlust.
Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
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Modern day vampires.
If it wasn’t for TERRI SCHIAVO, I would have overlooked many of these articles-atrocities. The deathbots lust for a kill, anyone and anywhere. This is why I’m against organ donor cards. The hospital bots make more on a transplant including anti-rejection drugs than on saving accident victims. (even not for profit hospitals which is an oxymoron, wouldn’t you say?).
“To say to someone, we’ll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live, it’s cruel,” Wagner told the newspaper. “I get angry. Who do they think they are?”
(Oregon woman).
“The culture of death is no longer even trying to hide their bloodlust.”
And today it will be a “right” to die, but tomorrow it will be a “duty” to die.
Alzheimer’s-like symptoms in the elderly can be caused by something as simple as a vitamin or mineral deficiency, or by a reaction to medication for other conditions.
I hesitate to say that the best thing for everyone would be for Dr. Nitschke to have (for example) a fatal car accident tomorrow, because surely Hell is waiting for him, but ...
OMG!!!! A jury based their decision on the evidence? What is we gonna do?
Þ
If you ever need an organ transplant, I'll assume you'll just opt to die instead of being a hypocrite.
Just call this guy Dr.Quack.
I would hate to have him for my doctor.
Proof that the religion of Evolution creates a person who does not value life and has no belief in God.
The Texas Futile Care Law stops just short of mandating a "duty" to die. As it is, once a hospital committee decides that a patient should die, the family has a very short amount of time to find a new facility; additionally, this creates an "out" for insurance companies and creates a scenario where wealthy people will be cared for while the middle class is denied the coverage that they have paid for.
Gee Dr. Nitschke, if you or your doctor friends really want to kill yourselves, go right ahead...
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/183/story/381047.html
Posted on Sat, Jun. 07, 2008
Attempted Organ Donation
Medical board files complaint against transplant surgeon
Hootan Roozrokh, already facing a criminal charge, now could lose a state license to practice medicine
~snip~
...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.
Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion.
But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts....
A Physician who Purposefully causes a Death
by his/her Direct, or Indirect Action
Is an Abomination
They have cast down the
Mantle of Authority and Benign Intent
they have been entrusted with.
whatever happened to “First do no harm?”
This is the pact which Asaph ben Berakhyahu and Yohanan ben Zabda made with their pupils, and they adjured them with the following words:
Do not attempt to kill any soul by means of a potion of herbs,
Do not make a woman [who is] pregnant [as a result of] of whoring take a drink with a view to causing abortion,
Do not covet beauty of form in women with a view to fornicating with them,
Do not divulge the secret of a man who has trusted you,
Do not take any reward [which may be offered in order to induce you] to destroy and to ruin,
Do not harden your heart [and turn it away] from pitying the poor and healing the needy,
Do not say of [what is] good; it is bad, nor of [what is] bad: it is good,
Do not adopt the ways of the sorcerers using [as they do] charms, augury and sorcery in order to separate a man from the wife of his bosom or a woman from the companion of her youth,
You shall not covet any wealth or reward [which may be offered in order to induce you] to help in a lustful desire,
You shall not seek help in any idolatrous [worship] so as to heal through [a recourse to idols], and you shall not heal with anything [pertaining] to their worship,
But on the contrary detest and abhor and hate all those who worship them, put their trust in them, and give assurance [referring] to them,
For they are all naught, useless, for they are nothing, demons, spirits of the dead; they cannot help their own corpses, how then could they help those who live?
Now [then] put your trust in the Lord, your God, [who is] a true God, a living God,
For [it is] He who kills and makes alive, who wounds and heals,
Who teaches men knowledge and also to profit,
Who wounds with justice and righteousness, and who heals with pity and compassion,
No designs of [His] sagacity are beyond His [power]
And nothing is hidden from His eyes.
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