Posted on 11/06/2008 4:13:24 PM PST by wagglebee
LifeNews.com Note: Award winning author Wesley J. Smith is special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. His current book is Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World.
I am having trouble keeping up: Every day now almost, it is one once unthinkable thing after another.
In the UK, a woman tried to commit suicide by swallowing anti-freeze, and doctors refused to save her! From the story:
Kerrie Wooltorton arrived fully conscious in hospital clutching a 'living will' in which she stated she did not want to be saved and was '100 per cent aware of the consequences'. The former charity shop worker called an ambulance after drinking the anti-freeze at her flat...
Consultant renal physician Alexander Heaton Alexander Heaton told the inquest in Norwich that the hospital's medical director and legal adviser informed him Miss Wooltorton clearly had the mental capacity to make the decision about her treatment…''She had made them abundantly clear and I was content that that was the case. It's a horrible thing to have to do but I felt I had no alternative but to go with her wishes. Nobody wants to let a young lady die."
Well, then why prevent a person from jumping off a bridge? Indeed, why not just get it over with and set up the euthanasia clinics to make sure nobody is hurt by jumpers! Remember the death of E.G. Robinson's character in Soylent Green at the death center? It's almost not science fiction anymore.
This is runaway terminal nonjudgmentalism. We are so lost in the fog of relativism and amorality that we can't even save suicidal people's lives anymore.
Indeed, we have gotten to the point that some families think it is their duty to help suicidal loved ones kill themselves, vividly in a tragic case, again out of the UK.
After Daniel James became paralyzed, he wanted to kill himself—and was taken by his parents to Switzerland for an assisted suicide with the help of a suicide group called Dignitas.
The case has been seized by euthanasia proponents as a cause célèbre for legalizing assisted suicide, aided by his grieving parents' aggressive self justifications in the media, for example, claiming that "nobody but nobody should judge him."
Absolutely . James was lost in the labyrinth of catastrophic despair. He should neither be judged nor condemned.
But that does not mean that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into silence. We can, nay must, draw conclusions about how those involved in this tragedy behaved. For it isn't being suicidal that is the moral problem—none of us can know if we might not one day fall prey to such existential despair—it is the alarming changes in how we react to suicidal desires that we must urgently face.
Dignitas, the Swiss suicide facilitating organization, is the worst. These ideologues are paid to assist suicides of people who are dying, who have disabilities, and thanks to a Swiss Supreme Court ruling, will soon be legally able to assist the suicides of the mentally ill. They are utterly culpable morally.
We can also, I think, condemn the media that is using cases like Daniels as one big Oprah show. Oprahtization is about making people feel good about whatever they do, and in that unprinciplism (if you will) are sown the seeds of individual and societal destruction.
Daniel's parents are a more difficult matter. No one can be unmoved by the deep anguish they must have felt in seeing their son in such howling grief--and their grief today at his death. But while we certainly cannot judge them--as in saying they are horrible people, clearly they are not--we must not condone their actions.
Moreover, it seems fair to ask some questions: Did they seek psychiatric help for him with specialists who deal with the wrenching adjustments sudden paralysis involves? Did they contact disability rights groups who could have had people with similar injuries visit with Daniel to help him understand that life with disabilities can be very good? Did they know that studies have shown that the levels of depression of people who become paralyzed later in life--five years post injury--become the same levels as those of people who are able bodied? These questions are important—not to find ammunition to use against the parents—but to bring the full picture into the public eye in the hope others in similar situations can benefit.
It strikes me forcefully that Kerrie and Daniel were literally abandoned to death by well meaning and loving people who thought they were doing the right things by them. This is what advocacy for the death culture is making of us. And so the foundations crumble.
And all too many people are totally ignorant to these facts.
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Wait until they begin refusing care to the elderly due to economic concerns. It’s evil beyond belief and it’s coming....
Half the country already committed assisted suicide on Nov 4th.
There is an interesting, albeit morbid, documentary where suicides on the Golden Gate bridge were filmed for a year. The camera operators did call police when they suspected a jumper, but some people did “make it.” After listening to people who survived this jump, I don’t know how anyone can think there is dignity in taking a life.
This is exactly why I think living wills stating that you don't want to be "kept alive" in such and such a situation are a crock. No one knows what will be going through their minds until they are in that situation. This woman was obviously conflicted, else why would she have called an ambulance?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
This and the article about the evil doctor on trial for killing a disabled man in order to “harvest” (sickening word - “cannibalize” is more accurate) his internal organs - are extremely chilling.
And now we have a death-loving “President” who will push for more and more.
The resemblance to Nazis just won’t go away.
I wonder why she even bothered going to a hospital.
I implore anyone foolish enough to have checked the little ‘organ donor’ box on their divers license to get a new one post haste (without the check, of course). There’s too much $ to be made in the used parts business to trust anybody anymore.
“And all too many people are totally ignorant to these facts.”
Including every single voter in Washington State who approved I-1000.
Interesting point. This is exactly why attempting suicide is illegal here in the U.S. -- at least in most states.
If attempting suicide were not illegal, then police, firefighters, etc. would likely not have the legal authority to talk you down off a bridge or building ledge.
Especially when you look at what is going on with their neighbors in Oregon.
As governments become more and more responsible for the cost of medical care, they become much more tolerant of suicide and euthanasia. It is simple economics.
As soon as government starts picking up the tab, we start hearing more about “the Right to Die”. Before too very long, that right is going to morph into “the Duty to Die”. Just you wait and see.
Can you document this?
I've never heard of anyone being charged with attempted suicide. I'm skeptical that such laws exist.
This reminds me of two stories.
One happens in wartime, when soldiers inexperienced with injuries find one of their own who has a minor to moderate head wound. Head wounds, even minor ones, tend to bleed profusely, and blood gets everywhere. So they take it upon themselves to “put him out of his misery”, even though he just needs ten stitches and some Tylenol. But all too often, he gets a lethal bullet wound from his caring friends.
The other story was told by Joseph Wambaugh, who tended to write from the real experiences of police officers. He wrote about one officer who was an overt racist, who hated black people. At a crime scene, he discovered a black known multiple offender, who had been stabbed with a knife several times. Still alive, but unconscious, the racist officer decided that what he needed in the line of first aid was chest pressure heart massage. In truth, the officer committed murder, by pumping most of his blood out of the victim’s body.
I mention this because, if say for example, you are a Muslim who hates infidels, why risk prison by killing them in a crime, when you can get paid to kill them legally? Not just to pick on Muslims, but how many other people would gleefully murder, if they could do so legally, or at least with the appearance of being legal?
Story in FRperarchives of exactly that.
Seems a miscreant tried to car jack a couple of FBI agents on stake out.
First FBI agent downs the perp with a neck shot (cartiod artery)
Second FBI agent gives the perp some assist with a chest pressure massage.
That's exactly my point. NOBODY ever gets charged with a "crime" when they attempt suicide.
The purpose of making suicide a "crime" is that this is necessary for the protection of those unfortunate souls who try to kill themselves. The reason suicide is illegal in most places is so that the state can interfere against your wishes and make every attempt to rescue you.
Think of it this way . . .
If you were to pick up the phone, call 911, and tell the operator that someone in the house next door is holding a gun to his head and threatening to kill himself, what do you think the 911 operator is going to do?
And what would be the legal justification for having the police intrude on that man's property and make every attempt to dissuade him?
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