Posted on 12/10/2008 4:20:02 PM PST by wagglebee
EDINBURGH, December 10, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Despite attracting little support from colleagues, Scottish Parliament Member Margo McDonald is continuing to fight for a bill to legalize assisted suicide. McDonald’s bill is so broad that it would entitle children of 12 and younger to choose to kill themselves.
McDonald held a consultation yesterday on the End of Life Choices (Scotland) Bill in an effort to garner more support. So far, McDonald has the support of only three other Parliament members, whereas eighteen are needed for the bill to merit review at Holyrood.
During the consultation, McDonald said that the age limit for assisted suicide consent should coincide with the age when children are allowed to decide which parent to live with after a divorce. Children older than 12 are typically consulted in Scotland's custody battles, with exceptions occasionally made for younger children deemed mature enough.
In a sound byte available on the online version of the Herald, McDonald, who suffers from Parkinson’s, said it is "absolutely inhumane" and "cruel" not to allow ailing individuals access to lethal drugs. She claims that she has received large amounts of correspondence supporting her initiative to allow patients to ask doctors for assistance in dying. Euthanasia campaigners in Scotland, according to the Herald, say there is a "small but significant" demand among Scots.
MacDonald said: “There are lots of people up and down Scotland who would like to make sure that they miss the last - and for them most intolerable - part of life, because of incapacity, loss of dignity, loss of control, insufferable pain perhaps.”
McDonald suggested that Scottish doctors already underhandedly administer lethal amounts of painkillers to suffering patients with the understanding that the patient wishes to die. "I think some doctors are happy that that area of ambiguity should remain," she said, "but other doctors would rather be protected by the law."
Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said she was against assisted suicide, and noted she was not convinced that a law granting immunity to doctors killing their patients could be adequately modified to safeguard against abuses.
Ms. MacDonald began her campaign in March when she entreated Parliament to legalize assisted suicide so that she could seek death if her disease caused life to become unbearable.
Earlier attempts to introduce euthanasia legislation at Holyrood have met with a similar lack of enthusiasm. Jeremy Purvis, the Liberal Democrat Parliament member, drafted "mercy killing" legislation in 2004 but also failed to find support among colleagues.
Assisted suicide is illegal in the entire U.K. However, legislation dealing with assisted suicide, known as the Coroners and Justice Bill, is scheduled for consideration in the British Parliament, though the scope of the bill is yet unclear.
The way you and your ilk see it, Adolf Hitler died with dignity, but Jesus Christ did not.
A dignified person will die with dignity no matter how undignified they appear in the end, an undignified person will not. Dignity is what we bring to death, not what death brings to us.
Try to stay on topic.
Why do you keep bringing up Hitler? That has nothing to do with the conversation except your attempt to falsely associate me with him.
A dignified person will die with dignity no matter how undignified they appear in the end, an undignified person will not. Dignity is what we bring to death, not what death brings to us.
It is between God and the person when to decide to end one's life. It should not be subject to government control or your personal views.
Me: Should adultery be subject to capital punishment?
Try to stay on topic.
You brought up capital punishment. I am just trying to understand.
I brought up a well-known suicide. I have not tried to associate you with Hitler.
It is between God and the person when to decide to end one's life. It should not be subject to government control or your personal views.
YOU are the one trying to get governments to legalize euthanasia.
I am trying to get government out of my life. You are trying to use government to control my life. Thank you.
Christ shed His Blood in atonement for the sins of the Old Testament.
The record speaks otherwise:
"The way you and your ilk see it, Adolf Hitler died with dignity, but Jesus Christ did not."
There are endless medical problems that hurt so much that many people wish they would just die, or are just willing to die. But when the pain finally stops, their life goes on as it should.
Unless their was an “angel of death” handy.
Nonsense, you are trying to force employees of the government to participate in suicide.
I have never said that. I am trying to ensure that government employees do NOT participate in my suicide.
Correct, you think that suicide (i.e. death on your own terms and not God’s) is dignified, that doesn’t equate you with Hitler.
Try to keep up, this thread is about Scotland, they have socialized medicine.
No. And I beg to disagree with you that it is death NOT on God's terms. When I chose to die is between me and God and neither you nor the government should interfere.
If it is about Scotland, why did you try to hijack it with TS?
The fact that you mistake moral relativism with God’s Will is certainly your choice.
What are you talking about?
Thank you for at least saying it is my choice. Now, will you admit that it should my choice and not the governments choice on when and how I die?
If not, then the following conclusion is reached. Bye for now.
ME: Keep the government out of my private life.
YOU: You want to government controlling my life.
The government is not preventing you or anyone else from dying (except of course those who are incarcerated), pro-euthanasia laws are designed to get the government to condone and participate in suicide.
Nice Strawman
I find this kind of legislation creepy as hell,but I also think medical progress/technology has gotten to the point where it's no longer treament but torture in some cases
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