Posted on 05/08/2011 12:05:12 PM PDT by wagglebee
Suicide drugs could be available over the counter in chemists if assisted suicide is legalised, two of Britain’s top legal and medical experts have warned.
Weakening the law could open the way for nurses and pharmacists to prescribe drugs to help people kill themselves, according to a report by Lord Carlile QC and Baroness Finlay.
The report, commissioned by think-tank Living and Dying Well, also warned that legalising assisted suicide could lead to state agencies being set up to decide whether or not people should be helped to die.
Doctor shopping
Lord Carlile, the Government-appointed independent assessor of terror legislation, and Baroness Finlay, Professor of Palliative Care at Cardiff University, are co-chairs of Living and Dying Well.
The report cautions that assisted suicide rules currently being pushed by campaigners would lead to “doctor shopping”, where patients wanting to die or facing pressure to die would go from doctor to doctor in a bid to find one willing to help.
It also warns that if doctors were given legal powers to provide drugs to help patients die, such powers would also be extended to nurses and pharmacists.
Warning
“There is no reason why, if assisted dying were ever to be legalised, lethal drugs could not be prescribed by a physician, nurse or pharmacist, acting outside the parameters of health care.”
The report states that prescriptions might be written by those “under contract to an official assessment agency”.
It warned: “Embedding ‘assisted dying’ in health care could easily encourage patients who are less than wholehearted about the project to suppose that it is like any other medical treatment, that it is being offered for their good and that, notwithstanding any reservations they may feel about it, it is probably for the best – otherwise why would any doctor agree to proceed with it?”
Vulnerable
In October a report from a leading think-tank warned that the weakest members of society will be most at risk if the law on assisted suicide is changed.
Cristina Odone’s report for the Centre for Policy Studies cautioned that such a change could lead some of society’s most defenceless members to feel that they have an obligation to end their lives.
The report cautioned: “As assisted suicide becomes embedded in our culture, investing resources in caring for these vulnerable groups will be seen as a waste: they’ll be gone."
The "right" to die will quickly become a "duty" to die.
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There, fixed it.
And these folks are terrified of guns?
bttt
And these folks are terrified of guns?
Or a gas stove?.
“Suicide drugs could be available over the counter in chemists if assisted suicide is legalised, two of Britain’s top legal and medical experts have warned. “
So.... If you decide not to use Doctor Approved suicide drugs, and instead make your own or buy something illegal to commit suicide with, what will your punishment be?
I mean, you are dead, so...
PLUS, we are on the path to killing ourselves with drugs legally, but we can’t PLEASE/STIMULATE ourselves with drugs illegally.
UK slowly turning into that Star Trek TNG episode where scientist at age of 60 have go home to died and they give party to dude and Luxanna Troi Deanna Troi mom fell in the love with the guy
Suicide drugs could be available over the counter.
What could go wrong?teenagers come to mind.
UK slowly turning into that Star Trek TNG episode where scientist at age of 60 have go home to died and they give party to dude and Luxanna Troi Deanna Troi mom fell in the love with the guy
UK slowly turning into that Star Trek TNG episode where scientist at age of 60 have go home to died and they give party to dude and Luxanna Troi Deanna Troi mom fell in the love with the guy
Actually, murder drugs are available in your own home already.
Drink some antifreeze. It's sweet tasting as well.
Sounds like a great way to off someone.
Sooo, don’t like your husband? Go to the pharmacy and get a home suicide potion and put it in his spagetti.
Honest, he was depressed, despondant and offed himself officer.
Exactly what I was thinking. We don’t sell cyanide at the grocery store. Why? Because some people would buy it and poison their landlord. So, if they sell “suicide drugs” overt the counter, how many murders will take place?
Replace the word 'suicide drugs' with guns, and you have the hoplophobe's logic of blaming the tool, rather than the person using the tool for a crime.
That aside, legalising assisted suicide is very bad. It will indeed morph into a duty to die, especially in today's economic climate, the idea that the old and sick should kill themselves will become irresistible. We'd be moving into a brave new world if we put a foot on that slope...
I am opposed to legalized euthanasia for a number of reasons:
*Too easy for it to be abused
*How do you decide who lives and dies?
*Otherwise healthy people with no serious problems might die
Frankly, I believe that if you wish to kill yourself, you may do so (your business), but don’t expect others to do it for you.
Also if you want life support turned off or don’t want to be resuscitated or want to refuse medical treatment, that should be your decision to make and no one else’s. You alone know what’s best for you.
No one ask us if we want to come into this world,but, while we are here we are expected to live by everyone elses rules, but, we are told we can not leave if we want to.You will never stop someone intent on taking their own life, they will find a way.Murder is no different, if you want someone dead, you can always find a way. As a matter of fact, some suicides may prevent a murder later on if you think about it.
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