"Hey! A little credit, please!"
Posted on 03/31/2012 1:24:05 PM PDT by wagglebee
On March 27th , the government of Switzerland released a report on the practice of assisting suicide with a dramatic conclusion: five out of every 1,000 resident deaths now involve assisting suicide. Swiss authorities recorded a steady rise of assisted suicides over the decade that records were kept.
While assisting suicide is legal in only a tiny handful of jurisdictions both in the U.S. and abroad, the Swiss practice operates extra-legally. Assisting suicide in Switzerland is technically illegal, but the law on the matter punishes only those with selfish motives–which has turned out to be nearly impossible to prove in Swiss courts. This has, in practice, led to a system where anyone can assist in a suicide with no essentially no restriction on who can utilize suicide.
There is data that shows those with treatable depression or even dementia frequently die from assisted suicide. Assisting suicide occurs for nearly any reason, and is certainly not thought of in Switzerland as an “option of last resort.”
According to the Swiss report, “Assisted suicide is resorted to when life no longer appears worth living for the person concerned, in particular due to a serious physical illness.” This sort of standardless direction from the government has made Switzerland attractive to outside groups who promote suicide. Over the past decades, “suicide tourism” had become a booming business in Switzerland, where groups (primarily Dignitas) arrange trips for potential suicide candidates.
The Swiss report figures were reported to have been compiled as part of a government effort to reel in these suicide tourism groups. However, the culture of death in Switzerland has become so pervasive that 84% of voters rejected a ban on assisted suicide last May, and 78% rejected restricting the suicide tourism.
Meanwhile, in the U.S. a report from the Oregon Department of Health showed a similar trend. In the state where the practice of assisted suicide enters its 15th year, there were more prescriptions and deaths than in any previous year.
From 2010-2011, the number of lethal prescriptions written increased from 97 to 114, and the reported deaths increased from 65 to 71. Over at “Physician-Assisted Suicides in Oregon Increasing in Number with Less Information” is an analysis of the report by the Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Foundation.
PCCEF notes among other disturbing trends that “some individuals had the prescription for longer than a year before ingesting the drugs, far longer than the law’s 6-months life expectancy guidelines” – in one case for 872 days, that only one “patient” was referred for psychiatric evaluation even though a department study had shown 25% of those requesting assisted suicide to be depressed, and that, contrary to general public assumptions, most of the victims were not motivated by any concern about adequate pain control.
This practice of doctor-prescribed death is only legal in a few jurisdictions including Oregon, Washington, and potentially the state of Montana, where the practice may have some legal protection. Even so, the main pro-assisted suicide lobby group, Compassion and Choices was promoting doctor prescribed death in many states. Most recently, the Vermont legislature, in a hard fought battle headed by a coalition of disability rights groups, has killed a bill to legalize the practice. In nearby Massachusetts, despite opposition by the state medical association, disability rights, church and pro-life groups, doctor prescribed death will appear on the 2012 ballot as an initiative question.
(See “Physician-Assisted Suicides in Oregon Increasing in Number and with Less Information.”)
Your feedback is very important to improving National Right to Life News Today. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha
And this is what the culture of death wants to see EVERYWHERE.
Western society has become in love with death both individually and collectively.
Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
People don’t like to admit it, but a lot of hospice care in the US consists of slowly upping the morphine dosage each day until the patient dies. It’s “sold” as the alleviation of suffering, but it’s basically “putting the patient to sleep”.
“Western society has become in love with death both individually and collectively.”
It is more likely the love of money; we will defray the costs of not just medical care but also elderly care by simply eliminating the source of the costs.
Yjhe love od death is probably due to Western vice addiction. There is precedent found in earlier societies-see for example Livy discussing his people in his introduction to his History. Love of money before life is a vice.
Kill ‘em in the womb and kill the suvivors when they hit the rest homes.
It’s a liberal thing.
If it’s assisted, is it really suicide?
It’s common practice I’d seen in Southern California. If a care provider admits a elderly with stage II (locally advanced) cancer, COPD, CHF with DNR, a sealed comfort pack or so called comfort solution put aside for the cancer patient, a Dr Kevorkian or nurse Kevorkian or caregiver Kevorkian or next of kin will give final solution to the dying patient if needed. I’d seen it because they asked my wife to give the final solution to a dying patient which she refused, somebody else did instead... :-)
If a elderly with DNR admitted to the hospital, he/she will never go back home unless the family will override the DNR.
I know some people I’d like to see commit suicide - so it’s ok if I help them (whether they want my help or not)?
I know some people I’d like to see commit suicide - so it’s ok if I help them (whether they want my help or not)?
"Hey! A little credit, please!"
“Love of money before life is a vice.”
Absolutely
If I’m in constant pain, can’t speak/write and will forever need assistance just to eat slop and change my diaper, I hope someone is kind enough to keep raising my dose.
I worked in a hospice and the above is far, far more frightening to me than death. Even scarier is when such patients are force fed while obviously trying to say “let me die”.
I think it should be allowed in some cases. At the very least, through a living will.
If I’m in constant pain, can’t speak/write and will forever need assistance just to eat slop and change my diaper, I hope someone is kind enough to keep raising my dose.
I worked in a hospice and the above is far, far more frightening to me than death. Even scarier is when such patients are force fed while obviously trying to say “let me die”.
I think it should be allowed in some cases. At the very least, through a living will.
I don't especially like the idea of assisted suicide. Upping the morphine dose for a patient in hospice is not quite assisted suicide, it's more like euthanasia, and I'm not really a fan of that either.
However, I am on record that I do not think anyone is obligated to use all medical assistance which is offered to them. Chemotherapy? If you want it, fine. If you just want to go home and die, that should also be OK. A lot of people are kept alive through dialysis, blood transfusions, or IVs. Again: nothing wrong with that. But if you want to stop the IV, then I don't see that as suicide, I see it as choosing not to purchase additional medical services.
Long, lingering, painful, death does not seem good to me. There are several possible alternatives and, as I said, I would not want to make anyone's decision for them. What irks me is legal/societal rules that close off certain options and force people to die slowly in impersonal institutions where pain and isolation may be overwhelming and the road may seem to stretch on forever.
Who? That prince from Kenya? Oppps, just kidding, LOL....:-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
