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Posted on 03/16/2012 6:17:40 PM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
Dr. Peter Goodwin killed himself this week. He took advantage of Oregon’s 15-year-old assisted-suicide law, which allows residents of the Beaver State to score a legal dose of drugs by obtaining a prescription from an enabling physician.
Goodwin happened to be one of the first physicians to voice support for Oregon’s euphemistically titled “Death With Dignity Act,” which took effect in late 1997.
“I don’t think we would have aid in dying in Oregon without Dr. Goodwin,” said Barbara Coombs Lee, who worked closely with the former family physician to get the law the passed.
Indeed, the late Dr. Goodwin’s legacy is nearly 600 assisted suicides over the past decade and a half, including the record 71 souls who took their own lives in 2011, according to a report this month by the Oregon Public Health Division.
In an interview with National Public Radio, Coombs Lee, who heads an outfit, Compassion and Choices, which helps patients and doctors learn how to use Oregon’s assisted suicide law, complained that it’s unfair to say that a person who takes his or her own life committed “suicide” if their death is imminent and inevitable.
“Would we say that the people who jumped from the World Trade Center committed suicide?” she asked. “I wouldn’t, because the fire was in their face and they chose a different kind of death.”
That’s the kind of specious reasoning that provides the dubious intellectual and ethical underpinnings of Oregon’s assisted suicide law. It is on a par with the argument of abortion-rights advocates that taking the life of a pre-born child is not infanticide because the child has not emerged from his or her mother’s womb.
What particularly troubles about Oregon’s assisted suicide law is that it is almost as easy for a person to obtain a lethal dose of drugs – Dr. Goodwin reportedly swallowed a fast-acting barbiturate prescribed by his doctor – as it is in Californiato obtain a doctor’s prescription for “medicinal” marijuana.
There is little doubt that some of those who took advantage of Oregon’s assisted suicide law really weren’t six months away from the grave. There also is little doubt that some of those who took their lives suffered from depression or other mental issues.
Yet, the Public Health Division’s annual report revealed that only one of the 71 individuals who died by physician assisted suicide last year was referred to a psychiatrist or psychologist for formal evaluation. Moreover, doctors who prescribed fatal doses of drugs were present for the deaths of only six of those who took their own lives.
One needn’t be a pro-life Christian to find Oregon’s assistant suicide law morally repugnant. There is no “dignity” in artificially hastening the death of those diagnosed as terminally ill.
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Note GeronL's comment:
It ain’t “suicide” if someone else is involved.
Exactly so. Encouraging, enable and "assisting" people to kill themselves is being an accessory to murder.
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If anyone wants to kill themselves nothing and no one can stop them. Suicide has occurred since the beginning of time. Roping in the medical profession is gravely wrong and inevitably leads to “suicide” that was not requested, as is common in the Netherlands and Belgium. Now they’re offing children, the mentally ill, and the elderly - people who have NOT asked to die. If a terminally ill person is ready to die, all they have to do is stop eating and drinking, which occurs normally as a person’s body shuts down.
There are plenty of pain medications that can ease pain, it’s called “comfort care”. I’m sure that there are some available even for people with allergies.
Get the government and medical profession as far away as possible from the “killing people” business, whether it’s at the beginning of life or at the end. BTW I watched my mother die from cancer too, she was under the care of hospice and died at home. It was of course not ultra pleasant but she was well taken care of. That’s life. There is no getting around a certain amount of pain, happens all throughout life for some of us.
If anyone wants to kill themselvse, it’s their business. But it should not be the job of the medical profession or government to take a hand in the killing business, other than court ordered executions.
Excellent post lj!
I have witnessed a number of deaths, or knew the people well. A couple of pretty good friends died in their 50s, mostly of cancer, a good friend died last year from Hep C liver failure, he was 60.
I’ve also volunteered for a hospice. I’ve studied up on the topic, and it’s natural that as people near the end of their earthly sojourn, the body starts to shut down (that is if they aren’t dying from an accident or some ailment or condition that happens quite fast), and the need for food and water diminishes; they lose their hunger and then thirst. It’s nature’s way of easing their departure. Of course someone who still wants to eat and drink should NEVER EVER be encouraged or pressured or prevented from taking nutrition!!!!
In my mother’s case, I tempted her with easy to eat foods and drinks I knew she liked, like mashed potates, corn bread, and hot ovaltine. Her appetite just naturally got less and less until she would only take a couple of sips or bites and didn’t want any more.
The hospice nurses came more frequently towards the end of her mortal life and helped in many ways.
There are so many reasons why it is best to let nature take its course, but for this particular angle - doctors assisted “suicide” - the inevitable result of murder of the “unfit” is paramount. In Germany in the 30s the first killings were “mercy” killings of those whose lives were not worthy - after all, who would want to be disabled, mentally retarted, in pain, and so on? That’s how it starts. Ends in the ovens and ravines.
Hmmmm...wonder how many voted absentee before they offed themselves.
I agree. Dr’s should not be forced or put in the equasion. The government should not be placed in the equasion either.
We had no, repeat NO option/say as far as IV drip and what was placed in her body during her last days. She was located in a hospice, not run by the city/county/state/fed gov. It was a privately run facility. We had no options as to where she went. I would not ask any person whom I knew had a moral compunction to ending the suffering.
I would wish no one to have their last time on earth to suffer. When I spoke of this to others, some told me this is natural/normal and it happens this way for some, for whatever reason. My response usually,was that I believe that god in heaven would not want any of his children to suffer. And I know I certainly don’t want any human to suffer like that.
Now back to the story.......
What would you do? Hypothetically.
Or we can drop the subject and wait until the next human gets to experience what my mother went through. And the aftermath/debate on end of life issues.
Off to church. Good day Friend
My mother in law died from cancer 15 years ago. Mercifully, she had just a couple days at the very end which were tough. I gave her what was to be her final dose of morphine early one morning and she slipped away while everyone else was sleeping.
Now, after experiencing that I still voted against the "death with dignity" law. I am particularly against government being involved in that decision but I'm sure that before the law, such events were quietly arranged. I would be happy to have left it at that. The law codifies a practice best left out of the sphere of public/government influence.
They are being tormented by the dragon now and will be until eternity. Do not kill says the commandment.
I thought hospice was supposed to administer morphine
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