[nickcarraway]

Evidence from Oregon suggests that doctors often decide on their own which patients, "want to committ suicide."

[dead]

He's a terminator.

[truthandlife]

If the Governor wants any kind of political life he will reject this bill.

If he accepts it he is a coward and has blood on his hands.

[nickcarraway]

ping

[cripplecreek]

I see from the local news that Dr. Kevorkian is trying to get out of prison again.

[wideawake]

Well, on life issues, Governor Schwarzenegger is marching in firm lockstep with the 20th century's most famous Austrian.

Something tells me he'll opt for evil on this issue too.

Unlebenwertiges Leben!

[blackie]

"Evidence from Oregon suggests that doctors often decide on their own which patients."

Please produce the evidence!

[Rutles4Ever]

LOL!


"Nah. Not McClintock. Arnold's going to rule like a Republican!"


LOL!


(it was plain as day...)

[madprof98]

Fresh from their stem-cell victory, the Culture of Death crowd look to score another victory for their view of humanity. And, after all, who are we to judge? (Just being sarcastic . . . )

[Carry_Okie]

I know that you've read this, but it's appropriate to this discussion (Copyright Mark Edward Vande Pol, all rights reserved): As technology progresses, there will be ever more cases presenting difficult choices about who lives and who dies. There can be no simple moral or legal answers with which to protect all fetuses from abortion any more than there are such solutions to the rest of the life and death dilemmas medical technology brings. If our society has made such a mess of a simple procedure as abortion, think of the ethical dilemmas new medical research is producing at a rate that is wildly outstripping our legal and political institutions.

The issues surrounding abortion are almost identical to a host of other medical issues where technology has provided us with a set of complex, time sensitive choices, where no matter what path is selected, the competing interests of human beings are at risk:

• Euthanasia versus forced life-extension,
• Genetic modification or selection of embryos for a better chance at successful implantation versus allowing children to be born with genetic defects or fetuses to die from immuno-incompatibility with the mother,
• In-utero procedures to preclude birth with ambiguous genitalia versus the need for sex change operations later in life,
• Life extending procedures for the extremely aged, terminally ill, or massively injured,
• The eventual integration of human and synthetic intelligence...

It will soon be possible to extend all life indefinitely. It won't be cheap. Making it a legal entitlement not only threatens our fiscal solvency, it means that somebody, somewhere in the world, dies, for lack of food, basic medicines, protection, or shelter. It's a fact that begs the moral question: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

We don't have any choice but to make life and death decisions. It sucks, but it's the job we have been given.

The commonality among these medical issues broadens the thirty-year-old battle over abortion into a discussion of how to develop the legal, moral, and administrative systems by which to make the tough decisions that come with our rapidly expanding technical ability to manipulate the entire human life cycle.

Combining these life and death issues not only puts the issue of abortion in the context in which it belongs, it broadens the number of interest groups who suddenly realize that they too have a stake in issues of life and death beyond mere sexual convenience.

So when conservatives candidates for public office are confronted with questions on abortion, it works to their advantage to point out the need to develop the decision-making processes to manage artificial manipulation of life and death in general. Such a response highlights the compassion, discipline, and clarity characteristic of conservatives as critical to bringing productive solutions to moral dilemmas.

By now it should be obvious that the existing court system is the last place to be making such decisions. The issues are too variable, technical, and urgent for that system to render just decisions. They involve the patient, the physician, and disinterested sources of legal, technical, and ethical expertise, as well as the representative of the insurance pool that pays for the procedure. There also needs to be a way that the society that lives with the outcome can place constraints on possible options. Because of their time-sensitive nature, the appeals process must necessarily be very limited.

The best way to prevent bad outcomes is preparation. Too many of us procrastinate in preparing the advanced medical directives that communicate our wishes concerning our healthcare decisions should we become incapacitated. Mandating that every citizen prepare and maintain such documents accessible to any attending physician would preclude many of these problems from ending up in the courts, prevent needless tragedies, and save an awful lot of money. A State program to assist citizens in recording and storing that information is a rational objective.

[kupia_kummi]

I think this would be a good idea if it applied to liberals who wants to commit suicide.

[Saundra Duffy]

What do you expect from a state controlled by democrats? These people also voted to fund and encourage stem cell research. This will be a battle and I'll be on the front lines.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

What happens to the guy in the hospital who hurts so bad he cries out "I wish I was dead!"

Me thinks he won't be able to retract that statement after he gets his "medication."

Will religious based hospitals have to comply or be forced out of business for refusing to kill (like abortions)?

When life is cheap and disposable the incentive to save a person is diminished. Trauma centers will be more likely to "let someone go" or procure organs from the unconscious.

If a doctor refuses to assist a suicide, will he lose hospital privileges?

If a nurse refuses to assist, will she lose her job?

If an insurance company decides a patient is too expensive, can they stop paying for care?

Yeah, great idea. The Dems know exactly what they are doing.

[Digger]

This Arnold is not gonna make it out of the primariy next election.

[tracer]

Suicide in California = a good start......

[tracer]

Suicide in California = a good start......

[DieselBoy]

This is a slippery slope that people are beginning to ride down. Where and when will it end? Next the government will extend measures like these to infants, or the disabled. Bills like this will just snowball.

I was telling my friends the same thing about Prop 71. If it was such an ingenious bill then why didnt private corporations foot the bill instead of the taxpayer??? Because the research probably wont work and 3 billion dollars that could have gone somewhere useful just got pissed away.

The state assembly is passing bills like crazy, while not fixing the deficit problem and doing nothing useful for the state.

When i read articles telling me about how the assembly is trying to pass a bill telling some chef that he cant fatten gesse for his busieness i wonder what the hell am i paying taxes for ? im just outraged.

How much longer are we going to be silent???

The state assembly and the democrats here need to be taught a lesson. They need to be taught that by doing a lot more harm than good in the Golden State then they will be punished.

Conservatives in California need to speak up! Im tired of moaning about the state government here. Instead, Im tentatively plotting to run and try to unseat one of the lefties here in my district either assemblywoman Gloria Negrete or Senator Nell Soto. I think that im going to have to take a radical approach to a problem like this because something needs to be done.

[NYer]

Euthanasia

Often disguised by the name "mercy killing," euthanasia also is a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person.

In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person (cf. EV 73).

EV John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life)

Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[Unam Sanctam]

Did he receive any catechesis at all over there in Austria?