111 terminally ill patients took their own lives in first 6 months of California right-to-die law

Los Angeles Times ^ | June 27, 2017 6:05 PM | Soumya Karlamangla

[Olog-hai]

A total of 111 people in California took their own lives using lethal prescriptions during the first six months of a law that allows terminally ill people to request life-ending drugs from their doctors, according to data released Tuesday.

A snapshot of the patients who took advantage of the law mirrors what’s been seen in Oregon, which was the first state to legalize the practice nearly two decades ago. Though California is far more diverse than Oregon, the majority of those who have died under aid-in-dying laws in both states were white, college-educated cancer patients older than 60.

The End of Life Option Act made California the fifth state in the nation to allow patients with less than six months to live to request end-of-life drugs from their doctors.

Physician-assisted deaths made up 6 out of every 10,000 deaths in California between June and December 2016, according to state data. That’s much lower than the 2016 rate in Oregon, where lethal prescriptions accounted for 37 per 10,000 deaths.

But the findings have done little to calm the debate over whether allowing doctors to prescribe lethal medications is acceptable medical practice. …

[freedumb2003]

I forgot to mention:

You are a freaking liar.

[Mrs. Don-o]

If your position is for individual autonomy, then that’s a BIG reason for the suicide laws to remain the way they are in most States: neither legalized nor medicalized nor subsidized.

People who want to kill themselves will always be able to do do. Ten minutes googling will show you 10 swell DIY methods.

But do not involve the medical, legal, or political professions. It will only corrupt them.

The medics are supposed to single mindedly promote your health. Nobody is healthier dead.

The lawyers are supposed to protect your interests .Nobody has any interests when dead.

The politicos are supposed to uphold the American ethic of justice in *res publica*, securing first of all —— first, logically and chronologically -— the inalienable right to life. Nobody has any rights when dead.

By all means, those who want to take their own lives should at least have enough self-respect to do without the entanglements of permission or assistance or consultation with the anointed “compassionate, enlightened and progressive”, kin, insurers, lawyers, legislators, ethicists, “carers” and all that lot.

Do it yourself. Don’t suborn the basic institutions of your society and don’t corrupt everyone around you.

[Mrs. Don-o]

In the Netherlands it’s legal to terminate teenagers for depression.

I am serious.

[little jeremiah]

What did I lie about?

[little jeremiah]

Absolutely! We’ve read about what goes on in Belgium, the Netherands, the UK... I remember reading that the elderly in the Netherlands are afraid to go to the doctor or hospital - they may be killed. And in Belgium children are killed just for having chronic illnesses, without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

Pure evil.

[little jeremiah]

You said what I was trying to say above, but much better.

[little jeremiah]

Okay, then you are against doctor assisted suicide? Perhaps I misread your meaning. I understood you to mean that you are in favor of doctor assisted suicide.

Are you, or are you not? Because if you are opposed to doctor assisted suicide, then I owe you a big apology.

[little jeremiah]

Oops, meant this for you:

Okay, then you are against doctor assisted suicide? Perhaps I misread your meaning. I understood you to mean that you are in favor of doctor assisted suicide.

Are you, or are you not? Because if you are opposed to doctor assisted suicide, then I owe you a big apology.

[BykrBayb]

Terri's White Rose Ping List

To be added or removed, please FReepmail BykrBayb or Little Jeremiah

[BykrBayb]

LJ, you have nothing to apologize for. You spoke the truth. FD03 has devoted a great deal of time and energy to promoting doctor prescribed death. He celebrated the forced starvation/dehydration of Terri Schiavo, and even joked about it.

[Mrs. Don-o]

“Take yourself up on the suicide suggestion” is quite a vicious thing to say.

You reveal yourself more than you know. And it’s more than a little disturbing.

[mewzilla]

In NYS, patients with dementia are still allowed to drive unless they have their privileges revoked. A diagnosis of dementia does not automatically revoke a drivers license. So the state is going to okay killing a lotta folks it still allows to drive. Go figure.

[Vaduz]

A lot of people beg for killing because the pain is so great had family who wised some body would do it because of great pain that drugs couldn’t stop when you get to that point let me know if you want to still live.

[Vaduz]

The Bible isn’t going to stop the massive pain.

[freedumb2003]

>>LJ, you have nothing to apologize for. You spoke the truth. FD03 has devoted a great deal of time and energy to promoting doctor prescribed death. <<

Show one post — ONE — where I specifically advocated doctor-prescribed death. The “Terri” issue was not even about suicide — it was about who has the legal right to decide.

Find that post or admit you are a liar, just like my original lying attacker.

[freedumb2003]

>>You reveal yourself more than you know. <<

I do not suffer lying attacks nor fools lightly. I assume if one does so here then that is their value system, one the human race can do without.

[freedumb2003]

>>Okay, then you are against doctor assisted suicide? <<

My stance has always been that the decision to end one’s life is between a person and his/her God or god.

The question about whether or not it should be doctor assisted is an entirely different topic (the anwser is too much thread drift).

But in this thread I said no such thing and I am not on record ever saying that I support doctor-assisted suicide (you won’t find it on the Terri threads as that wasn’t a suicide case).

[freedumb2003]

>>Do it yourself. Don’t suborn the basic institutions of your society and don’t corrupt everyone around you.<<

Hehe — always nice to hear from a hypocrite.

As for your support of Big Government: there should be no suicide laws. Who it involves is not a government issue — nor is it for nosy busybodies like you.

I know JR disagrees with me on this so I will say no more on the subject.

Abandoning thread.

[BykrBayb]

There is nothing hypocritical about anything Mrs. Don-o said. She said that people who are going to commit suicide should not involve others. You told someone who is opposed to suicide to commit suicide. Mrs. Don-o called you out on it. Nothing hypocritical there.

I'll tell you what is hypocritical. For over 13 years you've proselytized on the "virtues" of doctors killing their patients, but you're too much of a coward to come right out and say it. You use the dropping-turds-in-the-punchbowl method of getting your message across, and then pretend your too clever for anyone to understand what you're saying.

Mrs. D was right. You reveal yourself more than you know. And it’s more than a little disturbing.