PHYSICIAN ASSISTED SUICIDE AND "DO NOT KILL ME" CARDS
01/04/09 10:09 Filed in: Death
& Unnatural DeathLife Issues
"Hard to imagine? In Holland and Belgium right now such cards are in demand. They may become essential in the not too distant future for seniors in Quebec and other parts of Canada and the U.S. who do not want to die before their time because other people believe that killing you is in your best interest, or that you should be assisted to kill yourself.
"A majority of voters in Washington state recently approved allowing doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs on request, under certain conditions. The Death With Dignity Act that emerged is now law in the state. So Washington has become the second U.S. state to sanction assisted suicide, joining Oregon. Similar legislation is being advocated in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Mexico, Hawaii, Pennsylvania and elsewhere..."
"The Washington vote has changed things, warns Alex Schadenberg, head of Canada's Euthanasia Prevention Coalition. The idea had been turned down in earlier state votes. "I have a feeling that euthanasia and assisted suicide supporters believe they are on a roll," he says.
"The strange thing is that we do have an ominous real-life or real-death demonstration of what this kind of thing can lead to. Holland legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide three decades ago, first in practice and later by law. Advocates said it would be limited to competent adults who are terminally ill and ask to be killed. Then it was extended to competent adults with incurable illnesses or disabilities, although not terminally ill. Then it was extended to competent adults who were depressed but otherwise not physically ill. Then it was extended to incompetent adult patients like Alzheimer's sufferers, on the basis that they would have asked for death if they were competent.
"And now it is legal for doctors in Holland to kill infants, if parents agree, if they believe their patients' suffering is intolerable or incurable. This is a long way from the soothing image of an elderly person choosing with full understanding to die with dignity, assisted by compassionate relatives and friends.
"Then there are such places as Dignitas, one of the Swiss assisted-suicide clinics. An investigation by a British newspaper found that those who could afford the high fee could fly in and be killed within an hour or two. A whistle-blowing former employee said she had seen new arrivals sharing the same elevator with gurneys removing the bodies of earlier arrivals."
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Click here to email this page to a friend
|
