God love Wesley Smith for keeping up with our suicide obsessed world these days. It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it…I guess. It’s getting a little ridiculous. A few highlights, though not particularly high, in no particular order:
–British TV aired a documentary on one man’s journey to Switzerland for an assisted suicide. The doc apparently included video footage of his death.
–A Montana judge ruled in favor of doctor assisted suicide making it the third suicide-friendly State in the U.S. See also: Montana Assisted Suicide Decision Reads Very Much Like Right to Death on Demand, Montana Court Ruling on Assisted Suicide: Sweet Mystery of Life at Last I’ve Found You or Coup d’ Culture? and this little gem: Montana Assisted Suicide Advocate Made Up Quote by Plaintiff. Ironically, the man who brought on this case, the terminally ill Robert Baxter, died the day of the court ruling.
—Assisted Suicide Advocates Don’t Really Want Meaningful “Safeguards”. Just as a good many of the abortion supporters want abortion available and legal for everyone without restrictions of any kind (i.e. a 24 hr. waiting period), assisted suicide advocates are looking for the same kind of unfettered access to suicide services. Compassion and Choices lawyer Kathryn Tucker, who was instrumental in helping to establish a right to assisted suicide in OR, praised the “less restrictive” Montana court ruling and called restrictions like Oregon’s 15 day waiting period for patients seeking an assisted suicide “unduly burdensome.”
–A Scottish Parliment member has introduced a bill to give children 12 years of age and younger the “right” to assisted suicide. The bill would also not limit legal suicide help to those who are terminally ill, but for “patients who unexpectedly became incapacitated to an ‘intolerable’ degree, or who simply find their life ‘intolerable.'”
–And finally: A non-terminal elderly man was killed at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. Despite being a cancer survivor and having no terminal illness, 90 year old “Chris” had been plotting his death for two years because of his “deteriorating health,” otherwise known as old age.
What these stories suggest is that sanctity of life advocates are not far off when we talk about the slippery slopes that exist when killing is accepted in certain circumstances to relieve human suffering. As assisted suicide advocate and well respected British philosopher Lady Warnock acknowledges, “Once that principle is accepted it is irrational to confine it to those who are terminally ill.” It is her opinion that anyone who is suffering terribly or feels they are a burden to their family, or the state, should have the right to ask others to help them kill themselves, or even do it on their behalf. In the end that’s just what we’ll get if we continue on this path of radical individualism and misguided compassion with a utilitarian view of human life.
One Comment on “Suicide for Everyone – On Demand!”
I just want to puke when I read stuff like this. How can people be so dedicated to killing? I makes me sick. It starts out as a voluntary thing. But the slippery slope always takes it away from free choice to doctors or other interested parties choosing for the patient. Do you really think Terri Schivo had a choice? How do we know she would choose death? We only have her husband’s word for it. Her parents and siblings tell another story about what she wanted. There is even a possibility that her husband caused her condition, by beating her. But because of a pro-death bias, the judges ruled in the husband’s favor-in other words, for Terri’s death; and against her parents, who wanted to care for her.
The media slanted the news in favor of the pro-death side. (By the way: death by starvation and dehydration is not pleasant way to go. In fact the person suffers a lot before they die. It is so inhumane that it has been outlawed internationally as a method of execution for criminals. But if your only crime is being too handicapped to stand up for yourself, then it’s good enough for you. And they try to pretend that the push for these things is done out of compassion for the victim–ooopps–I mean patient.
Give me a break. It is to save money and make life more convenient for those of us who are more fortunate. It also gives some people a sense of god-like power when they decide who lives and who dies. Tragically, that gives some people a thrill.
I read that Kansas senator, Mark Gilstrap, has changed parties, from Democrat to Republican, because of the abortion issue. Good for him. I also have switched parties from Democrat to Republican. It is because of three big issues: abortion, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. There are other smaller issues, but these three issues are the main reasons why I am no longer a Democrat. It was a heavy thing for me to change parties. I have been a Democrat most of my adult life, and was sympathetic to the Democratic party from childhood. And my parents were Democrats before me. So switching to the Republicans was not a decision that I made lightly. But with the recent stands that the Democrats have taken on life issues, I feel that this is the right choice at this time.
(Then I noticed that I really like Sarah Palin. Another good reason to be a Republican.)