Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Of course assisted suicide is not for the dying.

By Wesley Smith - published on his blog on September 23.

Wesley Smith
If more journalists would read this blog, they wouldn’t be surprised by these things.

The New Scientist reports that Swiss assisted suicide isn’t about terminal illness! Whaddy know? From the story:

It’s a tourism boom, but not one to crow about. The number of people travelling to Switzerland to end their lives is growing. And it seems more and more people with a non-fatal disease are making the trip. 
An ongoing study of assisted suicide in the Zurich area has found that the number of foreign people coming to the country for the purpose is rising. For example, 123 people came in 2008 and 172 in 2012. In total 611 people came over that period from 31 countries, with most coming from Germany or the UK, with 44 per cent and 21 per cent of the total respectively. 
Neurological diseases, only some of which are fatal, were given as the reason for 47 per cent of assisted suicides for the years 2008 to 2012, up from 12 per cent in a similar study of the same region between 1990 and 2000. Rheumatic or connective tissue diseases, generally considered non-fatal, such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, accounted for 25 per cent of cases in the new study.
Of course this is happening. It can’t not happen! Once a society accepts the premise that killing is an acceptable answer to human suffering, the definition of “suffering” that justifies killing continually expands.

And notice that the virus is catching. In the UK, for example, the discussion isn’t about how to prevent these suicides by tourism, but to legalize assisted suicide so people don’t have to leave home to be made dead.

But that’s not happening here, Wesley! That’s debatable, but here’s the thing: The USA is still wary about the suicide agenda. If we ever embrace it as a society, we too will experience the free fall off the moral cliff. It’s simple logic.

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