Thursday, September 18, 2014

Safeguards will not protect you from physicians who are willing to take your life.

By Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Alex Schadenberg

Re: Gifford-Jones – Not all lunatics are in the asylum.

In his righteous indignation, Gifford-Jones claims in his article that:

“Nor is there any evidence that the elderly, those with disabilities or those who simply do not want to be part of assisted death, have ever been forced to seek it.”
In 2002 Belgium legalized assisted death giving doctors the right in law to lethally inject patients. Three studies concerning the experience with assisted death in Belgium clearly indicate that Gifford-Jones is wrong.

The first study found that 32% of those who died by assisted death did not request it.

The second study found that 45% of the assisted deaths that nurses were involved with, the person who died didn’t request it.

The third study found that 47.2% of all assisted deaths were not reported.

When analyzing the data, all of the studies found that those who died by an assisted death without request or without reporting it tended to be over the age of 80, incompetent to make decisions for themselves, had an unpredictable end-of-life trajectory and died in a hospital.

There is clear evidence that many elderly and incompetent people in Belgium have been killed by an assisted death without request. The act is a silent crime since the doctor negated to report it.

Don’t be swayed by the propaganda being promoted by Gifford-Jones.

Safeguards will not protect you from physicians who are willing to take your life.

This article was re-published by the Windsor Star on September 25, 2014.

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Alex! It disturbs me that you seem so disconnected from the success of the pro-euthanasia groups in the USA.

As the battle intensifies to transform our safety net of Medicare/Medicaid into a "managed care" and "managed death" scenario that will produce the legal passive euthanasia of the elderly/disabled, poor, and mentally disabled, you say nothing. Why is this?

Alex Schadenberg said...

Dear Carol:

I have spoken and written on several occasions about my concern about "managed care" and "futile care theory".

I always report in a consistent manner on all issues.

Part of the problem with this debate is that people believe that withdrawing medical treatment is euthanasia. In fact it is not.

Withdrawing basic care can be euthanasia.

Thank you for your concern.