Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Letter sent to Idaho paper concerning murder-suicide

I was cleaning up my email and found this article that I recently sent to the Couer D'Alene press in Idaho.

 Re: Idaho doctors can offer a compassionate option, June 25, 2010

 Dear Editor:

I am the Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, and Chair for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, International. I was dismayed to see that Kathryn Tucker, Legal Director for the suicide lobby group, Compassion & Choices, is now targeting your state to legalize assisted suicide. Moreover, her column, suggesting that legalization will prevent murder-suicide, is spurious.

Donna Cohen
According to Donna Cohen, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, the typical murder-suicide case involves a depressed controlling husband who shoots his ill wife. "The wife does not want to die and is often shot in her sleep. If she was awake at the time, there are usually signs that she tried to defend herself." http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=50782

The typical wife in these cases does not “choose” her death. She is a victim of spousal abuse. Legal assisted suicide, regardless, fails to guarantee “choice.” These laws instead empower doctors, family members and new “best friends” to legally pressure people to take their lives. http://wsba.org/media/publications/barnews/jul-09+deathwithdignity.htm

In Canada, a bill that would have legalized assisted-suicide was recently defeated in our Parliament, 228 to 59. When I spoke with lawmakers who voted against the bill, many voiced the opinion that our government’s efforts should be focused on helping our citizens live with dignity, rather than developing strategies to get them out of the way.

 Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Box 25033 London ON, Canada, N6C 6A8
1-877-439-3348, info@epcc.ca

 Link to the original article: http://cdapress.com/columns/my_turn/article_ed885905-9ec9-5f4b-acf3-97063cb5f2de.html
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1 comment:

  1. Bradley Williams, MTJuly 28, 2010 at 1:21 PM

    We should respect the individual’s right to refuse treatment or to forbid life-support systems by a prior directive and to be allowed to die.
    Otherwise, any attempt to legalize assisted-suicide opens the door for elder/disabled abuse and future legislation that would deny our individual rights and the freedom of many.
    The promotion of assisted-suicide “is part of a broader movement for human rights and social justice”, according to Compassion & Choices; which is a progressive organization with roots in the 1930’s progressive-eugenics movement in America. Just Google it! It is a tired old foundation of a humanistic-religious doctrine that in the 40’s both the extreme left (Communism/Socialism) and right (Fascism) demonstrated the progressive-humanistic-religious doctrine of disposal and de-personhood with social justice, all for the “good of the collective or State”.
    Social justice is the government imposing on the individual. Equal justice is the individual limiting the government.
    Let us stand firm on equal justice under the law and not allow the government a means to void our individual rights. All the while we should continue to apply the Gospel to situations of suffering and depression as opportunities to help, encourage and provide hope.

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