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| Alex Schadenberg |
By Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Gifford-Jones in his recent tirade on "assisted death" attacks people who
oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide as do-gooders offering "howling and
irrational fears".
Yet Gifford-Jones is the one who howls when he states that in places where
euthanasia and assisted suicide are permitted: "The blunt fact is that history
shows there have been no abuses."
Were the researchers who published the 5 year meta-analysis of the Dutch
euthanasia law in 2012 irrational when they found that 23% of all assisted
deaths were not reported? How irrational were the researchers who
published findings that 47%
of all assisted deaths in the Flanders region of Belgium were not
reported?
Is it only the do-gooders who are concerned by the 2010 study that found
that 32%
of assisted deaths in Belgium were done without request?
I guess that Gifford-Jones would like us to turn a blind eye when an
Italian
man, with a botched diagnosis is killed by assisted death in
Switzerland or when the Netherlands approves euthanasia for newborns
with disabilities.
The only irrational howling I have heard is from Gifford-Jones.
Links to:
- Belgium is moving closer to allowing euthanasia of children.
- Euthanasia is out-of-control in the Netherlands.
Links to:
- Belgium is moving closer to allowing euthanasia of children.
- Euthanasia is out-of-control in the Netherlands.
Is it your position that assisted dying is never an option for anyone under any circumstances? If so how do you sleep at night?
ReplyDeleteHave not read that anywhere Tony. No need for any sleep to be lost.
Delete32% without request? That figure is almost certainly less than the quantity of deaths without request in Canada (where no safeguards exist).
ReplyDeleteIf we include the cases of terminal sedation without consent (which I argue we should, since hastening death and causing death are one and the same), the incidence of non-voluntary and involuntary euthanasia would be far higher.