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| Wesley Smith |
By Wesley Smith
Whoa! Don’t tell me that euthanasia doesn’t lead off a vertical moral cliff: A recent survey of Netherlander MD general practitioners found that very high percentages would kill cancer patients, and 1/3 would be willing to euthanize the mentally ill. From the PsychCentral story:
For mental illness, only 34 percent would consider helping the patient die, and 40 percent would help someone with early-stage dementia to die. The rate was slightly lower for late-stage dementia, at 33 percent.
Only?! Good grief.
Once killing is accepted as a proper answer to human suffering, there are no brakes.
By the way, 42 mentally ill patients were euthanized in the Netherlands in 2013 most recent year for which statistics are available, as psychiatrists up their participation as a “liberation” for the patient and the doctors. Also, nearly 100 early stage dementia patients. And those are the ones reported. How many were killed surreptitiously cannot be known.
How do you spell euthanasia? A.B.A.N.D.O.N.M.E.N.T.
1 comment:
BTW Wes, the Supreme Court of Canada has declared the laws against assisted suicide to be unconstitutional and given Parliament a year to "fix" the problem.
As someone with cerebral palsy, with severe chronic pain and depression, this concerns me. My pain is not currently under control. To make matters worse, I had to fight for further pain control after my leg got fractured during a nursing home lift. Most psychiatrists don't realize you can't pick suicide like a Baskin-Robbins flavour of the week. Most people with depression don't either. Even when I get that bad, I want to know I have an ethical team backing me uo, and I don't mean Peter Singer ethics. And you think that someone can think "rationally" about suicide when they are in so much pain all night long they want to chop their foot off? Thankfully, I have video game therapy, but my nights are still harrowing when the pain gets bad. It is not "normal" for someone to be depressed. But if Canada legalizes assisted suicide. then my trust in the medical system is going to sink to negative digits, when I need mental health support and am nowhere near to seeing a pain clinic. As for Singer, if he is so interested in making love to the animals, he can start with a hungry lion. Then we can debate his "personhood" all he likes. If he's really lucky, the lion will have left enough of his "lover" for the organ donation people.
Thanks for writing your articles. At least someone is standing up for us.
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