Monday, April 1, 2024

Assisted dying advocates are losing their "compassion"

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I never believe that the euthanasia lobby is compassionate. I believe that the euthanasia lobby tries to use compassion to sell death.

Ashley Frawley
Ashley Frawley, a sociologist and a columnist, responded in Unherd, on March 31, 2024 to an article 
by Matthew Parris that was published in the Times on March 29, 2024 entitled: “We can’t afford a taboo on assisted dying.” Frawley explains:
Parris attempts to deal with what he feels is the strongest argument held by opponents of assisted dying — that the terminally ill would be pressured to hasten the ends of their lives. He greets this possibility with open arms: “I believe this will indeed come to pass. And I would welcome it.” You see, there are simply too many old and infirm and it should be their social duty to ask themselves, “How much is all this costing relatives and the health service?
Frawley continues:
For decades, campaigners for assisted dying have hidden behind calls for compassion, dignity and autonomy. Only sometimes did they let the odd quip about certain lives being “unaffordable” slip out. Usually, advocates shy away from a macabre calculus between life and the bottom line. But for Parris, slashing this taboo is progressive: “It will become common practice to pose the question without embarrassment, and to weigh the answer up.”
Frawley then explains that people with disabilities and people living in poverty are already dying by euthanasia in Canada. She writes:
People are requesting MAiD not because they want to die but because they can no longer afford to live. And incredibly, a growing portion of Canadians have no qualms offering MAiD to those whose only “affliction” is poverty. Academics suggest withholding MAiD from victims of injustice only causes “further harm”, since those injustices probably aren’t going away any time soon.

At first I thought that Parris just wasn’t considering the fact that legislation inevitably expands in these ways. Initially stringent safeguards inevitably fall on grounds of discrimination, pushing more and more groups into its purview. Urging the terminally ill to hasten their demise lest they be a “burden” on their families and society is bad enough.

But Parris doesn’t seem to mind the idea that it would eventually expand and come to be “seen as the normal road for many to take, and considered socially responsible — and even, finally, urged upon people”. He doesn’t qualify this last “people” with “terminally ill”. This is precisely what’s happening in Canada. It is not an example we should wish to follow.
Recently I spoke in England, Scotland, The Isle of Man and Jersey about Canada's experience with euthanasia. Politicians, in these jurisdictions were already lobbied by the euthanasia lobby to give the talking point that what is happening in Canada will not happen there. Frawley explains that though Parris is suggesting that what is happening in Canada will happen in the British Isles, he supports euthanasia.

Frawley then concludes her article by stating:
I am glad for arguments like Parris’s that lay bare what the debate about assisted dying is really about. It’s not about compassion and it’s not about autonomy. It’s about hastening the demise not just of the terminally ill, but of the subject that was born with all the hopes of the future in front of it.
The comments by Matthew Parris are eerily accurate. It reveals how the euthanasia debate has changed from arguing that killing will only be an option for terminally ill people who are suffering to acknowledging that euthanasia will expand to wider populations, including poor people. And as Parris acknowledges, the death lobby wants even more death.

6 comments:

SEA STOPPER (TM) said...

Frawley's suicide-death solution perspective is isolated to his own mind. His philosophy of death advocacy encroaches on temporary or permanent weaker minds and supports entitlement to life for the "well to do".
I suggest he try his own solution and please let us know the results.

SEA STOPPER (TM) said...

To help prevent a singular "Crime Against Humanity"; those targeted by the euthanasia philosophy from the rich and well-to-do, including Bill Gates; should in addition to the Bible's Moses Ten Commandments the following 10 DAILY AFFIRMATIONS :

I am a worthy and deserving person.

Today is going to be a great day!

I wake up each morning feeling confident and empowered.

A beautiful day begins with a beautiful mindset.

I am limitless. Yes, I can do it.

I am surrounded by wealth and abundance.

Everyday, in every way, I am better and better.

I believe in me.

My thoughts create my reality.

I accept all blessings, love, and happiness into my life.

Brad Mattes said...

Alex, is there a time when their public arrogance and extremism will go too far and the good people of Canada will reject it entirely?

Alex Schadenberg said...

With every crazy story of people being approved for death by lethal poison, when they were poor, or homeless, or on a waiting list for effective treatment, the more people wake up. The problem is that people fear a bad death and the other side continues with the messaging that either you are approved to be killed or you will suffer.

As you know, people don't need to suffer uncontrolled pain and symptoms but people are made to fear that they will.

Anonymous said...

My 94 year old Mother, bright, aware, still an asset to all her family, chose to end her life. I encouraged her not to, that I would miss her contributions.
Not terminally ill, but isolated by the B.C./Canada Government of "Be Kind, take your poison shot without protest nor informed consent", be alone without human comfort, she was supported in her unwise decision by other family members, many of whom stood to gain from my Mother's death.
It brought to the forefront one of my Mother's favorite incantations, "The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions.

Unknown said...

How old are you, Ashley Frawley? 40 maybe? Have you ever had to fight for your own life, or the life of another? It all changes when you fight your way back against all odds. Then when you do, and some younger whippersnapper looks at your faulted gait and says, "I couldn't live like that! I'd rather die!"
We disabled and elderly are tougher than that. We don't put the gloves back in the locker and toss in the towel. It's not over 'til the last bell of the last round, and God is the timekeeper. If that makes no sense, then you have lived a poor life and I do not envy you, even if I need my service dog or cane to walk.
Ashley, don't pass your inadequacies off on others, thank you, as you devalue my personal victories. Are you so arrogant and entitled in your life that those of us who are still here should make room for you? What have you accomplished so far, and to what useless end do you make the assertion of such cheap talk? I am through being nice on this kind of presumption. I am not a violent person, but your proposal of covert violence does not deserve a euphemistically flavored additive.

Deacon William Gallerizzo