January 10, 2005
NOTE THE HAUNTING ECHO OF "LIFE NOT WORTHY OF BEING LIVED"?:
Dutch euthanasia law should apply to patients "suffering through living," report says (Tony Sheldon, 1/08/05, British Medical Journal)
Doctors can help patients who ask for help to die even though they may not be ill but "suffering through living," concludes a three year inquiry commissioned by the Royal Dutch Medical Association. The report argues that no reason can be given to exclude situations of such suffering from a doctor’s area of competence.
The Muslims can't take over fast enough. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 10, 2005 5:02 PM
Yeah, instead of euthanasia, it'll be beheadings, stonings, suicide bombings and the odd stabbing of a blasphemer. But oh, to remember, it will be people who "deserve" to die, not people who "want" to die...
Posted by: M. Murcek at January 10, 2005 5:29 PMThe euthanized don't want to die either.
Posted by: oj at January 10, 2005 6:05 PMI have heard one and only one good reason for "assisted suicide". It's in the form of a question:
"Are there no bridge abutments for you to drive your car into?"
Aren't people who fret about slippery slopes just so tiresome?
Posted by: Peter B at January 10, 2005 7:03 PMOJ: going from assisted suicide (i.e. murder) to homicidal suicide (i.e. murder) is not advancing the ball.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at January 10, 2005 9:45 PMThe practice of euthanasia here in Holland is not quite as cavalier as it might appear from a distance; regulations are strict, oversight is rigorous and the penalties are harsh. There is no slope.
However the simple truth remains; man's judgment cannot be trusted. So that when a man judges his suffering unbearable, he is probably wrong.
Posted by: Dutch at January 11, 2005 2:10 AMHe may be wrong but that is his choice, not that of the state and certainly not that of the boy-bonking peddlers of superstition that OJ would have us obey without question.
Posted by: Bart at January 11, 2005 7:21 AMBart -- Why are we sitting in this handbasket, and where are we going so fast?
Curious, though, where you get your standard from that "boy-bonking" is wrong. I mean, (selfishly speaking) how does it hurt you?
Posted by: Randall Voth at January 11, 2005 9:22 AMRandall:
It's embarrassing for Bart to realize the Church is the last defender of the once Jewish Decalogue.
Posted by: oj at January 11, 2005 9:31 AMRandall,
What is the role of government and what is the role of the individual? It is not the province of government to impose a purely sectarian view of assisted suicide on society as a whole. Mainline Protestantism, most forms of Judaism including my own denomination and most secular Americans believe it should be legal. When there is a dispute, the wisest course for government is to refrain from action. This is not abortion or Jim Crow, where someone else is the victim of the wrongful behavior, it is how the individual himself would choose to be treated, a strictly personal matter. You don't want assisted suicide, fine. I have chosen to have the appropriate powers of attorney drafted for myself.
OJ,
You know nothing about Jewish theology or history. Suicide in certain circumstances is appropriate, I would refer you to Masada and York. BTW, how precisely does Catholicism with its panoply of idols and fetishes and relics comport with the traditional Jewish position on the 2d Commandment?
Posted by: Bart at January 11, 2005 4:46 PM