January 18, 2006
SPEAKING OF LOCATION... (via Brian Boys):
Woman pleaded: I want hitman to kill me (Keith Hunt, 1/17/06, Kent Online)
A 53-year-old woman was so depressed and desperate to end her life that she agreed to pay a friend to arrange for a hitman to kill her, a court heard.Christine Ryder ended up handing over a total of £20,000 to Kevin Reeves after he agreed to murder her himself.
But Reeves, 40, of Saltings Road, Snodland, near Rochester, failed to keep his side of the bargain and she shopped him to the police.
Now he has been jailed for 15 months after being convicted of deception.
A judge told the married father: "While it is clear you had no intention of arranging for someone to kill Mrs Ryder and didn’t propose to yourself, you deceived her into believing it would happen."
...if you want to get money by preying on someone who's temporarily depressed you've got to go to Oregon.
MORE:
Fraught Issue, but Narrow Ruling in Oregon Suicide Case (TIMOTHY EGAN and ADAM LIPTAK, 1/18/06, NY Times)
The Supreme Court's ruling was...notably focused and technical. It did not address whether there is a constitutional right to die. It did not say that Congress was powerless to override state laws that allow doctors to help their patients end their lives.It said only that a particular federal law, the Controlled Substances Act, which is mainly concerned with drug abuse and illegal drug trafficking, had not given John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, the authority to punish Oregon doctors who complied with requests under the state's law. The law allows mentally competent, terminally ill patients to ask their doctors for lethal drugs.
Meaning they'll get another bite at the apple soon, with at least one of the majority gone. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 18, 2006 9:07 AM
...if you want to get money by preying on someone who's temporarily depressed you've got to go to Oregon.
With the non-stop rain we've had here lately we may ALL be at risk.
Posted by: John Resnick at January 18, 2006 11:00 AMIf you can't find a way (or the courage) to off yourself and not take anyone else with you in the process, then you deserve to live.
Raoul:
There is nothing courageous about offing yourself.
Posted by: Vince at January 18, 2006 7:22 PMThen that makes it even more reprehensible&38212; to want someone else to do your ultimate dirty work for you, whether that person is a doctor or a hitman.
Temporary depression is by definition self-correcting, given the mandatory cooling-off period in the Oregon law. Chronic depression is a disqualifying condition. We ain't perfect, but we've thought this through rather carefully.
Posted by: ghostcat at January 18, 2006 9:32 PMYou're preying on the ill--of course they're depressed.
Posted by: oj at January 18, 2006 9:54 PMWe flew the same ever-decreasing concentric circles the last time we discussed this. You insist that only the depressed would chose to take their own lives, by definition. I disagree.
Posted by: ghostcat at January 18, 2006 10:06 PMAh, you can't discuss what's actually going on, can you? No one says they can't take their own lives--how would we stop them?
Posted by: oj at January 18, 2006 10:15 PM[cue sound: crickets]
Posted by: John Resnick at January 18, 2006 11:09 PMJiminy returns to oversimplify the Oregon law ...
(1)Mentally-competent, terminally-ill patient asks the doc for a potentially-fatal prescription.(2)After a cooling-off period, the doc writes prescription. (3)Pharmacist fills prescription. (4)Patient chooses whether and when to take fatal dose.
Neither the doc nor the pharmacist kills the patient. They DO provide the "ammo" for the gun. Most patients who get the prescription (I think I have this right) eventually choose to die a natural death.
Most Oregonians (2/3)find this scenario reasonable, and acceptance increases with education and income levels. We understand that we can kill ourselves pretty much whenever we like. We'd rather it be dignified and unmessy.
Posted by: ghostcat at January 19, 2006 1:02 AMIt falls apart at (1).
Posted by: oj at January 19, 2006 7:39 AMOnly by your definition.
I missed a key point in my oversimplification: neither physicians nor pharmacists are in any way compelled to participate. Every player can opt in or out.
Leave us be and observe.
We care too much to leave you be.
Posted by: oj at January 19, 2006 6:04 PMSlippery slopes are the first refuge of zealots.
Posted by: ghostcat at January 19, 2006 7:09 PMAbsolutely. The point isn't where this will lead but what it is--evil.
Posted by: oj at January 19, 2006 8:34 PM