Posted on 11/02/2014 1:43:05 PM PST by Morgana
We keep hearing about the “right to die.” There is no right to die–no escape, of course,–but no right.
Yet, I hasten to add. No right to die, yet.
What do I mean? The killing decision in euthanasia and assisted suicide isn’t really the suicidal person’s “choice:” It is the killer’s or helper’s. In other words, life will end only if the joint venturer in the killing believes the suicidal person’s life is not worth living.
davidmixnerThis ultimate truth about euthanasia–even in wild death cultures like Belgium and the Netherlands–came to mind as I read about gay activist David Mixner’s confession that he “mercy-killed” 8 friends with AIDS during the height of the epidemic. From the Daily Beast story:
Into this network, says Mixner, came medical professionals—“nurses and doctors, heavily into the epidemic”—who saw what AIDS did to their patients and the lack of effective medicine to lessen their suffering, and who wanted to provide death with dignity.
“I would only do it when I was 100 percent sure that there was no hope,” Mixner tells me. “When I felt there was no hope, that all had been done for them, then I would do it. Some of the patients got angry. They’d say, ‘We want to die now.’ But I could only help to do it when it felt right to me.”
In other word’s, it was Mixner’s choice. And the killing was not a medical act, but people know that.
I moved to San Francisco at the height of the AIDS catastrophe. The underground euthanasia network Mixner described was well known.
This was the time I began my anti-assisted suicide activism, As my public profile rose, I would be invited to debate in SF about The City’s underground euthanasia network.
In debating the underground killing network it became clear how subjective the kill decision was for assisters. One doctor told me in a debate that he wouldn’t do it unless the patient got below 90 pounds. That was his personal line and he stuck to it!
I challenged him:”But your colleagues have different lines, don’t they?” He admitted they did. Some didn’t wait very far along in the death process at all.
Also, I sensed that the assisted suicide virus was as contagious as HIV. Dying in that way came to be seen as an act of defiance against an oppressive culture. The idea was, “You can’t tell us who to love or how to die,”–astonishing to me at the time that gay rights would be conjoined with the killing of (mostly) gay men.
So, whether a despairing and sick AIDS patient was killed depended on whether the killer thought the ill gay man’s life was still worth living!
Perhaps Mixner feels guilty in making his confession. Why? When the new drugs suddenly burst on the scene, AIDS patients literally bounced back from death’s door to vitality. In other words, some of those killed by the euthanasia network might not have died at all but for being the subject of homicide!
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The same “doctor’s choice” phenomenon occurs in Oregon, Belgium, Netherlands, etc. This leads to what I call doctor shopping, that is, the suicidal person looking for a medic with a prescription pad willing to kill or help kill them under their individual circumstances. Heck, even Kevorkian said no once in a while.
But Wesley, you always warn that assisted suicide will end up in “death on demand!” Indeed, it will.
The idea is to turn euthanasia into abortion. In Victoria, Australia, every doctor must be complicit in abortion-on-demand, either by doing the fetus killing or referring to a doctor know to be willing.
The KNMG (Dutch Medical Association) issued an ethical opinion–not yet law–opining that Dutch doctors opposed to a legally qualified patient being euthanized must refer to a death doctor willing to do the snuffing.
In Quebec, that is already the law–and the homicide is paid for by the state.
But for now, the “right to die” is mostly the right to lethally prescribe or administer if asked. Think about the power in that–the right to determine whether another person lives or dies.
LifeNews.com Note: Wesley J. Smith, J.D., is a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture and a bioethics attorney who blogs at Human Exeptionalism.
” From the Daily Beast story:.....”
Perhaps I should read this more often?
He should be locked up for life
Gotta say, I'd HOPE that he's run out of friends by this point.
Grr... I really do need to actually read the preview...
The Daily Beast is a left wing rag though
I am well aware of this. Is why I don’t read it. However when leftist are being stupid and then publish it. One can’t help but watch the train wreck.
Liberals love to kill. It’s their thing.
I’m so glad he “felt good” about it. evil bastard.
Hey, what are friends for?
The author nails it. A person who really and truly wants to die will find a way to do the deed himself. Someone who seeks "assistance" either 1) has doubts, 2) lacks sufficient courage to follow through, and/or 3) wants someone else to take on the responsibility and the guilt of taking a life. The only possible exception I can think of is a person who physically incapable of the act (e.g. someone who is completely paralyzed).
I saw a former in-law the night he died of AIDS. 1st time in 7 years. I still see the look in his eyes. He knew me, doped up and everything.
You don’t forget.
The vast majority of those wishing to end their own lives are quite capable of doing so themselves. This push to entangle the rest of society into that decision says to me that on some level there is resistance, that those wanting to do themselves in know it’s wrong. They’re looking for an accomplice to shoulder some of the blame.
Anyone who is still able to move is also able to do this themselves. Do not get pulled into it, it’s wrong even if it seems compassionate to end their suffering. Your own sins are burden enough, don’t take that one on, too.
And he’s a Jew, rejector of Christ. Go figure.
Jews are God’s chosen people. Be careful
It’s his liberalism that kills.
Maybe if their loved ones were truly loved ones and firmly declined, they would say something more like, "I love you and I know you are hurting a great deal but I will not murder you. I will help you get through this as best as I can."
The truly motivated can off themselves on their own without dragging additional souls to the grave.
The god of convenience calls itself compassion and mercy, or even pragmatism. And it just so happens that these are convenient euphemisms for death.
Explains why the dead always vote demon-crat. It's certainly not an ideology for the living.
I wonder how many boys he’s molested? And how many were molested by his 8 ‘friends’?
Oopsie. So let me get this straight: this guy (1) made a unilateral decision that there was no hope; (2) gave his friends a lethal dose of whatever, and; (3) woke up to find out that he was wrong, that there was hope after all. And somehow this isn't murder?
That's the problem with playing God. Once in awhile the real one will remind you that you aren't.
OK, time for some unspoken truth: AIDS is a death sentence, administered by an infected man who’d kill someone else just so he could get his jollies. The whole AIDS epidemic was entirely because perverts would always have unprotected sex and didn’t care at all that their actions would spread the disease and kill dozens, hundreds, thousands of others.
It shouldn’t be at all surprising that they would be able to “euthanize” their former partners - they were responsible for their condition in the first place.
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