Posted on 03/02/2008 12:56:47 PM PST by wagglebee
In a victory for Washington's proposed Death With Dignity initiative, a judge on Friday refused to add the words "physician-assisted suicide" to the ballot or official voters pamphlet description.
"It is a somewhat loaded term," said Thurston County Superior Court Judge Chris Wickham. He said it conjures up images of Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan physician who claimed to have helped more than 100 people die before being convicted of murder in one of the cases.
Instead of "suicide," voters will read that Initiative 1000 would allow some terminally ill patients "to request and self-administer lethal medication" prescribed by a doctor. Wickham's decision largely upheld a description written by the state attorney general's office.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
That's because it SHOULD be called murder.
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You don’t have to call it s**t to know that it stinks, either.
How does suicide not fall under the “right to self determination”....?
If people want to off themselves who cares?
When physicians get involved it become euthanasia.
A handgun used for the same outcome is considered suicide.
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A right to die can quickly turn into a duty to die, as heirs pressure old folk to not expend their assets to just delay the inevitable, and as medical establishments put pressure on penniless patients to save money
What amazing hubris. “We can’t call this what it really is because that might influence not to accept it.” A judge calling dishonesty a virtue.
You need to understand the to some, guns are evil and so the use of a gun is an evil thing. Doctors are good, so the use of a doctor to commit suicide is good. Besides the body looks so much nicer after-wards that the lefties can ignore the reality of a shortened life.
If a woman has the right to end the life of something inside her, why can't she take her own life as well?
My fear with these assisted suicide laws will be that someone faced with a terminal illness and potentially huge medical bills will either out of concern for their spouse or at the urging of their spouse end their own life.
I have witnessed the death of my two parents and and my two in-laws. The heroic medical actions at the end cleaned out my parents entire life savings and made a real dent in those of my in-laws. The death by choice and with dignity arguments, in my opinion will be replaced in the real world with real and imagined obligations to relatives. I expect that after passage of some of these laws, we will see stories about brave heroic people who faced death to save their families finances versus greedy people who sacrificed the welfare of their families as they desperately fought to live. It is a real slippery slope and one that we should not go down.
“What amazing hubris. “We can’t call this what it really is because that might influence not to accept it.” A judge calling dishonesty a virtue.’
Chris Wickham is so vile in and out of the courtroom that most attnys in the area wont associate with him ... even at functions.
He sits alone at awards cermonies etc.
And he has done so much wrong to so many people that he inisists on police guards whenever he can.
He’s a human cancer in a black robe.
“My fear with these assisted suicide laws will be that someone faced with a terminal illness and potentially huge medical bills will either out of concern for their spouse or at the urging of their spouse end their own life.”
But isnt that still the right of the person to make that choice?
>> It is a real slippery slope and one that we should not go down.
That’s the concern. Your remark about ‘heroism’ and ‘the greedy who refuse to die’ is a poignant one.
In my initial post, I meant to say the act of using the handgun is tantamount to suicide opposed to the gun itself.
NO, there is no right to euthanasia and that is all this is no matter how they label it.
Sure there is.
Check out the 9th amendment.
That is a tough question. First, almost anyone can arrange for their own suicide if they are physically fit enough to have control over their movement. So to a certain extent, one can not keep a person from committing suicide. I have a brother-in-law and a co-worker's husband who committed suicide. I suspect that a lot of single vehicle bridge abutment accidents are suicides. Having said that, I can say from personal experience that the family of someone who obviously commits suicide is significantly harmed. While a person may do what they want to themselves, the act of suicide does harm others.
I saw my coworker have to try to pay off all kinds of ambulance and hospital bills associated with a suicide by her husband, because medical insurance doesn't cover those costs when they are self inflicted. She suffered mentally, financially, and physically because of what he did.
I saw the suffering that my wife dealt with loosing her brother and trying to deal with emotional outbursts by her parents. For years she wondered if there was something she could have done to have seen it before it happened and have done something to stop it.
Suicide has consequences beyond the individual who ends their own life. Suicide because of its consequences is illegal in most states for good reasons.
Doctor assisted suicide involves others. What about the doctor that doesn't want to do this? What about the pharmacist that doesn't want to fill the prescription (remember the Plan B debate and what our WA State Governor did in regards to the pharmacy board). What about nurses and others? Do they have a "right?" I don't think so, but....
“Doctor assisted suicide involves others. What about the doctor that doesn’t want to do this? What about the pharmacist that doesn’t want to fill the prescription (remember the Plan B debate and what our WA State Governor did in regards to the pharmacy board). What about nurses and others? Do they have a “right?” I don’t think so, but....”
Ok now that make more sense.
I still think suicide shouldn’t be a crime, but assisted suicide....?
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