Death Doctors: Like abortion 50 years ago, euthanasia now is poised at the top of a slippery slope

National Review Online ^ | 4/20/09 | Kathryn Jean Lopez

[wagglebee]

‘Foolproofing Suicide with Euthanasia Test Kits.” The matter-of-fact headline should chill us, especially since it didn’t appear in some fringe publication or advocacy magazine.

It appeared in Time.

“When someone with a terminal illness decides to end his or her life by overdosing on barbiturates, they may hope the drugs will lull them into a peaceful and permanent sleep,” wrote the Time reporter. But if the drugs have expired, or if the dosage is incorrect, “the would-be suicide victim may actually survive,” although possibly with additional complications or in a coma.

Thank heavens (yes, that is sarcasm), an Australian euthanasia advocate, Dr. Philip Nitschke, has come up with a way to avoid that danger. He plans “to sell barbiturate-testing kits to confirm that deadly drug cocktails are, in fact, deadly.” The kits will debut in Britain in May for $50.

The “seriously ill” don’t want to mess around when they’re trying to kill themselves, says Dr. Nitschke. “They want to know they have the right concentration of drugs so that if they take them in the suggested way, it will provide them with a peaceful death.”

I spoke with Nitschke back in 2001. At the time, he was already being referred to as Australia’s “Dr. Death,” a label he was proud of: “People only start calling you names if and when you become effective.”

When I asked him whom he aimed to help kill themselves, he explained that if one has a right to live, one should also have the right to die, and have the means to do it. “Someone needs to provide this knowledge, training or recourse necessary to anyone who wants it, including the depressed, the elderly bereaved, the troubled teen. If we are to remain consistent and we believe that the individual has the right to dispose of their life, we should not erect artificial barriers in the way of sub-groups who don’t meet our criteria.”

Thanks to the tireless work of Wesley J. Smith, a consumer advocate turned defender of human life, that interview did cause some trouble for Nitschke in his native Australia as he crusaded to make euthanasia legal. Now Time magazine — a major publication with a national, if not global, reach — gives respectful coverage to a doctor who has advocated the right of troubled teenagers to kill themselves.

This should set off all sorts of alarm bells, especially since assisted suicide is not academic theory but a reality. Following in the footsteps of their Oregon neighbors, Washington State voters passed a Death with Dignity ballot initiative last November; the law went into effect in March. Physician-assisted suicide with a lethal dose of medication is now legal in Washington for adults who are expected to die within six months.

But what exactly does that mean? In 2002, Time’s expert of choice, Nitschke, counseled an Australian woman named Nancy Crick on her suicide. To gain public acceptance for her choice, Crick, who had had surgery for bowel cancer, was presented as a cancer patient. After she killed herself, an autopsy revealed that she was, in fact, cancer-free.

Another high-profile euthanasia advocate is Ludwig Minelli, a Swiss human-rights lawyer and the founder of the clinic Dignitas in Zurich. Earlier this month, Minelli stated clearly that there should simply be no limits on assisted suicide. “It is without conditions,” he said. “A human right is without any conditions except capacity.”

If we don’t question the media’s almost casual acceptance of assisted suicide, we’re going to find before long that we have moved way beyond debating extraordinary care and the legality of assisted suicide in terminal cases. They sure have moved beyond that point at Dignitas. Mentally ill patients have been assisted in their suicides there. “Suicide is a very good possibility to escape a situation which you can’t alter,” Minelli told the BBC.

What’s next, an organization with centers in every city dedicated to helping end human life?

If this sounds overly dramatized, then we should recall where we were about a half century ago on the issue of abortion. (Nitschke, as it happens, has talked about running a “death ship,” which would get around Australian law by operating in international waters. He got the idea from a Dutch abortion ship already operating off European shores.)

Minelli is currently working to prepare a Canadian woman to kill herself when her husband dies. George has heart disease, and Betty wants to avoid the heartache of losing him.

Betty will suffer a deep and painful loss when her husband dies (naturally or otherwise). But her life should not be over. There is something sick — verging on terminally so — about a society that instead of working to affirm the value of life makes it easier to end it at any and then all stages.

[wagglebee]

What’s next, an organization with centers in every city dedicated to helping end human life?

This is EXACTLY what the culture of death intends to do.

[wagglebee]

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[wagglebee]

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[Vaduz]

organization with centers in every city dedicated to helping end human life? = obama’s national health care plan.

[Tax-chick]

If we are to remain consistent and we believe that the individual has the right to dispose of their life, we should not erect artificial barriers in the way of sub-groups who don’t meet our criteria.”

He's exactly right. Starting from his premise, logic requires his conclusion.

[Clarence]

No one should be surprised by this at all.

This is the “logical’ next step following birth control and abortion as measures of population control and reduction, which is the goal of these folks. Margaret Sanger is their hero, their ideal.

Scary.

And the scariest thing is that this will target the same population that abortion has targeted- the poor, the underprivileged, and the racial minorities in this country, whose babies are aborted at a much higher rate than others.

And these are the folks who have been the most duped, and keep right on voting for this kind of “change.”

Not scary, but tragic. Voting for their own demise.

[Tax-chick]

Not scary, but tragic. Voting for their own demise.

AARP supporting Democrats, too. "Go ahead, kill us after we vote for you!"

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Today it will be “Your Right To Die.” Tomorrow it will be your duty.

[PLD]

The kits will debut in Britain in May for $50.

This will be a best seller there, because of their health care..People will get tired of waiting for treatment so will just end it all..America will be not to far behind if we have to have government health care stuffed down our throats

[SteamShovel]

Today it will be “Your Right To Die.” Tomorrow it will be your duty.

This will happen too.....

.....The argument will go something like; "Here we have a budget crisis with mandatory government provided health care, and here is the bulk of the cost (elderly or very sick). There are many brave individuals who have sacrificed themselves for the common good. These brave patriots are leaders, showing the way that all must take for the benefit of their country."

They will wrap themselves in the flag of the USSA and begin purging costly people who no longer serve their interests ($).

[wagglebee]

.....The argument will go something like; "Here we have a budget crisis with mandatory government provided health care, and here is the bulk of the cost (elderly or very sick). There are many brave individuals who have sacrificed themselves for the common good. These brave patriots are leaders, showing the way that all must take for the benefit of their country."

They will wrap themselves in the flag of the USSA and begin purging costly people who no longer serve their interests ($).

And it will look like this:

“This person suffering from hereditary defects

costs the people 60,000 Reichmarks during his lifetime.

People, that is your money. Read ‘New People’.”

[JimSEA]

This “right to suicide” will inevitably morph into an “obligation to die” at the convenience of the state in our collectivist world.

[Ted Grant]

Here’s to you, Schlitzie, wherever you are!

[Alex Kida]

I can see it all now. Walk-in euthanasia clinics. Their new slogan -
In by 9 out by noon.

[Clarence]

In by 9, out...forever....

[Salvation]

Prayer for Those Who Are Terminally Ill

 

Lord Jesus, you healed so many people during your public ministry. I bring before you now, in prayer, all those who are terminally ill -- those afflicted with cancer, AIDS, and other illnesses.

 

Look lovingly and compassionately upon them. Let them feel the strength of your consolation. Help them and their families to accept this cross they are asked to carry.  Protect them from euthanasia, Lord.

 

Let them see you carrying their cross with them, at their side, as you once carried yours to Calvary. May Mary be there, too, to comfort them. 

 

Lord Jesus, I know and believe that, if it is your will, you can cure those I pray for (especially N.). I place my trust in you. I pray with faith, but I also pray as you did in Gethsemane: your will be done. 

 

Bless us, Lord, and hear my prayer. Amen.

 

Reprinted from "Queen of Apostles Prayerbook" with permission of copyright holder, Pauline Books & Media,

[wagglebee]

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