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How to Win the Assisted-Suicide Debate
Townhall.com ^ | November 26, 2013 | Debra J. Saunders

Posted on 11/26/2013 2:31:27 PM PST by Kaslin

"Dilbert" cartoonist Scott Adams wants to kill Victoria Reggie Kennedy, Ted's widow. He also wants to kill my husband, author and anti-assisted suicide activist Wesley J. Smith -- and me, because I, too, oppose assisted suicide.

"If you're a politician who has ever voted against doctor-assisted suicide, or you would vote against it in the future, I hate your f------ guts and I would like you to die a long, horrible death. I would be happy to kill you personally and watch you bleed out. I won't do that, because I fear the consequences," Adams blogged Saturday as his 86-year-old father approached "possibly months" of "living Hell" ending in a bad death.

And: "I'm okay with any citizen who opposes doctor-assisted suicide on moral or practical grounds. But if you have acted on that thought, such as basing a vote on it, I would like you to die a slow, horrible death too."

Adams later added that his father died a few hours after the post. In his rage, perhaps, he turned to intimidation over the more arduous task of convincing people with different beliefs.

When Adams returned my call, he told me that he probably doesn't want me to die. Oh, but you do, I responded. I've written against assisted suicide. "I would put you in that category," he conceded. "You are part of the problem."

Victoria Kennedy wrote that a 2012 Massachusetts ballot measure to legalize assisted suicide was bad policy because it was "harsh and extreme." I ask: Would the world be better off without her, too?

"Yes, I think she's part of the bad guys," Adams reluctantly replied. Opponents of assisted suicide are responsible for the "torture" of his father.

"If my dad were a cat, we would have put him to sleep long ago," Adams wrote. That's the America-treats-pets-better-than-people argument for euthanasia. Yes, families put down cherished pets after much anguish, but also, according to The Humane Society of the United States, shelters put down 2.7 million adoptable dogs and cats every year.

Adams rejected my analogy about his analogy. He sees an enlightened system in which doctors put down the parents of doting adult children -- only at the last minute. It works well elsewhere, he added.

The Dutch legalized physician-assisted suicide in 2002; last year, euthanasia accounted for 3 percent of Dutch deaths. There was a 13 percent bump after mobile units could be dispatched to homes where family physicians refused to kill patients. So much for safeguards -- like the patient's own doctor's having to approve. Advocates use safeguards to argue that a practice will not be abused; then they whittle away at them.

I believe in safeguards, too: liberal pain control and directives that allow sick people to stipulate which procedures they do not want. Love.

I told Adams I fear that if we legalize assisted suicide, overworked providers will eliminate inconvenient people, just as shelters dispatch unwanted cats. He knows it could happen. He argued that "good things" -- hospitals and police -- come with risks.

Me, I don't want to live in a world where one group of people decides when another group should die. For that, Adams wants me to die a horrible death. Once death becomes the solution for one condition, it becomes a remedy for others.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: adams; deathpanels; dilbert; healtcarerationing; scottadams
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1 posted on 11/26/2013 2:31:27 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

I’m sorry to hear the Dilbert creator is a pro-death leftist. *sigh* His cat and dog analogy is stupid. People are of an infinitely higher order than animals.


2 posted on 11/26/2013 2:39:24 PM PST by WXRGina (The Founding Fathers would be shooting by now.)
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To: WXRGina

If he equates humans to dogs and cats he must be suffering from very low self esteem. And possibly a desire to lick his bottom.


3 posted on 11/26/2013 2:41:19 PM PST by ruesrose (The Anchor Holds)
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To: Kaslin

Ah those kwazy liberals.

Okay, like, there’s this group, and they’re oppressed. So like there’s this other group, and they’re not actually against our group, they just want to help the oppressed in a different way than our group.

So here’s what we have to do: we have to get into office and build an entire totalitarian political system and then round up the other group and exterminate them bu themillions.

Because otherwise, we can’t help the oppressed.

Or the, uh, children.

Oh - women. Did I say women, yet? Okay - women too.

But look, we gotta kill ‘em all, otherwise there will never be any peace.

(Which, of course is bad enough. But if you then imagine all the 20-somethings sitting there in class nodding their heads in agreement... you’ve entered The Twilight Zone. Or California.)


4 posted on 11/26/2013 2:42:41 PM PST by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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To: Kaslin

This man in still in a state of grieving and has not yet accepted his Dad’s death. There is still anger and blame making going on. The artist should stay away from twitter or social media for a couple of months before he inspires someone to break the law. That’s often how it goes for those who become famous for the way they express themselves. (i.e. Barbara Streisand).The subject presumes every sound from their mouth is the worlds greatest event ever. Steven King is that way too, rich but profoundly lacking in compassion for those who disagree with him.


5 posted on 11/26/2013 2:46:11 PM PST by lee martell
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To: ruesrose

Oh, good points! :-)


6 posted on 11/26/2013 2:50:18 PM PST by WXRGina (The Founding Fathers would be shooting by now.)
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To: Kaslin
Me, I don't want to live in a world where one group of people decides when another group should die. For that, Adams wants me to die a horrible death. Once death becomes the solution for one condition, it becomes a remedy for others.

Killbert has a broad kill list. Just disagreeing with him is enough to trip the kill switch. As for his own father, the old man was able to pass on before being victimized long term by his own son's "care".

7 posted on 11/26/2013 2:53:20 PM PST by Ezekiel (All who mourn the destruction of America merit the celebration of her rebirth.)
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To: Kaslin

assisted suicide/right to die is just code for “duty to die”.

In obamacare they are called death pannels.


8 posted on 11/26/2013 2:53:40 PM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Kaslin

“...Adams blogged Saturday as his 86-year-old father approached “possibly months” of “living Hell” ending in a bad death. “

It’s probably a bad idea to post your thoughts to the internet when you are in a fit of extreme emotion. Especially when you are a celebrity and people are going to notice whatever crazy stuff you said.


9 posted on 11/26/2013 2:58:12 PM PST by Boogieman
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To: Kaslin

Thou shalt not kill...

Just like the qualifications to get on social security disability got relaxed over the years to things such as “stress” or “depression,” you can be sure the bar on which assisted suicides would be allowed would be lowered to cover such things. Just like the person who had sex change surgery in Europe and then applied to kill himself after he got depressed about it recently.


10 posted on 11/26/2013 3:02:19 PM PST by JediJones (The #1 Must-see Filibuster of the Year: TEXAS TED AND THE CONSERVATIVE CRUZ-ADE)
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To: Ezekiel

Voting based on a moral belief is enough to wind up of his kill list.

25 million who refuse to submit to re-education centers. I loathe leftist totalitarianism.

QUESTION AUTHORITY. Question the authority of those who sought to overthrow the establishment of Western Civilization.


11 posted on 11/26/2013 3:32:51 PM PST by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
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To: Kaslin

Tell then you agree and then shoot em in the head, point blank.


12 posted on 11/26/2013 3:48:34 PM PST by maddog55
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To: Kaslin

In every country where the government is on the hook for the exploding costs of end-of-life palliative care, they’re going to consider termination by doctor to be an option to reduce expenses.

Call it assisted suicide, call it death with dignity, call it whatever hand-wave you’d like, but it comes down to money. The vast majority of health care spending happens in the last three years of life, and governments who dole out socialized health care want to contain their expenses.

That said, I think people who are in terrible pain should be able to pull their own trigger without consequence. Towards that end, people should be able to obtain the necessary pain killers to ease their suffering. The two men I’ve known in later-stage cancers who shot themselves (one with a .22, which did not result in an easy death, another with a shotgun) did so because they were in excruciating pain, and they hit their limits of endurance. The insane “war on drugs” has made doctors so gun-shy of writing scripts for opiates that it is cruelty in action.

The question I’d ask any MD is this: Why won’t you write a script for any opiate they want?

The MD would probably reply: “They might abuse the drug.”

Family: “In late stage cancer, where you and they both know they are going to die rather soon, and painfully... this is a problem because... why?”

MD: “Well... regulations, laws, DEA enforcement, blah, blah.”

Family: “Yea, thanks a lot for your help.”


13 posted on 11/26/2013 3:59:52 PM PST by NVDave
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To: Kaslin

Always remember that the most important thing to a liberal is themselves. Assisted suicide is not about ending the pain of the terminally ill. It’s about ending a liberal’s personal responsibility to care for a loved one in their time of need.

So, if Mr. Adams were to talk to me about assisted suicide, my response would be to ask him why he does not love his father enough to care for him until the very end.


14 posted on 11/26/2013 4:09:15 PM PST by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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To: Kaslin

“Once death becomes the solution for one condition, it becomes a remedy for others.”

With Obamacare, we are already there.


15 posted on 11/26/2013 5:20:02 PM PST by Gator113 ( Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin and Mike Lee speak for me, most everyone else is just noise.)
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To: Kaslin

Dang. Dilbert is the only cartoon I read anymore.


16 posted on 11/26/2013 5:26:34 PM PST by Scotswife
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To: Kaslin; Clintonfatigued; BillyBoy; fieldmarshaldj; AuH2ORepublican; GeronL; justiceseeker93; ...
last year, euthanasia accounted for 3 percent of Dutch deaths. There was a 13 percent bump after mobile units could be dispatched to homes where family physicians refused to kill patients

Jeez!

17 posted on 11/26/2013 6:20:21 PM PST by Impy (RED=COMMUNIST, NOT REPUBLICAN)
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To: Impy

coming soon to a country near you


18 posted on 11/26/2013 6:20:53 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: Kaslin; All
I find the comments to the sfgate.com version of this piece interesting.

Hardly anyone there finds Scott Adams's post offensive in any way. Instead, much of what intellectual firepower there is in the comments is spent repeating and repeating the bare assertion that Debra Saunders Is Stupid.

Most of those who do address Scott Adams seem to consider his writing relatively normal or understandable "grieving." Hardly anyone seems to find anything wrong with his apparent desire that many people should die horrible deaths--and this fact is a little window into their souls.

That's not even a coherent view, though. Just imagine if some famous cartoonist's father were run over and killed by an illegal immigrant, and he then posted something wishing for violent run-over deaths for Democrats who support Comprehensive Immigration Reform--the very same people would be calling for his head, without any of them making excuses based on "grief."

Of course, incoherence is nothing new among certain groups of people.

Bush’s ‘Assassination’ As Entertainment

19 posted on 11/27/2013 3:27:34 AM PST by Lonely Bull
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To: Kaslin
Such nonsense. Why *doctor* assisted? Who needs a doctor to do this?

I'm all for LAwYER assisted suicide. Lawyers would be much more competent at this practice, and their is no hazard to a lawyer's soul, since so many of them have long since sold theirs to the devil. Assisted suicide would hurt a doctor's conscience, at least all the ones I have ever seen and known--but a lawyer's conscience is under no such jeopardy

20 posted on 11/27/2013 4:06:17 AM PST by Mamzelle
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