Posted on 07/12/2014 12:42:13 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
The cross-party campaign to legalise the right to die took a significant step forward last night when the former archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, announced his support for the proposal as a way of preventing "needless suffering".
The Church of England is strongly opposed to the bill. But in an article for the Daily Mail, Carey said he had changed his mind after witnessing the pain of Tony Nicklinson who suffered from locked-in syndrome. He died two years ago just weeks after losing his high court battle.
"Here was a dignified man making a simple appeal for mercy, begging that the law allow him to die in peace, supported by his family. His distress made me question my motives in previous debates. Had I been putting doctrine before compassion, dogma before human dignity?
Carey added that advances in modern medicine has been a crucial factor in his thinking. "While drugs might be able to hasten the end more quickly and painlessly, sophisticated medical science also offers people the chance to be kept alive far beyond anything that would have been possible only a few years ago. Yet our laws have not caught up with the science."
He wrote: "Then there are all those cases conducted in the shadows, where doctors, friends or relatives privately carry out mercy killings with a high dose of drugs."
Carey added that the Falconer bill would take mercy killings out of the "legal twilight".
Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, the chair of Inter-Faith Leaders for Dignity in Dying, welcomed Carey's intervention. Romain said: "The former archbishop's words are like a breath of fresh air sweeping through rooms cloaked in theological dust that should have been dispersed long ago. He shows that it is possible to be both religious and in favour of assisted dying."
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
The British invented the "Brompton cocktail" about 100 years ago to deal with severe pain associated with cancer and TB. It's been considerably improved since then, to eliminate pain, avoid nausea, and provide the patient with the freedom to seek either alertness or sleep via patient-administered doses. The Archbishop admits that advances in modern medicine have ensured that nobody has to die in unbearable pain.
Pain is not really the issue, and hasn't been for a long time.
Here's the money quote:
"While drugs might be able to hasten the end more quickly and painlessly, sophisticated medical science also offers people the chance to be kept alive far beyond anything that would have been possible only a few years ago. Yet our laws have not caught up with the science."
Meaning: "We already have the way to keep people pain-free. It's working all too well. Our laws have not 'caught up' with the 'problem' of patients over-staying their welcome."
Every nation that has legalized euthanasia "under strict conditions" --- only people with a terminal illness and a prognosis of less than 6 month's life expectation, only people in intractable pain, only with the patient's consent, only adults, yada yada --- has seen it morph quickly into "anyone, anytime, at any age, on doctor's orders or for sufficiently good reasons."
A National Socialist system of healthcare that is quickly going bankrupt, always has "sufficiently good reasons."
In Belgium they're already euthanizing "special needs" infants and --- even more shocking in my view --- the occasional adolescent for "emotional reasons."
Teenager moody or depressed? Here's the ticket...
An old retired "Archbishop" without God quickly turns to death as his savior.
Bingo. Nothing more tragic than the culture of death enveloping the clergy as well. These men have lost their faith but are either in denial or despair, or both. Oh Sheperd, turn over your flock to those whose faith remains, and wander the earth lost,for the remainder of your days. Tragic, but no longer uncommon.
‘...former archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, announced his support for the proposal as a way of preventing “needless suffering”.’
If we wanted to avoid needless suffering we would never allow anyone to be born. Life is full of suffering, a great deal, if not most, often seems needless. What we do not understand is what suffering does to bring us closer to Christ. After all few suffer as Christ did in abject humiliation and pain, yet he is God.
“Do I have the rights for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?”
“Yes.”
“I have the right to life, then?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want it. I want to kill myself.”
“Sorry, but that is illegal.”
“So I am required to avail myself of the right to life?”
“Evidently.”
“Do I have the right to keep and bear arms?”
“Yes.”
“Then I am required to carry a weapon?”
“Uhm...”
What is going on with supposedly Christians? Makes me wonder f they are.
“The road to hell is paved with the skulls of erring priests, with bishops as their signposts.”
St. John Chrysostom
Completely specious argument.
We are not talking about legality and illegality. No one prevents a person from swallowing fifty sleeping pills or putting a gun to their head.
We are talking about condoning and facilitating the deliberate murder of oneself with the aid and support of others.
Sparklite
Since Jun 16, 2014
Don’t come here pushing death.
Thank you. I’ve heard that quote before, along with St. Athanasius’ the floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops. And St. Luke, to those who are given much, much is expected. Bishops, being human, can lose their footing, however via regular self-examination, if they conclude they’ve lost their ability to lead (and be as “Christ”), they should hang up their crosiers, retire and perform humble acts for the balance of their lives. There’s plenty of folks in need of voluntary care, eh Bishop? And it doesn’t include euthanizing them.
“In the end times, many will fall away”
It's the choosing the time yourself where the problem arises.
However, that's not what this legislation is about. It's about lethal drug overdoses prescribed by death-docs who aren't even qualified to diagnose depression.
And the only "protection" in this law is for the prescribing doctor, not the patient. The law protects the doctor from lawsuit, even if there's evidence of coercion on the part of a death-promoting heir (giving grim new significance to the saying "Where there's a will, there's a way.")
The drug-pushing doctor cannot be sued if he claims he acted in "good faith," a claim it is practically impossible to disprove in court, unless he actually took a bribe in front of a witness.
Anyone who wants to commit suicide on their own can do so, and 30 minutes' worth of mousing around on the Internet can tell you how.
But don't insist on "authorization" or "participation" from church or state or medico or politico. Surely in the name of autonomy, a would-be suicider can take care of business without insisting on corrupting the political, legal, and medical professions.
A self-respecting suicider (I am not recommending this) should be responsible for himself. This "legalized" "physician-assisted" crap just puts more death-dealing power in the hands of the State.
**right to die**
Another idea that the Catholic Church repeatedly has stood against. Life is holy — from the womb to the tomb.
I’ve never seen that quote put quite that way before.
Everyone has the right to die. Many would prefer that the exercise of that right be somewhat delayed.
What is being asked for here is the right to be killed by someone else.
No physician has ever been convicted by a jury for hastening death by administering pain medicine. Every once in a while, an ambitious DA will indict a doctor, that's about all.
I think "mercy killing" should remain illegal. Anyone who claims therapeutic privilege in the terminal setting should be willing to face a jury.
As far as what really happens at the bedside - those who know don't say, and those who say don't know.
You're exactly right, Jim. Some 30,000 Americans commit suicide every year, without manipulatively dragging our major medical, legal, and political structures into it for "assistance" or "permission."
It's a wicked and/or a pathetic thing to commit suicide "freelance" --- but only God can judge in the case of the clinically depressed or otherwise impaired. But that doesn't even compare to the rotten evil of "legal" or "assisted" suicide where you corrupt the major institutions of society as your accomplices.
Doctors, nurses, and hospice workers should not be pulled into the picture as accessories to the deed, because they are, and should be, unalterably committed to the patient's health: and nobody is healthier dead.
Lawyers, judges, and politicians should not be implicated in suicide because they're supposed to be dedicated to our rights and liberties, and death effectively snuffs ALL rights and all liberties.
I have never quite understood why those would-be suicides who say their #1 value is personal autonomy, don't just do it --- like those other 30,000 self-respecting autonomous suicides* --- and leave the rest of us out of it.
* (Hoping the irony here is apparent.)
“These men have lost their faith but are either in denial or despair, or both.”
yeah, but instead of admitting that and either going to lie in the gutter where they belong, or seek some gainful work elsewhere, they still want to “wear the collar”.
They enjoy too much the influence they have over others and the material trappings of their positions.
Just give me an honest crook or atheist, better than a phoney baloney like this guy.
Mrs. Don-O is right, as sympathetic as one might be to the fellow mentioned here, it never stops there and it’ll be you, me and your Aunt Tillie once these creeps get to have their way.
I also venture that anyone has the right to refuse treatment and even to refuse nourishment if they so desire.
Organ-donation euthanasia: a growing epidemic
Democrats Crank Up Death Panel Talk Following Obama Win
Cut state funding to terminal patients so they "can die quickly"
Deaf Twins Going Blind Euthanized
Half of those on Liverpool Care Pathway never told.. [ Death by NHS]
Doctor disputes common acceptance of ‘brain death’
UK Hospitals Paid To Put Patients on Death “Pathway”
What Would Hippocrates Do?
Dutch euthanasia: psychiatric and dementia patients killed
Wesley J. Smith: The International Suicide Industry
Quebec government reveals plan to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide
Socialized medicine: Patients starve and die of thirst on hospital wards
Hippocrates’ Last Stand (Will we stop doctor-prescribed suicide in Massachusetts?)
Assisted dying: who's to decide when a life is not worth living?
Physician-assisted suicide poisons the mission of medicine
What America Would Look Like under Obamacare
Oregon Offers to Pay to Kill, but Not to Treat Cancer Patient
Do No Harm? Should Patients Still Trust Their Doctors?
Mother pleads to doctor to restore son's food and water
Doctor secretly denied 12-year-old trauma victim food and water
She's "only" 88 years old. She'll live another 10+ years!
After Henry VIII, the new Christians of the Anglican Church have been allowed all the license of folks unfettered by the stigma of sin, confession, penance...all those MOST inconvenient rules of those nasty ole Catholics.
The 30,000 suicides is ABYSSMALLY sad to me.
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