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Should people be denied choices at the end of life?
Mercatornet ^ | 1/29/16 | Paul Russell

Posted on 01/29/2016 6:18:15 AM PST by wagglebee

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What if it were not really our choice at all? It's not. We can ask for many things from our doctor; we can make legitimate choices, where possible, between treatments and even the choice to refuse treatments, but if we ask to be made dead, we're really asking our doctor to make a choice to kill us or to help us to kill ourselves. In reality it is his or her choice, not ours and it comes with consequences.

That choice involves a value judgement. It requires the doctor, consciously or otherwise, to be in agreement with you or I that our lives are no longer worth living; that whatever it is that ails us, our worth as a human person is diminished to the point that "dead" is better than living.

A very interesting perspective.

1 posted on 01/29/2016 6:18:15 AM PST by wagglebee
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2 posted on 01/29/2016 6:19:03 AM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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3 posted on 01/29/2016 6:19:27 AM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: Ohioan from Florida; 8mmMauser; T'wit; wagglebee; Alamo-Girl; AlwaysFree; amdgmary; angelwings49; ..

4 posted on 01/29/2016 6:21:01 AM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee

I can only imagine the kind of person who would be attracted to a career in medicine if they were required to euthanize people, for whatever reason.


5 posted on 01/29/2016 6:24:30 AM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: wagglebee

You should be able to make the choice you (or your insurance company) can afford.


6 posted on 01/29/2016 6:32:40 AM PST by Wolfie
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To: wagglebee

My primary concern is that this “choice” is often not a free one. A good example is the mother of a friend of mine who is 90 and is still competent insists she is not ready to die even though she has some serious health problems but is by no way terminal. My friend has guardianship over her and thankfully she is not of the type who would go against her mother’s wishes. Her sister and other family are almost begging her to force her mother into hospice so that then if she had a medical issue she would not receive care.

I’m not really concerned about people who are terminal or at end of life deciding to refuse treatment. However when it comes to outright euthanasia it almost certainly will increase the expectation that the infirm and the inconvenient simply be made to choose to die whether they truly desire to or not.


7 posted on 01/29/2016 6:38:32 AM PST by Maelstorm (America wasn't founded with the battle cry "Give me Liberty or cut me a government check!".)
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To: Maelstorm

I know several people who are annoyed that their aging parents are ‘spending my inheritance’ on medical care.

How long before mom is expected to ‘just die’ so the kids can have Disney vacations?


8 posted on 01/29/2016 6:42:33 AM PST by Black Agnes
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To: Wolfie

My life, MY decision how I leave. If I am facing a severe debilitating end, where I am facing absolutely zero ‘quality of life’ and facing massive doctor bills because they want to keep me alive...STOP IT. Just let me take a cocktail of meds and pass gently with my family around me.

It is NOT YOUR DECISION how I end MY life. I don’t care if you are pro-life, believe that ending your life on your terms is an ‘unpardonable sin’, whatever. It is MY LIFE.

The young lady who went to Oregon to end her life when having incurable brain cancer was chastised by the ‘you can’t so that’ folk. Not YOUR BUSINESS. HER business, ONLY.


9 posted on 01/29/2016 6:44:40 AM PST by rstrahan
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To: Wolfie; Responsibility2nd; DJ MacWoW; little jeremiah; Coleus; narses; TheOldLady; xzins; ...
You should be able to make the choice you (or your insurance company) can afford.

Sort of like a death panel?

10 posted on 01/29/2016 6:44:56 AM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: Maelstorm

“Her sister and other family are almost begging her to force her mother into hospice so that then if she had a medical issue she would not receive care.”


I thought hospice only took patient who were diagnosed as being terminally ill.

You mentioned that this woman was not terminal.

.


11 posted on 01/29/2016 6:51:01 AM PST by Mears
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To: wagglebee

My plans are already made. There is no way I will end up in a nursing home, riddled with dementia, and unable to walk, talk or feed myself, like my mother ended up. No law will stop me.


12 posted on 01/29/2016 6:51:17 AM PST by gdani ("I can be the most politically correct person you have ever seen")
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To: Black Agnes
Right, Agnes. Plus the involvement of the medical profession ("physician-assisted?) can only profoundlycorrupt the medical and legal professions.

No country or U.S. state that has legalized physician-assisted suicide has required the doctor to be trained to diagnose clinical depression or other conditions which would nullify legal "choice." Neither do they have training to detect unethical family influence, e.g. heirs ("Grandma, we don't want you to linger in loneliness and pain. When you die you'll be in a better place.")

Where there's a *will,* there's a way ..... :o\ The ethical duty of the health care provider is to provide for your health.

And nobody is "healthier" dead.

13 posted on 01/29/2016 6:52:30 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Praise God from Whom all blessings flow / Praise Him all creatures here below.)
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To: rstrahan

Then go off by yourself and do it. Don’t involve others. Then it will be your own business.


14 posted on 01/29/2016 6:52:50 AM PST by BykrBayb (Lung cancer free since 11/9/07. Colon cancer free since 7/7/15. ~ Þ)
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To: Wolfie

I’m not comfortable with the idea of my insurance company ordering death for me, because that’s what they can afford.


15 posted on 01/29/2016 6:55:07 AM PST by BykrBayb (Lung cancer free since 11/9/07. Colon cancer free since 7/7/15. ~ Þ)
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To: gdani
My plans are already made. There is no way I will end up in a nursing home, riddled with dementia, and unable to walk, talk or feed myself, like my mother ended up. No law will stop me.

Same for me. Everyone in my family, too. It's human to put a dog out of it's misery, the same should be available for humans so they don't have to suffer in pain for no decent reason.

God luck, my friend, we are about to be attacked mercilessly though by a bunch of nuttybars for our thoughts, though.

16 posted on 01/29/2016 6:55:41 AM PST by Travis T. OJustice (I miss my dad.)
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To: Mears

Neither was Terri Schiavo. It’s not difficult to find a doctor to declare her terminal. Especially if she’s 90 years old, with health issues.


17 posted on 01/29/2016 6:58:00 AM PST by BykrBayb (Lung cancer free since 11/9/07. Colon cancer free since 7/7/15. ~ Þ)
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To: Wolfie

How do you separate your “pro-choice” position from the snuffing out of life in the womb?


18 posted on 01/29/2016 7:03:46 AM PST by onedoug
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To: Mears; Maelstorm
I thought hospice only took patient who were diagnosed as being terminally ill.

Terri Schiavo was placed in a hospice and NOBODY, not even her murderers, ever suggested that she was terminally ill.

19 posted on 01/29/2016 7:04:12 AM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: BykrBayb

” Especially if she’s 90 years old, with health issues.”

Since I’m 83 discussions like this make me very twitchy.:-)

.


20 posted on 01/29/2016 7:05:35 AM PST by Mears
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