Die Like A Dog
Posted on 05/13/2005 5:24:10 PM PDT by BykrBayb
New tragedy for Lesley Martin
14 May 2005 By DON KAVANAGH
Euthanasia campaigner Lesley Martin and her family have had to make the agonising decision to turn off her brother's life-support system after a truck crash.
Michael Charles Martin, 43, suffered serious head injuries after the meat truck he was driving and a lime tanker collided near the Waikato town of Pirongia two weeks ago.
Ms Martin – who served nine months of a 15-month sentence for giving her terminally ill mother an overdose of morphine and then suffocating her with a pillow in 1999 – said the decision to switch off her brother's ventilator was a totally different experience.
"It's not like a euthanasia situation at all," she said.
"His injuries were unsurvivable and without the ventilator he would not have been breathing. He had horrific head injuries."
Ms Martin wrote a book about her decision to help end her mother's suffering, entitled To Die Like A Dog, and it was the publication of the book that led to her arrest and conviction.
The crash happened on April 28 and the tanker driver – Edwin Charles Samuelson, 56, of Te Kuiti – died at the scene.
Ms Martin, who now lives in Taranaki, and her family were contacted in the middle of the night and made a dash for Waikato Hospital.
"It was good, because we all got there and we all had a chance to say goodbye to him properly and one by one. The staff at the hospital were wonderful and gave us time to make the decision properly."
Ms Martin, her son, her sister and her family and Mr Martin's partner, former wife and children were all at the hospital to decide whether to keep him on a ventilator.
"It was devastating. It is an impossible decision to make, but the ventilator was turned off at 6pm on the Saturday (April 30). He died at 10.15 that night."
Yesterday Ms Martin went to the spot where her brother crashed to lay a wreath in his memory.
He had been a police officer for 19 years before quitting to drive trucks for a living. He drove big rigs in the United States before returning to Wanganui.
Ms Martin said police were still investigating the crash.
"I would also like to tell the family of the other driver how much we feel for them. We are all devastated and upset for them. Whatever the cause of the accident, it claimed the lives of two men."
This ol'gal should still be in the slammer!
You know, when you think about it the victims are not volunteering to pull the plug. It is their families or judges, etc.
Is this New Zealand?
Is this a joke?
Sorry for the brother and mother, sorry for the family. Assuming this is all true, of course.
That's something I was wondering.
Euthanasia seems to be addictive.
Yep, New Zealand. Euthanasia is running rampant there.
Exactly.
Euthanasia advocates are not pushing for our right to fill out an advance directive, or to have that advance directive honored. We already have that right. Their problem is that most of us don't want to be euthanized. So now they're pushing for forced euthanasia. One of their favorite arguments lately is money. Obviously, that has nothing to do with the patient's choice.
"Euthanasia is running rampant there."
Small countries seem to go for it.
Like abortion, euthanasia seems to weed out the gene pool in a non-self-perpetuating way.
Maybe we should set the WPPFF up on their own little island/country.
Unless you've ever been in either of the situations Ms. Martin found herself in, you have no right to say what you're saying about her.
They live messy and die messy.
I've never committed murder, but I have no problem stating that murderers should be in prison. I don't have to commit murder to know that.
"WPPFF"
I'm sorry, could you translate that?
Wicked People Pulling Feeding Facilities
Warped Peons Practicing Food Fights
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1373116/posts
If my Father was in horrible pain and he asked me to help him...I'd be a murderer too. Now, that being said, I'm not getting into it with you again. I think we know from history that we're just not friendly adversaries. Say your peace, and then we're done.
You see this in today's Dominion Post?
Basically, it's a sub-group of Freepers who came out vocally against the right of disabled people to live.
Your statement is simply not logical. Unfortunately it tags you as someone who is probably very dangerous to society in general, and your loved ones in particular. They have places where you can check in for a long stay.
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