Posted on 10/19/2008 4:42:06 PM PDT by wagglebee
This is how the culture of death moves toward cultural hegemony: The first step is to claim that killing (which is descriptive and accurate in that it means "to end life") will be reserved for the very rare case. But as soon as that premise is accepted, the acceptable category of killable people steadily increases.
Now in a tragic case in the UK, we see that very process in action. An athlete who became paralyzed and subsequently suicidal, was taken by his parents to Switzerland for an assisted suicide. From the story:
From the moment that Daniel James drank the milky liquid and laid his head on the pillow, there was no going back. Within minutes his eyes had closed, his breathing slowed and then he was dead, his once-vigorous body peacefully but lethally shut down by the barbiturate solution he had swallowed...Well, he wanted to die, many will say. Wouldn't you? My answer is I hope not. But if I did, I would also hope that my society would care more about me than I cared for myself in the not unlikely chance that I would eventually adjust to the new difficult circumstances, and thrive. Happens all the time.
In the room with the 23-year-old when he died were his parents Mark and Julie. Their grief was tempered only by the knowledge that this was the end that Daniel, who had been almost completely paralysed in a rugby accident, had desperately and determinedly sought. Yesterday Maitland, a supporter of the right to die movement who has spoken to Julie James, said: "When Dan found out about Dignitas he knew that he wanted to go. It was simply his decision and no one else."
However, assisted dying is not the same thing as assisted suicide. Even in Switzerland it is illegal to help a healthy but depressed person to dieNot true. The assister just has to not have a venal or bad motive. Besides, that's exactly what happened here, the assisted suicide of a depressed and healthy man! Unless one believes that disability equals sick. Besides, all of that is irrelevant since Switzerland's Supreme Court created a constitutional right to assisted suicide for the mentally ill anyway, so it comes close to death on demand.
Debbie Purdy has an incurable degenerative disease and all she wants is permission to shorten the last painful months. Knowing there is an escape route might be so comforting that you never use it. Many terminally ill people willingly live each day, particularly if they get palliative care and comfort from the hospice movement rather than suffering in a stressed, overlit general hospital. But the law on Swiss-bound helpers must be clarified. Dignitas will not be un-invented.Debbie Purdy wants to be able to be killed if she decides her disablities make it not worth going on. Remember, MS usually isn't a fatal disease. From the Telegraph:
Debbie Purdy suffers from a progressive form of multiple sclerosis that will lead to the degeneration of her body. When she feels she cannot go on she wants to be able to end her life at home, surrounded by her loved ones, but because of the country's "inhumane" law against assisted suicide she says she is unable to do so. Instead, she says she will have to make arrangements while she is still able so she can travel to Dignitas, the Swiss clinic that helps people end their lives by lethal injection, but fears her husband will be prosecuted if he helps her do so.But Purvis has accepted the premise: So, even within one column, she can't hold tight to a "terminal illness" restriction, and the slippery slope slip, slides away.
And this shows how slippery the slope really is.
Pro-Life Ping
Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
The discomforts of this world are nothing compared to the next.
What about the poor unborn who get assisted in suicide all the time
Anyone doubt that O’s plan for national health care will result in the rationing of care for those with disabilities and the elderly.
They were just the beginning, those who don’t have the opportunity to speak out will always be the first victims.
That is a certainty.
It definitely will do so. It’s also going to result in the destruction of Catholic health care institutions, because once everything is essentially federalized through his plan, they will be forced to offer all “services,” from abortion to euthanasia. The FOCA bill already specifies that no conscience clauses will be allowed to protect health care workers and permit them to opt out of abortions, and this will extend to euthanasia very soon.
"This is how the culture of death moves toward cultural hegemony: The first step is to claim that killing (which is descriptive and accurate in that it means "to end life") will be reserved for the very rare case. But as soon as that premise is accepted, the acceptable category of killable people steadily increases."
People warned about that when abortion was legalized. Infanticide and euthanasia
would be next. "Oh, no..." the liberals promised. And now...here we are. Right
back to Nazi eugenics of the 1930s in the very Allied countries who fought
against it and died to stop it.
What was it Marx said: "History repeats itself, the second time around as farce."
The glorious STATE wants control of everything, from cradle to grave, with corrupt politicians pulling the strings.
I would imagine that in pioneer days and before, if someone was hellbent on doing themselves in, they just did it themselves WITHOUT the approval of the state.
Just got back from being out all day - Wesley Smith understands the dangers of doctor assisted suicide/euthanasia perfectly. It’s Nazi “useless eaters” all over again. Exactly. Only with an even more deceitful veneer of inverted “morality”. Nazis were crude fellows compared to their modern counterparts.
Exactly. The modern culture of death is killing people with arrogance and efficiency that Hitler and Mengele never even imagined.
And with the victims begging to be able to die - except the babies, the mothers are the killers; as well as being duped. Many mothers who choose to kill their babies would choose otherwise if properly educated. Of course, that means the entire public school system would have to be overhauled (as it should be!).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.