Alex Schadenberg: Oregon citizen wants assisted suicide for people with Alzheimer's

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition ^ | 2/2/11 | Alex Schadenberg

[wagglebee]

Rodger Winn, an Oregon citizen, wrote an article promoting the extension of assisted suicide laws to people with Alzheimer's that he titled: A matter of choice

Winn is proposing that the answer to people with Alzheimer's is to give them a lethal dose.

Since when is it a matter of choice for people who cannot ask for assisted suicide, and what happens when the person is unable to "self-administer" the lethal dose themselves. Well, self-administer is really a misnomer in Oregon because it has been defined as "to ingest" and because there is no witness required at the time of death. To ingest could mean that you swallow or that it is absorbed throught your IV.

I wonder if Winn would say that there is no fear of a slippery slope in Oregon?

Link to Winn's letter that was published on Oregon Live on Saturday, January 29, 2011.

[trisham]

Do you know that half of all medical expenditures in the United States are for persons over the age of 75?

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Is that your real concern here? Do you know that someone over the age of 75 is still a human being? Do you know that despite not being in the good health of a 20 year old, that they may still find life worth living?

[wagglebee]

Do you know that half of all medical expenditures in the United States are for persons over the age of 75?

Do you have a point in all of this?

Do you know that the overwhelming majority of the medical expenditures in the US are paid for by the patient's insurance or Medicare (which they have also paid for)?

Do you know that your "concerns" aren't exactly new?

“This person suffering from hereditary defects

costs the people 60,000 Reichmarks during his lifetime.

People, that is your money. Read ‘New People’.”

[DJ MacWoW]

Given that we’re all going to die eventually, it would be better to be healthy and active to the end. Unfortunately, all too many are not.

I'm 60 and have scoliosis with herniated disks. I'm also going blind in one eye. Are you suggesting that I'm useless?

I have 40 rose bushes that I planted in clay and rocks. It is a thing of beauty. Who are you to say who is "useful"?

[trisham]

Beautiful. :)

[wagglebee]

The hallmark of elitism is the elitist's presumption that they are entitled to determined which people are entitled to what.

[DJ MacWoW]

Yes and if they show up at my house they’ll get a face full of a shovel. :-)

[trisham]

The hallmark of elitism is the elitist's presumption that they are entitled to determined which people are entitled to what.

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Imho, it's due to a combination of fear and contempt. Fear of aging and death, and contempt for others. Such elitists seem to be somewhat detached and lacking in empathy, although they often express their opinions as concerns for others.

[trisham]

Sometimes the direct approach is best. :)

[P-Marlowe]

This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the people 60,000 Reichmarks during his lifetime. People, that is your money.

This is why is it soooo critical that we NEVER institute national health care. Once your health becomes the property of "the people", then your right to live becomes subject to consensus.

Assisted Suicide is a simple way to accomplish a holocaust. Just declare people incompetent and then the state can make the decision to assist them in their suicide.

Socialism will ultimately always end in holocaust. When people go on the public dole, they become the property of the state, and when you become a burden to your owner, you the owner can always find a way to gently put you out to pasture... and shoot you to put you out of your misery.

Liberalism Kills. Never forget that.

[DJ MacWoW]

I have often found that to be true. It saves time too.

[wagglebee]

Outstanding post!

[trisham]

Outstanding post!

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Agreed!

[trisham]

We all have such busy lives these days. :)

[strider44]

My mother is very ill. Congestive heart failure, other complications, etc. She has made it clear and in no uncertain terms that she wants her DNR enforced. No ventilators for assisted breathing either. She’s only 66. She’s a nurse and spent the bulk of her 35 plus years working with the elderly. She has seen literally hundreds of terminally ill patients waste away over the last few months of their lives and wants no part of that for herself. She’s of sound mind and made her preferences clear. Who am I to act against them? Still, this is a struggle.

[wagglebee]

A person has every right to have a DNR or medical directive against ventilators. This IS NOT incompatible with being pro-life because they do not necessarily end a person's life.

The difference comes when measures are taken (deliberate overdoses or other medications designed to end life, removal of nutrition and hydration) that will only result in death.

[DJ MacWoW]

My M-i-L had polio as a child. Her parents were told that she’d never walk again but she did. She “burned new pathways”. She broke her ankle when she was 82. She was in a wheelchair for 6 weeks. When they tried to stand her up again, the 79 year old “new” pathways had stopped working. She never walked again. When she contracted pneumonia they wanted to put her on a ventilator. We said an emphatic “NO”. The reasoning was that her legs had quit working so we had no way of knowing if she’d ever be able to breath without the ventilator again. She made it until she was 88. There is NOTHING that isn’t pro-life in the choices we made. We were not trying to actively kill her and we absolutely were thinking of her future and quality of life.

[DJ MacWoW]

We all have such busy lives these days. :)

That include shovels. lol

[little jeremiah]

Well said.

[Lesforlife]

Our entire culture is so super saturated with death, it is beyond depressing!!
Choose life, PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!! That you and your descendants might live!!!

[little jeremiah]

Not only do they want the slippery slope, they want the great leap off into the abyss. But they want it for others, not (just) themselves.