This is well written (by a doctor)
- Dr. Bob is a physician living near Seattle
http://doctorisin.blogspot.com/2004_12_01_doctorisin_archive.html
"Euthanasia is the quick fix to man's ageless struggle with suffering and disease. The Hippocratic Oath - taken in widely varying forms by most physicians at graduation - was originally administered to a minority of physicians in ancient Greece, who swore to prescribe neither euthanasia nor abortion - both common recommendations by healers of the age.
The rapid and widespread acceptance of euthanasia in pre-Nazi Germany occurred because it was eminently reasonable and rational. Beaten down by war, economic hardship, and limited resources, logic dictated that those who could not contribute to the betterment of society cease being a drain on its lifeblood.
Long before its application to ethnic groups and enemies of the State, it was administered to those who made us most uncomfortable: the mentally ill, the deformed, the retarded, the social misfit.
While invariably promoted as a merciful means of terminating suffering, the suffering relieved is far more that of the enabling society than of its victims. "Death with dignity" is the gleaming white shroud on the rotting corpse of societal fear, self-interest and ruthless self-preservation.
It is sobering and puzzling to ponder how the profession of medicine - whose core article of faith is healing and comfort of the sick - could be so effortlessly transformed into a calculating instrument of judgment and death.
It is chilling to read the cold scientific language of Nazi medical experiments or Dutch studies on optimal techniques to minimize complications in euthanasia. Yet this devolution of medicine, with some contemplation, is not hard to discern.
It is the natural gravity of man detached from higher principles, operating out of the best his reason alone has to offer, with its inevitable disastrous consequences."
I firmly believe that euthanasia should be illegal, and that "Dr." Kervorkian was a serial killer.
However...
There is a reason that no physician (other than Dr. K) has ever been convicted of murder or manslaughter in an actual case.
That's why there are juries.