Posted on 10/31/2006 4:14:57 PM PST by wagglebee
OTTAWA, Ontario, October 31, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The growing push for euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada threatens the foundations of the country, said B.C. palliative care expert Dr. Margaret Cottle, replacing genuine compassion with an easy reliance on “rights.”
“The concept of medical killing is predicated on the assumption that death is better,” Dr. Cottle pointed out in a presentation to Members of Parliament in Ottawa last Thursday. “Yet there is not one shred of evidence that people are better off dead. Show me the evidence that the person is better off dead, that the quality of life is going to be better.”
“Even people who don’t believe in heaven or an afterlife claim death brings peace--well, the onus is on those seeking change to prove the benefits of the change. How can a secular society claim that people are ‘better off dead‘?”
In fact, Dr. Cottle cited recent quality-of-life studies that found people in palliative care often reported greater satisfaction with their quality of life than people in full health at the height of their careers.
“People in palliative care experience less gap between goals and reality in life quality because their values become simpler and more attainable.”
“Autonomy rights” of the patient trump all other considerations in end-of-life decision-making in the medical community, Dr. Cottle said, with patients taking a disproportionate role of authority in the process. Assisted suicide is defended on the grounds that, without it, the human right of autonomy would be denied.
“Autonomy is an illusion,” Dr. Cottle said. “We are connected to one another. We have lots of restrictions on our autonomy that we consider perfectly reasonable for civilized society.”
When applied to end-of-life decisions, radical patient autonomy carries with it a burden of requirement on those who will be forced to carry out the patient’s wishes. Patient “autonomy” that seeks assisted suicide demands the participation of a physician.
While human rights are important and necessary, Dr. Cottle stated, the deeper issue surrounding end-of-life questions is that of society’s ability and willingness to care for those in need.
“It’s about our personal suffering and how we deal with it. Rights come in when unconditional love fails--we need them, but we need to admit that rights are a failure of love, a stop-gap measure.”
“Altruism and compassion are the core elements of Canada. If those values are going to retain any significance, we need to support them. The very fabric of our society is at stake.”
“There are lessons for us to learn as a culture, What are we going to feel about ourselves, what is going to happen to our identity if we fail to protect the most vulnerable and weakest in our society?”
The euthanasia information session for Ottawa MP’s was a joint effort by the Institute for Marriage and Family Canada, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and Action Life Ottawa.
Dr. Cottle joined euthanasia opponent Bobby Schindler in a presentation urging Canadian politicians to support programs that offer quality assistance to the disabled and their families, and to oppose legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia.
See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Canadian MP Again Seeks to Legalize Assisted Suicide
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/aug/06080101.html
100 Doctors and Lawyers Warn Canada's Parliament Against Assisted Suicide Bill
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/oct/05102604.html
Canada's Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Warns Assisted Suicide Legalization Looming
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jul/05070603.html
Perfect!
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When dead means you're in Heaven.
Canada Ping.
So, you believe in Heaven, yet you also believe in playing God?
Maybe death is better than divorce too. Or going through life with a minimum wage job...
QUALITY of life, you know. < /s >
Ping.
Reading this headline, I couldn't help but think that Howard Dean was probably wishing he could euthanize a certain Junior Senator from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
It's for the good of the state. I read some months ago about a fellow in the UK who sued to keep himself on life support. The judges ruled that he had no right to stay alive and that the doctors knew best when to terminate his life. It's a very sick mentality. I'm not sure if they pulled the plug on him yet.
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
LOL! Wouldn't you pay money to read the messages in Kerry's Blackberry right about now?
I "played God" with my beautiful puppy of over 11 years, yesterday.
Please know that I am not equating people with dogs, but I was asked, and I decided,.....when would be the moment of her death?
At some point I said "now".
I believe in heaven, Wagglebee, and, I played God.
Ever seen anyone in the last throes of Alzheimer's? I've seen two. Better off dead.
I've had to make the same decision with dogs several times. It is never easy and I am very sorry for your loss.
However, it is very different. God gave us dominion over animals, he did not grant us dominion over humans.
Sounds rather Nazi, doesn't it. That's what you get with "national" health care.
Yes it does. The term was eugenics.
I hate to express a thought regarding euthanasia, but I'd like some feedback on it from folks whose opinions I respect.
I have a theory about why abortion will eventually go away in the U.S. It doesn't have much to do with politics. If anything, I expect that abortion will be illegalized in the U.S. about a month after the last abortuary is closed for lack of business.
My theory is that abortions are dropping and will continue to drop because children generally carry the moral and political outlook of their parents into adulthood. Pro-life people don't kill off their progeny. Pro-abortion people have fewer children, if any at all. In the long run, the math is simply catching up with the abortionists.
My thought: does not the same dynamic work on those who seek out legalized euthanasia? Does euthanasia not sow the seeds of it's own destruction in the long run?
For the record, I oppose euthanasia on moral and religious grounds, I view it as evil, and will continue to oppose it regardless.
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