Posted on 02/01/2007 3:59:57 PM PST by wagglebee
Honolulu, HI (LifeNews.com) -- The Hawaii state legislature is once again tackling the issue of assisted suicide and a state House committee will consider a bill soon that would make the state just the second to legalize the practice. Only Oregon has legalized assisted suicide and measures in several states, including Hawaii, have failed to add others to the list.
In 2002, a similar bill backed by then-governor Ben Cayetano (D), passed the House 30-20, but it was defeated in the Senate by only 3 votes.
Then in 2005, the state House Health Committee quickly voted down a bill to legalize assisted suicide.
That committee will hold another hearing in the next 10 days on a measure sponsored by its chairman, Democratic state Rep. Josh Green. He told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspaper that he met with party leaders and got his bill assigned to his committee.
"I'm going to hear it in the next 10 days because people deserve to have a hearing on things they're passionate about," Green said. "It's an emotional issue and it's a critical issue because we have to be safe with peoples' lives."
House Judiciary Vice Chairman Blake Oshiro, a Democrat, is a leading co-sponsor along with twelve other Democrats and two Republicans.
Meanwhile, Senate President Colleen Hanabusa introduced a companion bill (SB 1995) in the Senate, though no hearing has been scheduled on it.
Asked about the prospects of the bill, Green told the newspaper, "It's not a foregone conclusion whether it will pass or fail."
Pro-life groups again said they would strongly oppose the bill and they will be joined by medical groups and disability rights organizations.
Kelly Rosati, executive director of the Hawaii Family Forum, told the Star-Bulletin, "I think it's a proposal that's opposed by pretty much all of Hawaii's medical community, the disability rights community as well as by many in the faith community."
The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii says it supports the proposal.
During the last debate, Dr. William Petty, an oncologist, said patients facing death "are potential victims of subtle and not-so-subtle coercion."
"Care and treatment can be expensive," he added. "Manipulation of patients is a real problem when physician-assisted suicide becomes an option."
Michael Tada, who suffers from cerebral palsy, had a difficult time sharing his views against the bill.
Through an independent living aide, Tada said he thought the bill would legitimatize suicide and said he might not be alive now if allowed a doctor's help to end his life.
In addition to pro-life groups, the Hawaii Medical Association opposed the bill and Dr. Leonard Howard, past president of the group, said the bill "offers only one idea -- death."
Most notaries also charge a fee. What if a person writes the notary a bad check? Will the notary then have some claim on the person's estate?
Obviously, the right thing to do under such circumstances would be to pay the notary in cash. I think writing a bad check before having one's self snuffed might be considered an act of gross immorality.
Hawaii will no longer be called "paradise". What paradise can embrace euthanasia? Why is it it people cannot see that the Ultimate goal here will be to have someone else make that decision for you?
Because liberalism is all about having other people make decisions and take responsibility for you.
Exactly. Do these folks really believe that when you give an inch they won't take a mile? To me, thats the liberal answer to Health Care. Put the sick and disabled at the end of the health chain and advocate euthanasia so others won't have to pay more for health care. After all, the sick and elderly probably aren't paying taxes the libs can take. It's there to see if you know the lib mind. They will create resentment for the sick and infirm. Voila. euthanasia their answer
It is absolutely sane in a non-religious frame of reference. And I am not kidding in the least.
So is communism.
No. Communism is a way of life characterized by its collectivism [primacy of group over the individual]. What you saw there was a subspecies of right-wing libertarianism. Since libertarianism is individualistic, communism it is not.
You fail to rebut my contention that communism makes sense from an atheistic / amoral standpoint, and therefore that euthanasia, which you refer to as, "assisted suicide," makes any more sense, or is any more, "sane." In fact, I would further contend that once one lapses (retreats) to an atheistic world view, one could argue that anything makes sense, because with man as the arbiter of all morality, the individual can justify any action. Conservatism, and indeed Americanism, in principle as articulated in our Declaration of Independence, are structured on moral absolutes, a higher power and inalienable principles which are completely independent of the opinions of a king, tyrant, or the Hawaiian legislature.
For the same reason as everything else done or available: because there are willing consumers, and who are you [or me] to impede their choice? The abuse to be prevented [as an example, nothing personal] is if you want to commit your suicide while owing me, say, $100 [or having any other unsatisfied contractual obligation, not necessarily to me] - and without paying your debt or making the provisions to pay it in your will. Thus the need for the due process and for a judge to sign off.
See my previous reference to hit men / contract killers. Euthanasia is killing someone as a matter of convenience for others...no different than me having a creditor offed so they stop pestering me. Convenience and demand do not by themselves, legitimize a practice.
While almost all forms of communism are atheistic, not every form of atheism is communistic. Some are anticommunist, as a matter of fact. Inverting this relationship is a logical fallacy.
I agree...indeed, and with the exception of monastic communities (where property is willingly surrendered and redistributed) communism is an abject failure where property is ultimately surrendered and redistributed by force.
I will take CS Lewis's tact in regards to your second assertion, and that is simply, that I don't believe in atheists. People will invent a god of their own making, if indeed, it is something as ridiculous as embracing atheism as their religion. My point is, our founders cemented our republic in the belief of a GOD...not necessarily a Christian God, but certainly a supreme force that exists above, and transcends the human experience. This is irrefutable, and a reading of the Declaration of Independence makes this lucidly clear to any but the most obtuse among us...
Perfect response!
So you see murder as a consumer driven issue?
I had it notarized.
It is NOT a murder. Murder is when someone is killing you, and you do not want it. When you do it to yourself [whether with or without assistance, does not matter, nor does it matter how you do it, even if by chain-smoking], it is not a murder but a suicide.
If someone is laying in a hospital bed and ANOTHER PERSON has to take proactive measures that are designed to cause the death of the bedridden person, it is murder.
It's homocide plain and simple...the task you've set for yourself is to justify it.
I don't mean to interject as I believe Wagglebee is perfectly capable of arguing this matter. I'm just *assisting*.
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