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Americans still split on doctor-assisted suicide
AP via MSNBC.com ^ | May 29, 2007 | Unattributed

Posted on 05/29/2007 6:58:01 PM PDT by gpapa

NEW YORK - More than two-thirds of Americans believe there are circumstances in which a patient should be allowed to die, but they are closely divided on whether it should be legal for a doctor to help terminally ill patients end their own lives by prescribing fatal drugs, a new AP-Ipsos poll finds.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; US: California; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: assistedsuicide; cultureofdeath; kervorkian; moralabsolutes; murder; suicide
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1 posted on 05/29/2007 6:58:02 PM PDT by gpapa
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To: gpapa

I expect we will shortly have another round of sob stories from the pro-death crowd to convince us that it should be legal to murder unwanted elderly and handicapped people.


2 posted on 05/29/2007 7:00:28 PM PDT by madprof98 ("moritur et ridet" - salvianus)
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To: madprof98
The way to address the question is "Would you feel secure seeking medical advice or treatment from a doctor known to have killed many of his patients"?

I am not interested in doctors being given a license to kill, and would not now seek service or advice from any doctor who ever lived in Oregon, Switzerland, Belgium or Nederland ~

3 posted on 05/29/2007 7:03:02 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: gpapa

I thought it was a Europress article headlined “Americans still SPIT on doctor assisted suicide”.

As the state becomes the authority and provider of your health care, they will line item budget your life.

As Joyclyn Elders said “Those old people are going to die anyway... the young people need the medical care, they’re going to be paying for our social security”. (paraphrase).


4 posted on 05/29/2007 7:03:49 PM PDT by weegee (Libs want us to learn to live with terrorism, but if a gun is used they want to rewrite the Const.)
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To: gpapa
Doesn’t the Hippocratic Oath, that all Doctors pledge, say ‘first, do no harm’? Maybe the Oath should be changed to the Hypocritical Oath.
5 posted on 05/29/2007 7:11:43 PM PDT by originalbuckeye (I want a hero....I'm holding out for a hero (politically))
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To: muawiyah
The way to address the question is "Would you feel secure seeking medical advice or treatment from a doctor known to have killed many of his patients"?

Far more secure than with one who ignores his patients' wishes and suffering.

6 posted on 05/29/2007 7:11:50 PM PDT by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: Gondring

What a totally strange answer.


7 posted on 05/29/2007 7:19:52 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: gpapa

As someone who lost a loved one to cancer, who saw the terrible pain they were in...I can ‘understand’ those in the same boat wanting to end their suffering.

And yet, as a Christian I believe that miracles can and do happen.

This subject really is between the individual, and God.


8 posted on 05/29/2007 7:29:05 PM PDT by Shadowstrike (Be polite, Be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.)
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To: gpapa

I will admit that I’m a little “torn” on this issue.

Watching my beloved Grandma die of dementia wasn’t fun. The last year of her life we needed to put her in a facility (a nice one) that could handle her because she was totally violent, smacked or pinched us all when we got within arms length, and could suddenly swear like a Longshoreman! And this is a woman who was an artist, could handle a Tea Party like nobody’s business and was an award-winning flower grower!

I don’t want to go out like that, though there is a lot to be said for being heavily sedated in your last days if you’re whacked and in pain. I can support that and wouldn’t deny anyone the meds they needed for that.

But now I have to choose this week to put my beloved Black Lab down. She has cancer that is terminal and inoperable (even after one surgery which was really horrible for her) and she’s to the point where she really needs to be released, because it isn’t much of a life for her anymore.

Luckily, as a Human, I have the “choice” to help her on her way across The Rainbow Bridge.

However, the whole Terri Schaivo thing just threw me for a loop; I’d hate to think that my husband would want to have me starved to death because I was ‘an inconvenience’ and it was ‘what I wanted.’

And this Kervorkian guy is a psycho. He’s just sick; he’s a psychotic killer in a doctor suit.

Yep. Typing this all out has helped me see that as a Society, we really shouldn’t be allowing one another to pull the plug on each other. Animals, yes. People, no.


9 posted on 05/29/2007 7:32:31 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate.)
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To: originalbuckeye
You are barking up the wrong tree. Most of the AMERICAN PUBLIC are split. Most doctors, including myself, would in no way, shape, or form assist in suicide. Incidentally, the Oath says the following:

To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death. Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion. But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts.

10 posted on 05/29/2007 7:39:29 PM PDT by gas_dr (Trial lawyers are Endangering Every Patient in America)
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To: gas_dr
Maybe you wouldn't, but I wonder about others. My friend just lost her mother the day she entered the hospice. The doctors had given her about 6 weeks, she was facing a tortuous death from emphysema. They gave her morphine and atavan according to her daughter, and she was gone.

My neighbors both had lung cancer, he first was walking and able to go to the VA, they give him chemo and he fades fast and dies within 3 days. His wife came down with it about 18 months later, they didn't tell her what she had, she was getting weaker, finally goes to the hospital, the grandson told me I'd better get up there, they gave her chemo and she wasn't handling it well. She died that night.

I suspect some doctors are deliberately overmedicating to hasten terminal patients' deaths and have been doing it for some time. I know yanking feeding tubes is common with the elderly.

11 posted on 05/29/2007 7:45:28 PM PDT by Aliska
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To: Shadowstrike

Suffering has purpose is this life. Cancer is terrible but we are not little gods. We should tolerate this it really is no different than abortion.


12 posted on 05/29/2007 8:07:00 PM PDT by ThisLittleLightofMine
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To: ThisLittleLightofMine

That should have read we should not tolerate assisted suicide it is no different than abortion.


13 posted on 05/29/2007 8:08:52 PM PDT by ThisLittleLightofMine
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To: Aliska

I am a nursing student and I have had many nurses tell me many people work within the medical community that support assisted suicide and will even give them a little help whether requested or not, especially in hospice.


14 posted on 05/29/2007 8:10:19 PM PDT by ThisLittleLightofMine
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To: ThisLittleLightofMine

At one time my family had to make a decision about the medical care of our father as to continue to keep him alive by artificial means or let him go be with God.

We made the right choice.


15 posted on 05/29/2007 8:13:17 PM PDT by trumandogz
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To: trumandogz
We had to do the very same thing....but assisted suicide is much different than turning off artificial life support wouldn't you agree?
16 posted on 05/29/2007 8:19:57 PM PDT by ThisLittleLightofMine
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To: ThisLittleLightofMine
A nurse told me that, too, and I live in the supposedly more conservative midwest.

I have mixed feelings about it. Seeing someone suffer so terribly would be horrible, but my conscience wouldn't allow me to actively or passively help them end their life unnaturally were I in a position to do so and had the means.

These are very hard things to deal with.

17 posted on 05/29/2007 8:22:49 PM PDT by Aliska
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To: madprof98

Will ping this out tonight or tomorrow.


18 posted on 05/29/2007 8:39:44 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Only those who thirst for the truth will know the truth.)
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To: ThisLittleLightofMine
Suffering has purpose is this life. Cancer is terrible but we are not little gods.

Then go ahead and suffer, if that's what you think is best. Why should it be your business if a suffering, terminally ill patient wants a different option?

...it really is no different than abortion.

Rubbish.

19 posted on 05/29/2007 9:19:24 PM PDT by Ken H
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To: ThisLittleLightofMine
Suffering has purpose is this life.

If suffering has a purpose in your life, you're welcome to it.

20 posted on 05/29/2007 9:38:33 PM PDT by CGTRWK
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