Posted on 10/04/2007 6:41:54 AM PDT by presidio9
Legalizing doctor-assisted suicide does not lead to a "slippery slope" of excess deaths among the vulnerable poor, uninsured, elderly or other patients, according to a U.S. study in the October issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics.
"Fears about the impact on vulnerable people have dominated debate about physician-assisted suicide. We find no evidence to support those fears where this practice already is legal," study lead author and bioethicist Margaret Battin, a distinguished professor of philosophy and adjunct professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah, said in a prepared statement.
She and her colleagues analyzed data from The Netherlands (which legalized doctor-assisted suicide in 2002 but openly tolerated it since the 1980s) and from Oregon, the only state in the United States where doctor-assisted suicide is legal.
In the first nine years after the Oregon law took effect in the 1990s, 456 people received lethal prescriptions from doctors, and 292 of them actually used the drugs to kill themselves. That's 0.15 percent of all deaths in Oregon during those nine years, the researchers said.
Of 136,000 deaths each year in The Netherlands, about 1.7 percent involved a doctor administering life-ending drugs, and 0.1 percent involved a doctor writing lethal prescriptions for patients.
In both Oregon and The Netherlands, people who received a doctor's help to die were an average of 70 years old, and 80 percent were cancer patients.
Best bet is if you want to kill yourself do it on your own. Don't ask me, or my doctor, or my dentist to help you out.
Just do it and leave the rest of us alone!
Funny they should be so concerned about "poor, uninsured, elderly", when the latest euthanasia victim was (somewhat) wealthy, insured, and young. (Terri Schaivo)
How long before the right to die becomes a duty to die?
It’s tough, and I’m not saying we should be killing the terminally ill, but I don’t understand the belief that ANY alternative is better than death.
According to a 2005 by Debra J. Saunders, Death Trumps Choice, many people who were "helped" to die did not ask for that "help"
A Netherlands government report shows that
In 1990 - 1,000 patients were "assisted" without requesting that
In 1995 - 900 patients were "assisted" without requesting that
A Lancet report estimates
In 2001 - 840 Dutch patients were "assisted" without requesting that
Actually, the most recent assisted suicide case was Lovelle Svart in Oregon. There was extensive media coverage of her, at her request. You can find it at: http://next.oregonianextra.com/lovelle/
I know this runs counter to how many people believe, but having watched my mother die a slow and painful death, I think it’s a good law and it’s comforting to me that I have that option.
“Assisted suicide” is not the “slippery slope” to anywhere. It, along with the slaughter of children in the womb, the elevation of insane sexual obsession to a celebrated “right” and the gradual dilution and elimination of a higher morality from public life (leading inevitably to its loss in private life) is the bottom of the slope. Now all that can happen is we expand murder in the name of freedom and compassion and persecute those who hold to a higher moral standard in the name of tolerance.
A film I include among my favorites is “Judgment at Nuremburg”. In it the defendants - all judges in the Nazi system - are confronted with evidence of the death camps and the slaughter of millions of innocent people. At the very end of the film one of the defendants, after being found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, tells the judge who sentenced him that “..all those millions of people, I never thought it would come to that. You must believe me!” and the judge responds “Herr Janig, it came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death whom you knew to be innocent”.
We have passed the “I never knew it would come to that” point long ago. We have run out of slippery slope.
I don’t need any help. When I decide it’s time for me to die, my good friend Mr. Remington will do the deed.
If you fear the end of life so much just get it over with now. That way you can leave my doctor alone.
The “without requesting that” part should disturb anyone thinking of visiting Nederland or other country that murders the sick and elderly.
Yep.
It’s easy to get statistics that show there hasn’t been an increase in requests for “assistance”
Kill people BEFORE they officially request it.
Or destroy the paper trail.
Guns don't kill people...
You are very right. We are past the slippery slope.
My sister, a staunch liberal, has read quite a few books about the rise of Hitler.
She has often mentioned she is amazed that the German people could stoop so low as to go along with Hitler.
When Terri was being killed, I told my sister about the need to stand up, nowdays, and declare the worth of every human life.
She couldn’t see the similarity to 1930’s Germany.
This is outright wrong. In Britain, the NHS is already involuntarily killing “defective” children with court order, over the objections of their parents.
They are killing children for as little as having a hairlip, which can be corrected with an inexpensive, simple surgery, that leaves only a small scar on the upper lip.
The collapse of medical ethics in the western world can only be met by organized religions founding medical schools, which both teach and enforce ethical standards in its students and graduates. Graduates who have the clear understanding that their medical degree can be revoked if they violate those heightened ethical standards.
Great question. I can see city planners and environmentalists agree that.
Assisted suicide is NOT equal to Euthanasia. They are two different things.
Best bet is if you want to kill yourself do it on your own. Don't ask me, or my doctor, or my dentist to help you out.
I suppose you'd support the following, too...
Best bet is if you want to kill yourself walk do it on your own. Don't ask me, or my doctor, or my dentist to help you out.
In case you're unaware, many people who are in the condition of wishing for suicide are not able-bodied. Terminally ill people generally wait as long as possible before taking their own lives, only to find out that they overestimated their physical abilities.
One thing that has been demonstrated is that people are now realizing this from seeing relatives and others suffer, and are now taking their own lives earlier rather than later because they don't have the option of peaceful escape if they wait. Funny that the supposed "pro-life" position is hastening death so often.
Disabled persons have every right to assistance with things they cannot do on their own. I know it's fashionable to be against the rights of the disAbled, but conservatism's rugged individualism doesn't mean excluding compassion for those in need of assistance.
Also, with all the time you spend on FR, I'm surprised you're not aware that the government blocks peoples' access to various medications, etc., without physician's assistance. Therefore, it's not as if people can legally do things themselves.
Plus, I don't know of anyone who is asking your doctor for help. I believe that there are many physicians who would help if not blocked by potential legal problems.
You can believe differently if you wish, but you are wrong ~ not only in that but in everything else.
Folks who think life is improved by killing the weak or innocent really shouldn't be trusted.
If you're speaking of involuntary euthanasia, then I agree that they are two opposite sides of the "respect for the individual" coin. That is, assisted suicide respects the individual's preferences, while involuntary euthanasia is the opposite--it ignores them.
Voluntary euthanasia falls on the former side, too, while "life-at-all-costs-regardless-of-what-the-patient-wants" falls on the anti-patient side.
You can believe differently if you wish, but you are wrong ~ not only in that but in everything else.
LOL!
Folks who think life is improved by killing the weak or innocent really shouldn't be trusted.
Agreed....along with those who feel that they (or the government and its legislation) know better than a person how to run his life.
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