Renowned oncologist changes position on euthanasia after contracting cancer

CNA ^ | 4/11/2008

[markomalley]

Madrid, Apr 11, 2008 / 03:21 pm (CNA).- The Spanish magazine Huellas has published an interview with Sylvie Menard, one of the most renowned oncologists in Europe who for many years was a supporter of euthanasia but several months ago changed her views after she was diagnosed with bone cancer.

Menard told the magazine that she always believed that each person should decide his own fate, but ‘when I became ill, I changed my position radically.”

“When you get sick, death ceases to be something virtual and becomes something that is with you every day,” she said.  “So you say to yourself: ‘I am going to do everything possible to live as long as possible.”

Menard, who is married and has one son, acknowledged, “Today anything that means a new chance at life is valuable to me.”

Despite her illness, she continues as head of the Experimental Oncology Department at the Institute of Cancer in Milan. She said that those who promote euthanasia do so for two reasons: they don’t want to suffer and they don’t want to lose self-sufficiency, thus becoming a burden for others.

She agreed that people who are ill “do not want to experience pain” and that “they have a right to alleviate it”. She also emphasized that “pain therapy has advanced considerably in recent years.”

“Even if you do not have complete use of your faculties and you cannot get up because you are confined to bed, but you still have the affection of your family members, in my opinion, even in those conditions, it’s worth it to keep living,” she said.

[markomalley]

So you were in favor of killing the sick when it was somebody else, but now that it's you facing the ovens, your opinion changes?

How bloody typical..

[markomalley]

ping

[DB]

Another mugged lefty.

I hope she wins her fight.

[trisham]

Although it seems the woman suffers from a lack of compassion for others, at least she admits she was wrong.

[Stepan12]

"Better to be wanted by the police than not wanted at all."

Anonymous

[Jim Noble]

“When you get sick, death ceases to be something virtual and becomes something that is with you every day,” she said. “So you say to yourself: ‘I am going to do everything possible to live as long as possible.”

This is confusing two, and maybe three, issues as if they are one.

First issue: Most (virtually all) people with terminal illness want to live as long as possible. I have seen two suicides in 32 years of practice, heavily focused on serious/terminal illness. Healthy people, including doctors, often think "I would never want to live like that", but mostly they have no clue.

Second: Patients should not be killed. Ever. Well, hardly ever.

Thirdly: Every once in a great while, there is suffering so grave, and so compelling, that adequate palliative therapy ends life. Most doctors never experience this (because they avoid the deathbed like it was radioactive). But it's real, and when it happens you never forget it.

No physician has ever been convicted of a crime under the circumstances alluded to in #3, although occasionally an elected DA in trouble will seek an indictment.

If this oncologist practiced her whole life thinking terminally ill cancer patients wanted to die, she must be deaf, dumb, and blind.

[mo]

Ya think!!!!!

[mo]

Ya think!!!!!

[WorkingClassFilth]

“Even if you do not have complete use of your faculties and you cannot get up because you are confined to bed, but you still have the affection of your family members, in my opinion, even in those conditions, it’s worth it to keep living,” she said.

Oops.

Dr. Peter Singer (AKA: Mr. Let's-kill-the-babies-elderly-and-anyone-that-is-not-perfect) also came to this same startling conclusion after his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimers.

[nyyankeefan]

gee another lib/dem convert...how convenient!!!!

[gridlock]

Despite her illness, she continues as head of the Experimental Oncology Department at the Institute of Cancer in Milan. She said that those who promote euthanasia do so for two reasons: they don’t want to suffer and they don’t want to lose self-sufficiency, thus becoming a burden for others.

That second reason boils down to money.

And now that the state is picking up the bill, suddenly the state has an interest in moving the process of death along as cost-effectively as possible.

[Cheburashka]

“There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

Also, see the story of the prodigal son.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

you nailed it. The "typical liberal person" has ideas for others but when they get cancer, in this case, they have an awakening. The same can be said for the senator that gets mugged without a gun.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

A rare convert from the ideology of mental disturbance.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

For some people life becomes more valuable as the end nears, for some it becomes less.

I’ve known - and respected - people who have made both kinds of choices.

Dr. Menard has made hers, I believe the rest of us ought to have the right to do the same.

[Balding_Eagle]

Menard told the magazine that she always believed that each person should decide his own fate, but ‘when I became ill, I changed my position radically.”

Since she has changed her position, one can only conclude that now she believes OTHERS should chose her fate.

Very cruel.

[Scotswife]

“Dr. Peter Singer (AKA: Mr. Let’s-kill-the-babies-elderly-and-anyone-that-is-not-perfect) also came to this same startling conclusion after his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimers. “

Really?
I hadn’t heard about that...is that a recent event?

[Emmett McCarthy]

Your references made the point I was going to try to make much more succintly than I would have been able to. Thanks.

[Salvation]

**“So you say to yourself: ‘I am going to do everything possible to live as long as possible.”**

Did her brain start working?

[Salvation]

Pray for an end to euthanasia and the conversion of America to a mindset of life!