Posted on 03/03/2009 7:46:45 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
WASHINGTON will become only the second US state to allow assisted suicide as its new "death with dignity" law takes effect.
Under a ballot measure passed during November elections, physicians in the northwest state will be allowed to write prescriptions for lethal doses of drugs for terminally ill patients who have less than six months to live.
Only one other US state - Oregon - has similar legislation, although a court in Montana recently ruled that terminally ill patients had the right to seek physician-assisted suicide.
Supporters of the new Washington legislation, made possible by a 2006 US Supreme Court ruling, say the law allows for "aided dying" rather than assisted suicide or euthanasia.
"Aided dying is neither euthanasia nor suicide," said Terry Barnett, president of the Washington branch of Compassion & Choices advocacy group.
"It's not euthanasia because euthanasia implies action by a physician to end a patient's life. It's not suicide because people who choose aid in dying are not choosing to end their lives.
"They don't want to die - they're choosing to end suffering that cannot be relieved and suffering that they are experiencing that is worse than death."
Supporters of the law say a string of stringent checks and balances have been put in place to prevent the system being abused, rejecting critics who argue the law will make it easy for sufferers to choose to die.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
There will be many. The anarchist mentality that thrives up there is frightening. They may try to take others with them.
son of a bitch
Sorry. I have topped out on the tolerance level.
Hairsplitting.
What ever happened with First do no Harm
Did we really think this was going to stop with the unborn?
I have a friend in the state who on most everything is very conservative, but I had to argue with her for hours about this one. Her husband’s mother had died of cancer and they’d had the burden of caring for her and so her husband, also usually very conservative, thought this evil measure was a good idea and wanted them to vote for it.
I have a suspicion that they did vote for it, proving that too many are ready to set aside their principles and beliefs if something opposed to them appeals in other ways.
Huh?
ping
What people decide to do at the end of life is their business. I’m always amazed that there are those that want to prevent people who are terminal from deciding how and when to die. It’s none of your business.
And how do we protect their ‘right’ to die when and how they want when a doctor or relative decides otherwise???
So you think that having your children ,your spouse sit by,while you suffer in agony is fine? My Father battled for years ,suffering,knowing there was no cure for his ailment,all he wanted was a peaceful end, and it was not to be,no Doctor would prescribe him enough pain pills ,no Doctor would go out on a limb to treat his pain just in case the family decided to sue.He suffered so much his passing was a blessing>So who decides who suffers,how much,when their time is up? God? Or Is it you? If I could have slipped my Dad some pills I would have.So I am a Bad person?
I have heard that many of these people are being allowed to exit the planet before they register to vote! If anyone has the chance, please explain that the duty of Democrats does not end with their death. In fact, most Washington State Democrats go on to have a very exciting civic life after death. If fact the idiotic bimbo who is presently the recumbent governor of this state owes her election to them.
You can check this out with Michael Steele. He did terribly among the dead Democrat voters of Baltimore, many of whom haven't missed an election since 1789.
“And how do we protect their ‘right’ to die when and how they want when a doctor or relative decides otherwise???”
Typical strawman. Stick to the article and that says nothing like that.
I feel for your father and your family. But “Death with Dignity” is a bad term. It implies that the kind of death your father died was undignified, which it was not. Candy coating the act with terms like “death with dignity” and “assisted suicide” only serves to confuse the issue. We have a term for what it is—euthanasia.
It doesn’t have to AND there will be no witnesses...
They fall into one or both of two categories...Ghouls and Control Freaks.
Yes! Did you read that in Oregon, it's WAY up to 0.0016% of the population!?! Why, the holocaust that was predicted there is putting every resident at risk! At this rate, in less than a million years, there will be nobody left!!
Dang, it's just horrible that people are able to have control of their own lives...don't they realize the State owns them, and they need FReepers to tell them what's best for them?
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