Posted on 06/30/2011 8:59:07 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Dementia sufferers are being killed by doctors in Holland under the country’s euthanasia laws, official figures are to reveal.
A total of 21 patients with early-stage dementia, including Alzheimer’s, died by lethal injection last year, according to a forthcoming annual report.
This is the first time dementia sufferers have been included in the country’s euthanasia statistics.
None of the cases is thought to have involved any illegal act on the part of health professionals, and each time the patient was considered capable of giving their consent.
But the figures have caused alarm among critics who say the pool of patients who qualify for euthanasia in the Netherlands is expanding.
The figures, which are due to be formally released later in the summer, were leaked on NOS, the state television news channel
The NOS report included video footage of Alzheimer’s sufferer Guusje de Koning, 63, explaining to her children why she wanted to die at the hands of her doctor.
She said she had witnessed her own father’s slow decline and death through the illness, adding: ‘I don’t want that. I don’t want to suffer.’
Euthanasia advocates are using her story to promote the idea that euthanasia for dementia sufferers is a suitable way to avoid suffering and the expensive healthcare.
A series of public meetings have been held over the last year to encourage the elderly to learn about their ‘right’ to die, even if they are in good health but afraid of what might happen if they are diagnosed with dementia in the future.
But the practice of assisted suicide for dementia patients remains controversial. While some 95 per cent of Holland’s population support the country’s euthanasia laws, only 33 per cent of Dutch doctors agree with offering lethal injections to dementia sufferers.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This is disgusting. I guess we need an advocacy group called PETEAU....PEOPLE for the ETHICAL TREATMENT of the ELDERLY and the UNBORN.
I’m no philosopher but it’s becoming apparent that at some point, there won’t be enough moral people left to fight the immoral. I guess that’s when it ends.
“So I ask my critics - what have you done to alleviate human suffering and the indignity of debilitating neurologic decline other than assume the moral high ground? Held hands? Candle light vigils? Prayer? What other than bitching?”
Been primary caregiver for each of my ancestors who ended up needing it. Three, to be exact. Carried the casket for one. Provided backup for others who found themselves in the same predicament - meals, transportation, shift relief, or simply being a sympathetic ear. I might eat a pistol when my time nears, but I am not pulling anyone’s plug, or putting the weight of guilt on anyone else to pull mine.
I think, perhaps, that there has been some talking-past one another on this thread, and I apologize if I have said anything hurtful. The heart of your complaint is the treatment of your father by those who were supposed to be caregivers. This is the heart of my wife’s complaint, also.
Both of you responded with compassion, and did what you felt would alleviate suffering. However, the point of the article is: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? By improving medical technique, you have done much to prevent harm. Your fear of mistreatment in the face of this improvement goes to show that we have far to go in actual treatment of one another as individuals.
Not giving so-called caretakers medical justifications to withhold care is a frail safeguard against a state which rewards carelessness and heartlessness.
If someone wants others to take responsibility for killing them, that is dodging personal responsibility. You want the government and the medical profession to turn into executioners. If anyone wants to commit suicide, there are books with many plans and details - get the supplies now, and at the first sign of dementia or pain or whatever else is your signal to exit, take care of your death yourself. Anything else is foisting the responsibility of your death onto the government and medical profession.
It is the ultimate selfishness to want to change the health profession into a death profession, and the government involved in deciding who should live and who should die, just to suit your suicidal impulse.
It is easy to turn this into Nazi-era killing of people because they might get sick, but until you witness the real suffering - twice - that goes on for weeks and months, you'd hope for something a little less painful at the end of your own life.
If you read about this topic at all, you will see that people are routinely killed in the Netherlands, the UK and Belgium - now read carefully - without their consent. Not "maybe in the future" but right now. Apparently that's okay by you. And your assumption that I and others opposed to the government and medical profession getting into the euthanasia business have no clue about taking care of the dying, or chronic pain, you are merely displaying ignorance.
Also, calling people with diminished mental, brain or communications capacity "vegetables" reveals much about you. Vegetables are killed every day when carrots, potatoes and cauliflowers are harvested. You're comparing human beings who have emotions and feel pain and comfort to turnips. That's disgusting.
So anyone not a medical professional such as yourself has no worthy opinion or viewpoint? Is that what you are saying?
I’m not going to detail my personal life for you. But I will say that I am no stranger to caring for the dying.
Turning the medical profession and the government into executioners is not the answer to pain and suffering.
That is beautiful. Thank you.
I have been blessed by God with a heart for the elderly and a gift for caring for those who have dementia and Alzheimers. I really do believe I have been called by God to do what I do, and I am good at it (totally a God thing).
What I have discovered, in caring for the elderly, is that they can be a blessing, not a burden. The lady I cared for that I mentioned above, could never remember my name but I was her ‘very favorite special friend’. Part of what I did professionally, was to teach the family how to deal with the changes and to make the care easier for them.
I learned a lot from those I cared for and got and gave a lot of love. It can be a great thing to care for the elderly and it is sad that Americans have lost a lot of that.
Caring for the helpless is human. Killing them whether the reason is “useless eaters” or “it’s for their own good” is demoniac.
Freepmail coming your way
I certainly could have gotten rich giving false hope to families with little or no medical experience.
“You don’t want your mother to die do you?” Well, another $2000 MRI scan will help; better let yet another $500, 5 minute neurologic help you make a decision; best get a $200 basic metabolic panel to see if her condition has changed since yesterday.”
“For an extra $3000 a month your mother can rest with a higher class of fellow patients who don’t recognize their children. Why, all of our non-English speaking aliens are certified legal!”
“We will just bankrupt your mom so she will be indigent and we can have Medicare and the Taxpayer pay for all these extra tests. She will now have to stay in a crappy nursing home and have a roommate, but neither know who they are so what the hell!”
“Another couple of years in that trailer park won’t hurt because you know your mom is getting the best care possible. You son wasn’t college material anyway and state schools are fine, those Ivy League schools are over rated. New Car? Come on, that clunker will run fine for a couple of more years and by ordering a few more tests I’ll be able to afford that new yacht I have had my eye on”.
Yep, there is a lot of money in taking care of the neurologically impaired. The absolute main problem is getting useful information which will provide realistic expectations. Hard to come by if you are not well informed. Even then it is a battle.
Good luck to all of you, you will need it.
Hey boss, I have a question, does the pro-life stance of this site extend to the practice of euthanasia? Or is being pro killing of the elderly ok? Somehow I don’t think it is.
So, killing your mother is a better choice? Are you for real?
“So, killing your mother is a better choice? Are you for real?”
So spending $200,000 to artificially maintain a breathing corpse is “real”?
Typically a person will die within 6 months from the time the heroic efforts are initiated. The patient would have died a normal death but the family decide to expend a huge amount of money to no avail, usually against the wishes of the person who knows they are dying. Nobody is “killed”.
In Europe, if the dying patient so wishes, their death can be assisted in order to avoid further agony and degradation. In America, if an older person wants to avoid heroics, basically they have to stay home and flop around on the floor like a dying carp or they blow their brains out which really puts a guilt trip on the family.
I personally tried very hard to follow my parents living will but was fought every step of the way by medical professionals who said one thing while making every effort to maximize their profits. Life is not simple, neither is death.
Why do you artifically make the only two choices:
1. Spend tons of money doing needless tests and procedures in a vain attempt to live forever
and
2. Killing the elderly and sick
Looks like you’re just making excuses to be able to promote killing the elderly and sick.
Life is not simple, neither is death.
You think you're the only one who has taken care of the sick, the elderly or helped aged relatives in their last days, weeks or months?
This is about dementia, what you were promoting euthanasia for, not about vegetative states first of all.
Second, you are using hyperbole to pomote legalized murder and to support your won twisted views.
And, my mother’s life is worth more than money. Anyone’s is. It is worth more than being inconvenienced which is what your posts belie as your real motivation for supporting Euthanasia.
A dementia patient isn’t artificially kept alive, they are living human beings who have a mental derogatory disease. There are things as DNR and medical directives for a reason and thus it is a false dichotomy to claim they want or MUST be killed b/c of the cost. Also, your claim that they have to ‘flop around’ is a flat out LIE you are perpetuating in order to support your flawed theory.
May God have mercy on your soul, because you are the one who thinks doctors and others have the right to usurp His authority and play God by killing others.
BTW, do you have a DNR or medical directive specifying what measures anca or cannot be used? Or are you so selfish as to expect your family to make decisions your refuse to?
Hey troll, living people ARE NOT "corpses."
In Europe, if the dying patient so wishes, their death can be assisted in order to avoid further agony and degradation.
So troll it seems you WANT to follow Europe's socialist lead.
Life is not simple, neither is death.
Actually it is very simple, we are conceived by GOD and our lives end when GOD decides.
I noticed TXGhoul left the discussion when asked questions, but he’s still posting elsewhere on FR. Just doesn’t want to face honest questions with honest answers.
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