Posted on 09/03/2024 3:37:14 PM PDT by Morgana
In the summer of 2016, Canada legalized euthanasia, also known as a medical assistance in dying (MAID) law. The current policy states only those with “a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability” is eligible to die by assisted suicide. However, by 2027, the country plans to allow people with mental illness to choose death as well. Some groups, such as Death with Dignity, see euthanasia as “a good death.” But a ballot initiative in West Virginia is attempting to keep the practice illegal.
Amendment 1 has recently been added to the state’s November ballot with the intention of providing “protection against medically assisted suicide.” Ultimately, “the amendment just places what’s already illegal in West Virginia into the state constitution for more security going forward,” said Pat McGeehan (R), a West Virginia state delegate, on Tuesday’s episode of “Washington Watch.” If this amendment is passed, West Virginia would become the first state to amend their constitution to prohibit assisted suicide.
The amendment states:
“No person, physician, or health care provider in the State of West Virginia shall participate in the practice of medically assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing of a person. Nothing in this section prohibits the administration or prescription of medication for the purpose of alleviating pain or discomfort while the patient’s condition follows its natural course; nor does anything in this section prohibit the withholding or withdrawing of life-sustaining treatment, as requested by the patient or the patient’s decision-maker, in accordance with State law. Further, nothing in this section prevents the State from providing capital punishment.”
Even though assisted suicide is “implicitly illegal in West Virginia,” McGeehan stated, “we want to send a message against this sort of nihilistic euthanasia movement sweeping the Western world.” And to fight against it properly, “You need to have it in the state constitution, because laws are not simply prescriptive, they’re also pedagogical. They teach people.” It’s McGeehan’s goal for West Virginia to become “the gold standard” in this push against euthanasia.
McGeehan referred to Canada’s MAID program as “just a fancy way of saying they’re killing their own citizens in Canada,” and he noted that it’s “horrific” that the practice is the “fifth leading cause of death” in the country. But Canada is far from the only proponent of euthanasia. In the U.S., “[T]en states have legalized euthanasia in one form or another.” Some states, such as Oregon and Vermont, have actually “opened up their euthanasia programs to not just their state residents, but to non-residents,” McGeehan explained. This, he added, has led to a “sort of euthanasia tourism,” which has “essentially grown into a whole marketplace for non-residents coming in to kill themselves.”
Some states have gone as far as to offer lodging such as hotels and Airbnb rentals for people coming into the area to die. As McGeehan put it, “Really, they’re death hotels [and] death Airbnbs.” The euthanasia process has become so streamlined, he added, that it’s “just like [receiving] any other medication.” He explained, “They give you a cocktail of poisons,” and then “you go back by yourself into one of these hotels [and] swallow the cocktail poison, it destroys your organs,” and then “social workers actually come by the next day [to] collect all the bodies in these hotels and burn them.” McGeehan shook his head. “We’ve got to push back against this. This is just part of a broader trend of nihilism that’s sweeping our country with the progressive liberal order. And I’m sick of it.”
As guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice asked, “[W]hat do you say to those who argue that your state, West Virginia, already has a code that prevents medically assisted suicide?” McGeehan replied that “most people don’t even know [if] it’s illegal or legal.” This, he emphasized, is part of why it’s important to have it firmly stated in the constitution. And as he pointed out, “[Y]ou never know who’s going to be in office next.” It could be that in years to come, “It might not be guys that are pro-life on the Republican side.” And so, to allow government officials to decide “which suicides are good and which are bad” gives them “enormous power.”
Additionally, “It … leads to arbitrary decisions on where you draw the line, and that just has devastating consequences for individuals in our society,” McGeehan contended. “[T]he progressive liberal order likes to reduce morality to just consent, and every relationship somehow has a sort of egalitarian, equal notion to it.” And since “doctors have an enormous power of authority in our society,” it becomes clear the “doctor-patient power relationship is extremely, extremely imbalanced.” McGeehan further argued that if assisted suicide is boiled down to consent and consent only, then all it takes is for a doctor to suggest euthanasia to “vulnerable patients” to blur the lines between choices made voluntarily and those made through persuasion.
Hice agreed, adding that “the argument of so-called ‘death with dignity’” has a “sort of appeal for compassion.” How should believers respond, Hice asked? McGeehan emphasized that it’s important to understand that this is “twisting the right order definition of compassion, and it preys on a lot of the pro-life movement within our own sort of ranks.” For instance, this same concept of dying with “dignity” has been applied to “the unborn child,” with people such as actress Anne Hathaway who said “abortion can be another word for mercy.” McGeehan made it clear that this is simply those in opposition “preying on that compassion that [pro-lifers] already hold” by “trying to twist it and pervert it.”
McGeehan closed by insisting that “this can be an argument that people need to take into consideration if they’re secular or if they’re atheists or nonbelievers,” because it can have enormous societal impacts. Beyond the biblical reality that each human being is made in the image of God, saying that euthanasia is an act of “dignity” or “mercy” could lead to “insurance companies [denying] coverage for expensive treatments like cancer care just to cover suicide.” And the reality is, he concluded, “[T]his is already happening,” but it’s not too late to fight against it.
I’ve heard the MAID program is cruel and unusual. It involves four drugs. The first drug is a paralytic. The second drug causes the lungs to fill with fluid in about 80% of the cases but because the first drug is a paralytic the person cannot move - so nobody can see the kind of torture they experience. They essentially drown but cannot show their suffering.
It would seemingly be more humane to just give them a lethal dose of fentanyl. Or a shotgun blast to the back of the head.
I’ve long been opposed to euthanasia. I think our young people should stay in this country.
Unfair and unconstitutional. My body and my choice. I should be able to offer free euthanasia services to the poor suffering thieves, robbers, rapists and home invaders that come to me for relief.
“”I think our young people should stay in this country.””
Cute!!! From what we see daily, I think we’d better off if they left!!
I believe that will still be legal. As long as you do not bury them in your backyard. Toxic waste must be disposed of in such a way as to not contaminate the soil.
Illegals are dropping “anchor babies” like crazy.
Euthanasia could then start early enough, and they might be more welcome there.
How about some TV ads——nationally——Vote Republican. Your life depends on it.
Quickly summarize people who had family or a doctor vote to kill the elderly patient to save family copays and government and hospital healthcare costs for a low chance to live in a “useful” way person. The billions of dollars for “everyone on government Medicare including the illegals” can only work if a lot of old people die deliberately. Europe and others are pushing that now.
Quotes I heard on Fr.Spitzer’s Universe TV show: “No, no, help me. I don’t want to die. Stop.” from a Scandinavian woman as the doctor and staff held her down to inject her to kill her. Most were taken off anti-depressants, then declared depressed and suicidal, then euthanized. Or given drugs that made then hopeless and confused if questioned by a auditor.
Makes me even less tolerant of Democrats-—if possible.
But here is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: living too long is also a loss. It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived. It robs us of our creativity and ability to contribute to work, society, the world. It transforms how people experience us, relate to us, and, most important, remember us. We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged ....
Ageism is one of the last socially acceptable prejudices. Psychologists are working to change that.
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/03/cover-new-concept-of-aging
Unless yer a little baby in the womb..... or 30 days after??? ... /sarc
West Virginia already has the lowest life expectancy and highest accidental death rate in the USA.
If we have the liberty to decline Covid-19 and similar chemicals ordered by our government, we certainly have the liberty to make our own ultimate decisions over our own life and death.
But abortion is okay?
What you can not do is hire someone else to kill yourself or someone you find inconvenient.
If you wish to depart this vale of tears you are certainly free to do so.
Commit harakiri, go for a swim in boiling oil, tell people you have information about crimes committed by Hilary. No one cares. But stop pushing your problems off on other people.
Death panels. The left really reacted to that term when Obamacare was being debated.
Question: Was the giant sucking sound true? I think the time to ruffle fr=eathers is before not after.
There are plenty of ways for this state to take you out if you give it the opportunity.
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