The Dutch are now looking to expand euthanasia and this thrills the FR deathbots.
Threads by bruinbirdman and me.
Healthy elderly people who are simply "tired of living" could be allowed to end their lives with a lethal injection under new euthanasia laws being debated by the Dutch parliament.
The country's MPs will discuss the "right to die" proposals after a campaign forced a debate by collecting over 100,000 signatures in support.
The influential Dutch "Right to Die" campaign, active since 1973, has launched new "vrijwillig levenseinde", or "of free will", demands to extend euthanasia beyond assisted suicide for terminally ill people.
The group has proposed training non-medical staff to administer a lethal injection to healthy people over the age of 70 who "consider their lives complete" and want to die.
Under the plans, the suicide assistants would be certified and would be required to make sure that patients were not temporarily depressed and had a "heartfelt and enduring desire" to die.
Marie-Jose Grotenhuis, the campaign's spokeswoman, said: "We've been overwhelmed by the amount of reactions, especially because people took it so seriously and reactions were mostly positive."
Euthanasia was legalised in Holland in 2002 and the new proposals have been backed by the majority of people in Dutch opinion polls.
The Royal Dutch Medical Association is divided over calls to extend euthanasia beyond those suffering from painful terminal illnesses and has set up a committee to examine the proposals.
Sander Hofman, the association's spokesman, said: "For instance, a doctor probably has a role in easing the suffering of a person who is refusing to eat or drink."
Several European countries, including neighbouring Belgium, allow euthanasia for terminally ill people who wish to die. Britain and France allow terminally ill people to refuse medical treatment but stop short of allowing active assisted suicide. . .
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The pro-death crowd is usually quick to discount the slippery slope argument when it’s applied to assisted suicide and euthanasia. They are quite good at finessing the slope argument by constantly assuring the gullible that assisted suicide and euthanasia are only for the very few, under extreme and horrible circumstances, and that killing is done humanely and under strict supervision that will almost always prevent abuse (yes, I am talking about killing humans here, not animals).
Too bad the Netherlands has always been the absolute exemplar of the slippery slope from the dignity of exceptionable human life to death on demand. Given recent news, it’s getting increasingly difficult for the pro-death lobby to deny that this slope doesn’t exist.
News reports this week have shown that not only are the Dutch on a slippery slope, but also that they may well have taken a leap of a cliff into the abyss of madness and nihilism.
Why? Glad you asked.
Because now the Dutch are pushing for legal killing of healthy people over 70 years of age.
Yes, you read correctly. If, as they say, you are 70 or over and feel that your life is "complete,” then, they argue, you should be able to go to a trained professional killer and kick the bucket.
From the UK Telegraph:
The influential Dutch "Right to Die" campaign, active since 1973, has launched new "vrijwillig levenseinde", or "of free will", demands to extend euthanasia beyond assisted suicide for terminally ill people.
The group has proposed training non-medical staff to administer a lethal injection to healthy people over the age of 70 who "consider their lives complete" and want to die.
Where’s the slippery slope?
Well, until about 20 years ago, assisted suicide/euthanasia were illegal in the Netherlands. Then they legalized assisted suicide/euthanasia for those who were terminally ill, with less than 6 months to live, and in unbearable or untreatable pain. Very soon this morphed into assisted suicide/euthanasia for people with chronic diseases or pain, then to those who had psychological but no physical pain, and on and on.
Where has this lead? Well, every year in the Netherlands several thousand people are now euthanized without their ever having asked for it.
I know what comes next: Death for anyone, anywhere, for whatever reason. That will include not only the elderly, but also those with disabilities, others the Dutch feel are expendable, and even those who may be judged to have a difficult life of suffering in the future.
I’d have more respect for the pro-death crowd if they just came out and said what they really mean:
Death for all, whenever, just because.
