Thread by NYer.
The United Nations is debating injecting euthanasia into the right to health and is considering a new treaty on the rights of the elderly to end their own lives for the benefit of society.
At recent U.N. meetings on the issue of aging, it was reported that advanced age impacts the ability to exercise recognized rights and that it is a case of patient autonomy to decide to end life. The Holy See representative at the Human Rights Council said his delegation took strong exception to this argument. The idea is also not being well received by others who respect life.
Donald Thompson of the Christian Medical Association tells OneNewsNow that he objects to euthanasia being described in this way. “The term is sounding more and more like convincing ‘responsible citizens' to do their part to unburden society by ending their own lives,” he said. “The phrasing of euthanasia as 'autonomy' just does not make sense. Individual autonomy does not apply when someone is being pressured to do something.”
He says that under discussions of the treaty so far, the elderly would be pressured by their children, doctor, or society to end their own lives. However, Thompson believes some of the most productive years of individuals' lives are in their sixties and seventies. He raises the question of who decides at what age people become more of a burden than others think they are worth: "Is it the United Nations? Is it one of these many countries that have gone bankrupt because of wasteful spending? Is the next step to recommend euthanasia to anyone with a chronic disease?”
(Excerpt) Read more at onenewsnow.com ...
Thread by me.
Professor Raymond Tallis is a distinguished emeritus professor of geriatric medicine, philosopher, poet, novelist and cultural critic. He is also a patron of the pressure group Dignity in Dying, previously known as the Voluntary Euthanasia Society. He is additionally chairman of Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying (HPAD) which aims to change the law, medical culture and medical practice ‘so that needless suffering at the end of life becomes a thing of the past’.
In today’s Times (£), Professor Tallis argues passionately in support of ‘assisted dying’, which he claims is all about
‘...permitting physicians to assist the death of mentally competent, terminally ill patients, who are suffering unbearably despite receiving optimal palliative care, at their request.’
The phrase ‘assisted dying’ or ‘assisted death’ is, however, deeply disingenuous. Indeed, in the context of this whole argument the word ‘dying’ has turned into what one might classify as a piece of terminal spin. It is used to avoid spelling out that what is actually being proposed by Dignity in Dying is killing -- either helping people to kill themselves, which is what assisted dying is, or causing them to be killed either by a positive action (for example, a lethal injection) or the absence of life-sustaining action (for example, depriving them of food or water).
(Excerpt) Read more at phillipsblog.dailymail.co.uk ...