Coming to America.
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It pretty much all started in Europe anyway - specifically the Netherlands, if I remember correctly. At any rate - it's been legal there for quite some time. What is? Euthanasia. Who is eligible? The list is expanding...
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The Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) now seeks to expand the meaning of “unbearable suffering” to permit even more patients, in the already very liberal Dutch euthanasia system, to qualify to for medical killing. From the Dutch Radio Worldwide story:
Until now, factors such as income or a patient’s social life played almost no role when physicians were considering a euthanasia request. However, the new guidelines will certainly change that. After almost a year of discussions, the KNMG has published a paper which says a combination of social factors and diseases and ailments that are not terminal may also qualify as unbearable and lasting suffering under the Euthanasia Act.How can anyone say there is no slippery slope? One of those factors includes loneliness!
As people age, many suffer from a complex array of gradually worsening problems, which can include poor eyesight, deafness, fatigue, difficulty in walking and incontinence as well as loss of dignity, status, financial resources, an ever-shrinking social network and loss of social skills. Although this accumulation of ailments and diseases is not life-threatening as such, it does have a negative impact on the quality of life and make the elderly vulnerable or fragile. Vulnerability also affects the ability to recover from illnesses and can lead to unbearable and lasting suffering. Under the Euthanasia Act, a request for euthanasia may be honoured only if a patient is undergoing unbearable and lasting suffering. The KNMG now says that, if non-medical factors such as income or loneliness are to be taken into consideration, other specialists must be consulted when a patient has requested euthanasia.Since 1973, when euthanasia was quasi decriminalized, Dutch doctors have gone from euthanizing the terminally ill who ask for it, to the chronically ill who ask for it, to people with disabilities who ask for it, to the mentally anguished who ask for it–and all legal because the “guidelines” proved so elastic they had not snap back at all. And now, they want to target vulnerable and marginalized elderly people.
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Even that isn’t enough. If patients don’t qualify legally for euthanasia, the KNMG says it is perfectly fine for doctors to provide their patients with how-to-commit-suicide information–known as “auto euthanasia.” And while we are on the subject, we musn’t forget the technically illegal euthanasia killings–infanticide and “termination without request or consent”–which generally go unpunished, and indeed, in the case of infanticide, is openly and respectfully discussed in medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, with the publication of the ”Groningen Protocol.” - First Things, Wesley J. Smith
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I know of some bloggers who just might secretly see this as a good thing, err, part of the biological solution if you will, to getting rid of all the 'geezers' and boomers that have wrecked their world. Nah. Catholics don't think like that.
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I should have kept smoking.
LORD OF THE WORLD (BY ROBERT HUGH BENSON)
ReplyDeleteDedication
CLAVI DOMUS DAVID
I am perfectly aware that this is a terribly sensational book, and open to innumerable criticisms on that account, as well as on many others. But I did not know how else to express the principles I desired (and which I passionately believe to be true) except by producing their lines to a sensational point. I have tried, however, not to scream unduly loud, and to retain, so far as possible, reverence and consideration for the opinions of other people. Whether I have succeeded in that attempt is quite another matter.
Robert Hugh Benson.
Cambridge 1907.
“Oliver, what do you say to people when they are dying?”
“Say! Why, nothing! What can I say? But I don’t think I’ve ever seen any one die.”
“Nor have I till to-day,” said the girl, and shivered a little. “The euthanasia people were soon at work.”
Oliver took her hand gently.
“My darling, it must have been frightful. Why, you’re trembling still.”
“No; but listen.... You know, if I had had anything to say I could have said it too. They were all just in front of me: I wondered; then I knew I hadn’t. I couldn’t possibly have talked about Humanity.”
“My dear, it’s all very sad; but you know it doesn’t really matter. It’s all over.”
“And–and they’ve just stopped?”
“Why, yes...”
" ... psychology had helped him, and he knew now well enough that suggestion will do almost anything. And it was this hateful thing that had so long restrained the euthanasia movement with all its splendid mercy..."
as i've aged, i've noticed i fart unintentionally, which has the unintended consequence of chasing people away. ah, beata solitudo.
ReplyDeletelike my uncle raymond use to say, "if it ain't in yer hand, you can't hold it."
i look forward to what else is gonna happen as i age. as long as i'm fed & watered, bring it on.
My fear is for the elderly who will be coerced into feeling they are a 'burden' on their family and/or society and feel compelled to ask for suicide assistance. How diabolical to take advantage of the vulnerability of sick and elderly people who might never consider such a thing as it would be contrary to their faith. God have mercy.
ReplyDeleteSoylent Green.
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