🚀 go-pugleaf

Oh dear, here we go again. I think it's time to put this in the form of
a FAQ ...

"Janice Money" <PJMoney@onaustralia.com.au> writes:

>They've got sloppy in The Netherlands.  All sorts of people are getting
>killed over there whether they asked for it or not.  Do not tell me we
>won't get sloppy here too.  The fact is that there has been sloppiness
>going on here from the start.

That has not been conclusively demonstrated - certainly not demonstrated
to the satisfaction of Netherlands courts. There has been considerable
conjecture from both pro and anti-euthanasia persons about whether the
Netherlands doctors are killing people involuntarily - all of it
slanted.  The one thing that can be said about the Netherlands is that
the public there seem quite happy with their VE legislation: 9% of dying
people there avail themselves of VE, and there are motions before their
parliament to remove the last vestiges of criminality from the practice.
The Netherlands is a democratic country - it seems impossible that this
procedure would survive if the majority of the people there saw it as murder.

>Well guess what!  Bob Dent was cremated minus a Coroner's inquest.  The
>family just asked and some obliging person allowed the Cemeteries Act to be
>put aside.  

I agree this is a worry. I'd hope that whoever was responsible for this
slip-up gets a good rap over the knuckles. If appropriate procedures are
not followed, then there is indeed a danger. But of course this was a slip-up
after the fact: Dent committed a very well-documented suicide.

>What's next to be found dispensable, do you think?  The psychiatrist's
>signature?  The specialist's signature?  How about the patient's
>signature?

Welcome to the wonderful world of "the slippery slope". A time-honoured
logical fallacy, its uses are many and varied. You may, for example,
use the same logic to demonstrate that all sex will become rape, that
all dogs will become wolves, and that all light will become darkness. In
this particular debate, the use of "the slippery slope" appears to be a
standard in the pro-torture armanentarium. I'd suggest, for the sake
of credibility, you avoid it in future.

>People have a right to kill themselves but I do not see that they have a
>right to drag someone else into the business and contribute to the
>hardening of that person's heart.

Involvement in VE/PAS does not involve a hardening of the heart. It involves
compassion for the suffering of others. And nothing suggests that the 
assistants in all this are dragged into it - these laws are intended as
a means of making safe and open a practice that is presently risky and
covert - nothing more. No one is required to do anything they don't want
to do.

>In particular they don't have a right to
>endanger the rest of the community, because of health personnel getting
>used to the idea of putting people down, merely to satisfy their own,
>(maybe rational, maybe neurotic) wishes.

Voluntary Euthanasia does not lead to involuntary euthanasia, any more than
sex leads to rape.

>They want to die with dignity.  What does that mean?  As far as I can tell
>it seems to mean dying looking as good as you can, between clean sheets,
>with your family around you and maybe even flowers, music and soft
>lighting.  

It means they want to die in the time and place and manner of their own
choice, rather than wracked with pain, despair, physical and mental
disability, and loneliness. To advocate a ban on VE is to advocate 
institutionalised torture.

>In the end, if that is what it means, then the corollary must be
>that every soldier, sailor, firefighter, etc., etc., who died with mangled
>body covered in dirt and blood must have died undignified deaths despite
>their efforts and their sacrifice.  

No - these people, if they died in the course of their duties, also died
voluntary deaths, with dignity. 

The difference is not dirt, blood, etc. The difference is rational choice.

-- 
| mailto:pete@zip.com.au | pgp DB 3A A3 D8 A7 6A BB 25 EF 2E F4 A4 8F 29 BB E2 |
| http://www.zip.com.au/~pete/ |         Give away what you don't need.        |