🚀 go-pugleaf

http://www.rights.org/deathnet/open2.html



"Penquin" <Penquin@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:3D45D001.6000104@netscape.net...
> EUTHANASIA AND ASSISTED SUICIDE WON'T BE FOR THE TERMINALLY ILL ONLY
>
> By Alex Schadenberg
>
> On May 22, Nancy Crick, 69, was assisted in suicide with 21 witnesses
> encouraging her. Nancy Crick is the latest victim of Australia's "doctor
> death," Dr. Philip Nitschke. During the post-mortem it was discovered that
> she was not suffering from terminal bowel cancer as Nitschke had claimed,
> or any type of cancer, but rather a treatable twisted bowel. Both Crick
> and Nitschke knew for several months that she wasn't terminally ill, but
> rather was experiencing chronic pain which could have been mitigated.
>
> The Voluntary Euthanasia Society in Australia and Nitschke believe that
> one needs to be "hopelessly ill," not terminally ill in order to qualify
> for euthanasia or assisted suicide. This position is also held
> internationally by the World Federation of Right to Die Societies as
> stated in their 1998 Zurich declaration that people "suffering severe
> enduring distress" qualify for an assisted death.
>
> In the Netherlands, and now in Belgium, one does not need to be terminally
> ill in order to request euthanasia or assisted suicide. Both countries do
> not have any safeguards restricting mercy killing to the terminally ill.
> One may ask to be killed if he/she is experiencing unbearable suffering.
> What is unbearable suffering? For one person unbearable suffering may
> refer to end stage cancer, while for another it might mean depression.
>
> Suffering and distress are interesting terms which are not limited to
> physical suffering alone. The Supreme Court in the Netherlands has defined
> suffering as both physical and psychological. In Belgium the legislation
> states that "a patient seeking euthanasia must be in a hopeless medical
> situation and be constantly suffering physically or psychologically."
> Therefore someone who is experiencing depression may be killed. This has
> serious ramifications because depression is treatable and depressed people
> are incapable of giving proper consent.
>
> In the Netherlands euthanasia has become an acceptable practise on
> disabled newborns. A New England Journal of Medicine study discovered that
> eight per cent of all infant deaths in the Netherlands were from
> euthanasia. These were often children whose parents didn't want a disabled
> child and thought that death was preferable to disability. Many of those
> newborn infants were not terminally ill; in fact, they were killed because
> they were probably going to live.
>
> In Oregon, the law allows people within six months of death to receive
> assistance in suicide. In 2001, 44 people received a prescription for
> death while 21 people used the prescription. An interesting fact is that
> many of the 21 people who killed themselves with assistance did so nine
> months or more after receiving their prescription. So much for safeguards
> and so much for having to be terminally ill.
>
> In the state of Hawaii's recently failed "Death with Dignity Bill"
> proponents of the legislation such as the assistant to the pro-euthanasia
> Governor Ben Cayetano, Juliet Begley, stated: "It is not about committing
> suicide. It is about choosing how you die in an unbearable situation."
>
> Nancy Crick's son, Wayne told Australia's Courier-Mail newspaper that he
> said to his mother that he thought she was being used. Her reply was "Yes,
> I know, but I'm using them." Nancy Crick was happy to support their cause
> and be a celebrity.
>
> The death activists do not seek euthanasia and assisted suicide just to
> "grant relief" to the terminally ill. They want euthanasia and assisted
> suicide so they may choose the time and place of their death. It is about
> radical personal autonomy.
>
> As the death wishers seek the Right to Die, they do so at the peril of
> everyone in society who needs to be protected from people who question
> their right to live.
>
> People with disabilities, the elderly and other vulnerable persons
> experience abuse and pressure and have a need to be protected. That's
> where we stand, for the dignity and sanctity of all human life.
>
> Alex Schadenberg is the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention
> Coalition.
>
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