I spoke at a town-hall event about end-of-life care recently that, unfortunately, devolved mostly into an intense debate on assisted suicide. When the time came for audience questions, a self-described “mentally ill” woman took the microphone and strongly declared that she too should have the right to doctor-prescribed death. More than half the audience applauded, validating the woman’s potential suicide.
Ten years ago, supporting suicide for the mentally ill would have been unthinkable, even among hardcore Hemlock Society types. Now, alas, giving approval — or shrugging indifferently — to all manner of suicidal desires is becoming increasingly common. Indeed, you probably didn’t know that Sept. 10, 2011, was “World Suicide Prevention Day,” it received such scant media attention.
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Why the change from an anti-suicide culture to one that is, at minimum, suicide-tolerant? I am convinced that, at least in part, the assisted-suicide movement has eroded society’s commitment to suicide prevention. It has created an atmosphere where many people now see “dead” as better than “dying” and suicide as a valid remedy for the debilitations caused by serious illness, disability, or being frail, elderly, “tired of life,” or chronically — or even, as I have seen, mentally — ill. Indeed, rarely a day goes by without some story implicitly or explicitly supporting assisted suicide as “death with dignity” or a compassionate response to the problem of human suffering.
So far, the U.S. has mostly resisted the siren song of legalizing assisted suicide. But that is not cause for complacency. Assisted-suicide advocates never tire of offering the hemlock. And we mustn’t forget that during the 1990s, Jack Kevorkian assisted the suicides of mostly depressed, disabled people to general societal applause.
This is cause for great worry, for, once a society embraces doctor prescribed death as an acceptable answer to human suffering or as some kind of fundamental liberty right, there are no brakes. We need only look to European countries that have gone down the Euthanasia Highway to see how society is impacted deleteriously by accepting killing as a suitable answer to the problem of human suffering.
The Netherlands The Dutch trailblazed societal acceptance of euthanasia beginning in 1973, when a judge ruled that, if doctors followed certain guidelines when committing euthanasia, such as repeated death requests and acting lethally only when there is no other way to control suffering, they should not be punished. This led to an ever-expanding category of people receiving doctor-administered death, even before formal legalization by the Dutch parliament in 2001.
Since that fateful court ruling, Dutch doctors have gone from euthanizing the terminally ill to the chronically ill, to people with serious disabilities, to the emotionally and mentally ill (the last approved by the Dutch supreme court when it refused to punish a psychiatrist for assisting the suicide of a woman distraught over the deaths of her two children). Moreover, Dutch doctors murder infants born with serious disabilities or terminal conditions. Such euthanasia killings remain felonious under Dutch law, but the law goes almost wholly unenforced. Indeed, doctors at the Groningen University Hospital were so emboldened by the Dutch acceptance of infanticide that they published “The Groningen Protocol,” a bureaucratic checklist for deciding which babies qualify for euthanasia, in a range of journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine.
All of the above is bad news, but also relatively old news. More recent events in the Netherlands show that the ever-expanding Dutch euthanasia license set into motion in 1973 shows no indication of slowing down.
This particular slide down the mal-ethical (if I may coin a new word) slippery slope is stomach-churning. Haven't we seen the 'banality of evil' before?
All this suicide business might be bad news for you but at least it gave you a column and could you please leave the rest of us to get on with our own choices without your wagging finger.
No one has forced you to read this article if it offends you. Life is very brief, and it ends with finality. There's no getting someone back when they're truly dead. All of their second chances are over. Therefore, ending someone's life is a serious consideration. It trivializes death to call it a 'choice.' I hope that someone kind arrives to care for you if you're ever suffering so that you don't feel compelled to make that 'choice.'
And I highly recommend a book, "Deadly Compassion: The Death of Ann Humphry and the Truth about Euthanasia," by Rita Marker.
Ann Humphry was the second wife of Derek Humphry, the founder of the Hemlock Society, and the second to commit suicide.
Ann was abandonded by her husband after she was diagnosed with cancer. The society cut off her health insurance leaving her without funds for treatment.
Ann turned to Marker, director of the International Anti-Euthanasia Task Force for friendship and support before she ultimately gave in to the pressure to kill herself - but left a damning suicide note addressed to Derek.
The arguments for the "right to die" all sound reasonable at base. If we own our own lives, surely that includes the right to end it when we wish?
But the disturbing consequence is that the "right to die" movement is staffed, to put it bluntly, by serial killers.
"Tying euthanasia to organ donation crosses a very dangerous bridge, giving Belgian society a utilitarian benefit from mercy killing, as it informs despairing, disabled, or mentally ill people that their deaths have greater value than their lives"
But society is already receiving a utilitarian benefit from killing its own citizens. In countries with social welfare programs like Belgium, killing those receiving assistance from the state provides an immediate social "benefit" in reducing the overall social burden.
And I would not underestimate that factor. While the defenders of euthanasia have claimed that it is about relieving suffering, I suspect much of the motivation is a desire to relieve society of its responsibility to care for the suffering, which is a very different thing.
"Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since the early 1940s."
The real pioneers of legalized euthanasia were not the Swiss, but the Germans, who legalized it during the 1930's. It seems like there may have been some other things going on in Germany at the time . . .
Why is western culture so enamored of death? Was it a kind of glamorized despair the caused the Roe v Wade decision? Despair can be seductive.
Leftist and Islamist philosophies are conjoined in their contempt for life and love for/promotion of death.
If man seeks perfection in this fallen world, he is doomed to disappointment. Does this devolve into despair in people whose faith is in the government?
The left seeks to perfect our political systems to attain heaven on earth. We have seen how well this works. The Islamists believe if they can only bring about that magical (and mythical) caliphate, perfection will follow.
Those of us who know that man is flawed and can never attain perfection here understand that all human forms of government will fail. The best we can do is to impose checks and balances. Our own government is in great need of having those essential checks and balances restored.
We must resist despair. Our hope lies in the things which are eternal.
I'm skeptical that it will be possible to make convincing arguments against assisted suicide in a culture that is increasingly secular, and which has forgotten the provenence of phrases such as "life unworthy of life," or "useless eaters."
Rationing medical care seems a near-certainty, as cost increases are unsustainable. And with government playing an ever-larger role in paying for medical care, end-of-life expenses are sure to be a target.
This will start with denial of treatment for older people needing expensive treatments, but it's hard to see it stopping there- not while the siren song of assisted suicide plays louder than ever.
Having watched elderly relatives linger with terminal illnesses, I hope that if I am one day in that condition, I have the option of an assisted death.
We do it for our cats and dogs. We should be able to do it for ourselves.
I would argue that allowing this bit of individual autonomy would be consistent with a conservative view of government as having a limited role.
I grieve to think that you hold your relatives in no higher esteem than your family pet. We also have our cats and dogs relieve their bowels in the back yard and eat food from a tin on the floor. Is that your plan for Gran when she gets a little unsavory?
America would not follow the inexcusable European example, we never do.
But euthanasia is a concept and practice that is long overdue here. Watching my mother beg for a way out as cancer consumed the last few months of her life, left me with a unqualified admiration of Jack Kevorkian.
Just don't elect another liberal - to anything - and all will be well.
according to the declaration of independence, life is a Creator established right for every human being.
individuals do not own their bodies. there is no moral construction that says a human being can be owned. america fought a civil war against the idea that a human being can be considered property.
it would have been contradictory to say that life is a gift from the Creator and simultaneously say that a human being can take that right away, even from themselves.
the unalienable right to life has never included the irrational right to kill a human being, even oneself.
The book by Rita Marker was a good recommendation. Derek Humphry was (is?) a sick, evil man. He pressured his wife to commit suicide rather than suffer with cancer.
Very good article - God is the Author of Life; who is cheering for death? The enemy.
captcha - 'protect your stuff,' illustrated with a video of a darling baby. Hope they were referring to the video and didn't mean the baby was "stuff."
For those complaining about suffering relatives wishing to die, I'm an RN who provides at home hospice care. I've spend hours with people dying of cancer mostly, sometimes COPD, rarely AIDS lately though I had a lot of folks with that about 15 years ago. If your sick relatives are suffering there's something wrong with the pain management they are receiving. I've taken care of patients in their homes, and I've worked as a floor nurse with terminally ill patients. I've never had a patient needlessly suffering unless the physician was remiss in prescribing proper pain meds. As a nurse it's my job to advocate for my patients. As a family member you should also feel free to take on that role. Ultimately, when you're facing the need for care it's easier to accept it if your attitude toward your loved ones who needed it wasn't, 'Let's knock off Mom and Dad before we're burdened with their care and suffering the way we were with Gran's,"
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I comprehend the secular humanist inability to find a problem with suicide, even of the "assisted" variety, but euthanasia baffles me. "Involuntary euthanasia" exactly equals "execution." In progressive lala land, a judge may not execute an allegedly mentally challenged murderer but may connive with a doctor in the execution of a mentally challenged innocent? And these people are supposed to be the smartest guys in the room?
Your subtitle is, "Europe speeds down the Euthanasia Highway."
Good!!! Put them on the super highway...
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was always right about the "Europeans"...a land infested with snobbish, supeficial atheists and theists of every stripe. They killed God and replaced him with the "State" and now they grow weary of life.
Their will to kill themselves is NOT born of greatness but rather their "All-Too-Human" herd-like weakness and stupidity.
Their self inflicted extinction will extinguish European nihilism and it will not come soon enough.
As a registered nurse in the US for over 31 years, this article offers no surprises for those of us in the medical profession. Most laymen would be surprised to know is that euthanasia happens frequently in America and not only in Oregon and Washington where assisted suicide/euthanasia is legal. As a nurse who worked for an agency for the last 15 years, I was able to work in every kind of medical setting possible, i.e... hospitals, nursing homes, rehab centers for those with physical disabilities, alcohol/drug rehabs, home care settings and finally mental hospitals. The greatest number of euthanasias occurred in nursing homes. Often elderly patients with families would opt NOT to treat their relatives pneumonias, gangrene, diabetes, urinary tract infections, etc... In all of these instances cost was NOT a factor for withholding treatment. Patients were insured, on Medicare, Medicaid or had funds for long term care. One of the most egregious examples of involuntary euthanasia was perpetrated by a night shift charge nurse. There was a lovely, active elderly woman named Jean (not her real name), who resided in a nursing home that I was frequently sent to. Jean was in her 70's, weak but mobile, she was fully alert and oriented, she was also an insulin dependent diabetic. I came on duty one night and when I made rounds I found that Jean was running a high temperature. I listened to her lungs and determined that she had pneumonia. As per nursing home protocol I called an ambulance and had Jean transported to the closest hospital. Jean was released from the hospital several days later and came back to the nursing home. She was doing very well. I was informed by the night charge nurse that Jeans family was quite upset with me for sending their mother to the hospital and was told that if this happened again, I was to do NOTHING. The rest of the week went well and Jean was doing just fine. I had 2 days off and then returned to the nursing home for several more days. When I arrived at the home, the LPN who would be working with me was visibly upset. I took her aside and asked her what was wrong. She told me that 2 nights ago, when she came on duty, Jean's blood sugar levels were quite high. She informed the charge nurse about this development. The charge nurse told her to do nothing. The LPN was shaken and upset, All the charge nurse had to do was authorize the LPN to give her insulin and the problem would be solved. However, this charge nurse refused to allow the LPN to give Jean any insulin. By the end of the 10 hour shift, Jean was comatose and barely breathing. She died shortly after the LPN left. When the LPN told me about this I was furious and went to the director of the nursing home.
I was the one who was berated.
I was told that the family simply didn't want to treat this patient's medical problems any longer. As far as I was concerned this patient was murdered but I was told to keep my mouth shut and my opinions to myself. Situations like this were repeated again at this nursing home and in other facilities that I visited. Some of these elderly patients had money, and their grown children simply did not want mom or grand dad using up their inheritance for medical care. I finally decided that I could no longer be a witness to these crimes. These people did not choose to die. In every instance, some relative made that decision for them. Sadly some physicians take it upon themselves to judge who is worth saving and who is too ill, too old, or too injured, and will not inform family members of all treatment options available to their loved ones. The same attitude is prevalent with newborns. That is why I reluctantly left nursing. Attitudes have changed dramatically over the last 31 years, there is little reverence for the sanctity of life. Catholic hospitals were the notable exception.
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