Of Course Euthanasia is About Mental Illness

It really is astounding how the media continue to assume that assisted suicide/euthanasia is only for the terminally ill.

Here’s the latest example: Hemlock Society founder Derek Humphry was in Arizona advocating for assisted suicide for the mentally ill, and Arizona Star columnist Tim Steller is shocked! From the article:

If you think the idea of assisted suicide is controversial, welcome to the farthest frontier in the debate. Announcing his visit to Tucson for two Nov. 23 presentations, Derek Humphry, a pioneer in the movement for legal assisted suicide, broached this shocking notion: assisted suicide for those suffering from mental illness and unable to get better.

Furthest frontier?

• In the Netherlands, the mentally ill are euthanized. Indeed, the mental health community is looking forward to getting in on the euthanasia action.
• In Belgium, the mentally ill are euthanized–and harvested for their organs.
• In Switzerland, the Supreme Court declared a constitutional right to assisted suicide for the mentally ill:
• Quebec’s new euthanasia legislation would allow euthanasia of the mentally ill.
• There is a strong movement within the mental health professions to legitimize “rational suicide.”
• The most prominent backers of legalizing assisted suicide internationally have always promoted opening the door to the mentally ill, from Kevorkian to Nitschke, to Humphry–all heroes of the euthanasia movement. Some obscure this latter goal for reasons of political expediency, but realize that is the tactic, not the goal.

Why aren’t these facts on the ground more widely reported? The media has taken sides on this issue–and advocate-journalists know what they don’t want you to know.

I am also convinced that the grass roots of the assisted suicide movement are enthusiastically on board with the eventual spread of euthanasia to mentally ill people. For example, two years ago I debated the issue at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum: When a self-declared mentally ill woman went to the microphone and said she should have the right to be made dead too–most of the audience burst into strong applause.

Death-on-demand–except for those with a transitory desire to die–is what the euthanasia issue is really all about. An honest debate would be waged over that–not about defining phony restrictions that are intended to give false assurance of control and then collapse as society embraces the killing agenda.