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September 21, 2006
Economic Euthanasia - 'Assisted Suicide' Proposed For The Depressed
Finally, someone has come up with the cure for depression - death:
Founder of Swiss clinic that helped 54 Britons to die wants the law widened beyond the terminally illMake sense? Not really. First it was "assisted suicide" (read murder) for the "terminally ill", now it's murder for the depressed. What's next? Death for alcoholism? In the case of the Swiss group "Dignitas" and the Swiss government, it really doesn't mater - it's about money. According to Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of Canada's Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, the Dignitas clinic has created a worldwide suicide tourism. Studies have shown that the majority of deaths at the Dignitas clinic are suicide tourists, and that people have gone there to be killed from all over Europe: from Germany, France, England and even Canada. The founder of Dignitas, Ludwig Minelli, has said, "Every person in Europe has the right to choose to die, even if they are not terminally ill." As of November 2005, Dignitas had killed 453 people since its launch by Minelli in Zurich in 1998. It's such a bad situation that residents in a economically disadvantaged neighbourhood near the clinic are sick of seeing body bags being carried out of their apartment block and are seeking to have the Dignitas euthanasia organization evicted from the premises.
BRITONS suffering from depression could soon be legally helped to die in Switzerland if a test case in the country's Supreme Court is successful next month.Ludwig Minelli, the founder of Dignitas, the Zurich-based organisation that has helped 54 Britons to die, revealed yesterday that his group was seeking to overturn the Swiss law that allows them to assist only people with a terminal illness.
In his first visit to the country since setting up Dignitas, the lawyer blamed religion for stigmatising suicide, attacking this "stupid ecclesiastical superstition" and said that he believed assisted suicide should be open to everyone.
"We should see in principle suicide as a marvellous possibility given to human beings because they have a conscience . . . If you accept the idea of personal autonomy, you can't make conditions that only terminally ill people should have this right," he told a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton.
"We should accept generally the right of a human being to say, 'Right, I would like to end my life', without any pre-condition, as long as this person has capacity of discernment."
Death for profit by clinics such as Dignitas is only one aspect of economic euthanasia. The latest financial drain on the health care system, or one's family, has made assisted suicide another type of cottage industry - saving money. After all, modern technology has created the possibility of dramatic extensions of life, but prolonging life can be costly, technology costs big bucks:
A "culture of euthanasia" has taken hold in Northern Europe where life-extending technologies are increasingly out of fashion and terminating ill old people is extolled as humanitarian. According to the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, "humanitarian terminations" by doctors occur at the rate of ten thousand per year in Holland.The "slippery slope" argument made by pro-life types has already been proven. It took little time to go from making the killing of babies a profitable endeaver, to killing old sick people to save money. One would think that there are a sufficient number of babies and sick old people to kill that clinics like Dignitas would not have yet worked their way down to killing people that are simply depressed. What's the end point here, where will the death for profit and to hell with the value of human life mindset take us? Hell, I really don't like the guy next door that plays his stereo too loud, there ought to be a clinic I can send him to, somewhere, that will cure his addiction to loud music. If I have the son-of-a-bitch killed, he'll sure enough stop playing his stereo - death will have cured him.Economics plays an important role in motivating Europe's culture of euthanasia. Faced with bloated fiscal deficits the welfare states are rationing the use of new technologies. Moreover, countries such as Holland that do not use prices to allocate heath care have taken the economic incentives for extending life away from physicians. Indeed, because extending the lives of ill old people can be costly, the economic incentives run in the opposite direction in the welfare state. In these budget-balancing times, the doctors at public nursing homes and hospitals are under severe pressures to keep costs down.
Patients are virtually helpless against this new culture of euthanasia. "Free" health care effectively disempowers them. Doctors are not gods but increasingly are forced to play such a role by refusing to use life-extending techniques for patients and families who want them.
What ever happened to love of life, love and caring for the sick, the sanctity of human life. And we talk about the irrationality of the suicide bomber? Now, we're suppose to give up and go die because we're sick or depressed? Wasn't killing innocent babies and old sick people sufficiently against the will and nature of God, and common sense, that we wouldn't slide even further down that slippery slope of contempt for human life?
And don't tell me about pain and suffering and coping with disease and the psychological pain of dealing with terminal disease. I have survived years of complete respiratory arrest associated with chronic progressive multiple sclerosis, twice been sent to "facilities" for, you know, wait to die. But that was just the warm-up. Subsequently, from the immunosupression induced by drugs used to save me, ended up with a very deadly form head and neck cancer, one of only 200 cases worldwide, told had 20% chance of surviving 6 months, went through, radical surgery, then chemo and radition, all to have it come back on the other side while working at surviving the first 3 months from the first instance of cancer. Repeated it all a second time, every damned bit of it - twice, surgery and all. This is now five years later, and best I can tell, this is really me writing this post, not my ghost. (Sorry about the rant - never told that story before, and never meant to. But when it comes to killing people who are sick or depressed, or just willing to give up because the think, that is THINK, they "can't take it anymore," - I get really pissed off)
The human will and ability to endure and survive is strong - if we only use it. Not giving up and continuing the fight is part of the journey. I thank God every minute and every day, not for surviving, but for the journey. Except for meeting and marrying my wife, and having kids, It's been the best thing that has happened to me in my entire life.
And the nutcases at Dignitas want people to give up and die for - depression? Give me a break, get real. If dying is so great, let the founder of Dignitas lead the parade to death himself. As for the rest of us, life matters, every moment of it. God didn't put us here to give up when the going got a little trying, or even very tough.
Captain Ed and Protein Wisdom aren't fooled either.
Posted by Richard at September 21, 2006 12:10 PM
