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A major medical association has gone on record as being indifferent to whether the laws of its country are changed to permit doctors to hasten the deaths of patients—in complete violation of Hippocratic values. This is a sign of how raw ideology has come to distort empirical thinking.

Consider this: In the UK, the government and the General Medical Council have told Leslie Burke, who has a degenerative neurological disease, that it is not up to him whether he gets food and water if he loses the ability to swallow. But if the UK legalizes Burke’s access to assisted suicide because he grows despondent that he might be dehydrated to death—well, the BMA just shrugs its shoulders. AND, the UK is only a short Channel boat ride away from the Netherlands where eugenic infanticide has now entered the country’s pediatric wards. What shameful exercise in non leadership!


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