Many people don’t follow the euthanasia controversy closely. (I don’t know why: It’s not as if there is nothing else going on in the world.) But even though the issue isn’t currently on the public policy front burner, I think it is important to understand that once a society accepts killing as a legitimate response to human suffering, the idea of following the law fades in importance, even the requirement that mercy killing remain strictly voluntary.
That has certainly been the pattern in the Netherlands. And now, in Flanders, Belgium, studies show that almost as many patients are killed by doctors who have not asked to die, as who have. For those interested in more details, check out these posts at Secondhand Smoke:
- Belgium Euthanasia: Going Up and Under Reported:
- Nearly as Many Life Terminations Without Consent as Voluntary Euthanasia Deaths in Flanders
- Legalizing Euthanasia in Belgium Unleashes Nurses to Do Doctor-Ordered Non Voluntary Killing
The worst part is that once a culture catches the euthanasia virus, abuses that would have once caused an uproar are shrugged of as of little consequence.
June 6th, 2010 | 9:57 am
Time will tell: will this become the ultimate solution to the unsustainable entitlements enshrined in Obamacare and other government programs of less recent vintage? With abortion-on-demand the electorate were persuaded to deny the humanity of the unborn, and a critical precedent was set for denying the humanity of any other inconvenient class of persons. This is what I fear I will see in my lifetime: euthenasia initially sold as mercy –and hard cases of chronic suffering trotted out as examples; then as a moral imperative –and expensive cases of long-term care trotted out as examples; then it will simply be mandated.
June 7th, 2010 | 7:20 am
I turn 66 this year, and must say that the question of euthanasia, so easy to overlook at a younger age, begins to loom large.
For myself, I have this strange attitude that I will be OK. However, it is clear that many of my contemporaries will be subject to voluntary and involuntary euthanasia if Obamacare continues as the law of the land. The economic forces are inexorable–shall we shout at the tide not to come in?
Like democracy, the free market is the worst system in the world–until one compares it with every other option.
Defund. Defeat. Repeal Obamacare.
June 7th, 2010 | 11:13 am
[...] Pass right-to-die legislation, allowing patients to choose physician-assisted-suicide, and what do you get? In Belgium, at least, doctors are killing almost as many patients who do not ask to die as those who do. See Wesley J. Smith, Almost as Many Non Voluntary Euthanasia Deaths in Belgium as Voluntary » First Thoughts | A First …. [...]
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