A very telling bill has been tabled in the Scottish Parliament to legalize assisted suicide. Notably, it is not restricted to the terminally ill–but allows people who can’t live independently to receive poison pills. Also, the age limit is only 16. From the End of Life Assistance Bill (no link):
Eligibility requirements(1) A person may make a formal request for end of life assistance under this Act only if the person
(a) is 16 years of age or over at the time of making the first formal request;
(b) has been registered with a medical practice in Scotland for a continuous period of at least 18 months immediately prior to making that request; and
(c) satisfies the requirements of subsection (2).(2) The requirements of this subsection are that the requesting person
(a) has been diagnosed as terminally ill and finds life intolerable; or
(b) is permanently physically incapacitated to such an extent as not to be able to live independently and finds life intolerable.
Imagine the potential for abuse, coercion, and abandonment.
Anyone who says the assisted suicide agenda is merely a “limited safety valve” when nothing else can be done to alleviate suffering is really not paying attention.
January 21st, 2010 | 1:18 pm
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January 21st, 2010 | 1:26 pm
Wow. Just wow.
January 21st, 2010 | 2:30 pm
A person with a severe physical disability may not be able to do the deed himself. Wouldn’t this require someone else doing it for him- or TO him, rather? Wouldn’t that make it euthanasia? Scary.
January 21st, 2010 | 3:07 pm
The Scottish bill allows euthanasia and assisted suicide. The bill uses the term – “end of life assistance.”
“End of life assistance” means assistance, including the provision (assisted suicide) or administration (euthanasia) of appropriate means, to enable a person to die with dignity and a minimum of distress.
Notice how it doesn’t define the means of death.
Margo MacDonald has Parkinson’s and wants to die by euthanasia.
January 21st, 2010 | 5:11 pm
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January 21st, 2010 | 5:24 pm
Eighteen months — what a joke. An otherwise healthy teenager might see an MD once or twice tops in that kind of time period.
January 21st, 2010 | 5:44 pm
Excuse me, my reading switch was off. But what is “physically incapacitated and unable to live independently”? If you have to use a wheelchair, regardless of overall health, is that covered?
January 21st, 2010 | 5:50 pm
As a disability advocate who works with young people with disabilities, I am especially disgusted by this.
January 21st, 2010 | 9:09 pm
Welsey, didn’t some country like the Netherlands pose this for kids as young as 12 a few years ago? Maybe I’m thinking of the decision to undergo sex change. Maybe both. Anyone sympathetic to PAS who is surprised by this proposal is either not serious or not paying attention, or both.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
January 21st, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Don: It was seriously suggested but not passed. The Netherlands also has an age 16 age of euthanasia consent.
January 22nd, 2010 | 10:53 am
The age of consent varies from one country to the next, and not all young people are considered to be legally incompetent until age 18 or 21 as they are here in the US.
Unlike Americans, Europeans are far less likely to interfere in each others’ private lives. Not to say that Europe is totally free of pro-life meddlers, busybodies, religious cranks and assorted “advocates;” just that most of them aren’t taken seriously — especially in non-Catholic countries (or in some nominally Catholic ones, like France).
It’s our great misfortune, here in the US, that religion seems to ooze continuously into important legislation like some malodorous seepage from a broken sewer line.
January 22nd, 2010 | 7:48 pm
HW-your position is fundamentally UNCARING. It seems to me that you just don’t care if some poor sixteen year old is pushed off the edge and opts for suicide. It’s disgusting.
January 23rd, 2010 | 10:12 am
safepres: the real issue here is whether one should go through life getting his/her jollies from minding other people’s business, or have a stab at minding his/her own. What you call “caring” other people call “meddling.” There’s very little difference between someone badgering another to commit suicide and someone badgering him not to. Unfortunately, those who believe they have a “mission” are rarely capable of looking at it from more than one side.
January 23rd, 2010 | 2:56 pm
“There’s very little difference between someone badgering another to commit suicide and someone badgering him not to.”
If you really believe that, HW, there is something deeply, deeply wrong with you.
January 23rd, 2010 | 3:03 pm
HW: You just don’t get it. It’s not a mission, it has nothing to do with religion, at least not for me and many others, and it has nothing to do with meddling in others’ business. In fact it’s the pro-assisted-suicide camp that those parameters fit. If you’d ever seen what goes on when strangers want the life of an older person who wants to live to end when it really is none of their business, you’d see what meddling is, and how ugly it and “do-gooding” can be. Lucky for you, your experience is limited; your faith in the medical establishment, certain documents, and your conception of rights may well turn out to be unlucky for you.
January 23rd, 2010 | 6:49 pm
[...] Non Terminal Teenagers Eligible for Assisted Suicide in Scottish Legalization Bill [...]
January 24th, 2010 | 1:16 pm
As I’ve said, your position is UNCARING. To say that there is no difference between egging a suicidal person on and trying to help them recover shows how shallow your logic is.
January 24th, 2010 | 11:12 pm
“Help them recover?” I can see you’ve already made your mind up that there must be something “wrong” with someone who decides to end his life. Why? Because YOU wouldn’t do the same thing in their particular circumstances. So tell us, when did Zeus retire and leave you in charge?
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 1:21 am
Yes, History Writer, he did.
January 25th, 2010 | 9:22 am
Wesley: You mean Zeus actually retired and left safepres in charge? Oh heck, now I’ll have to switch to worshiping Odin.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 10:18 am
History Writer: I thought I was left in charge. Odin’s second tier. And he’s got a bit of a problem with the mead and the maidens, you know what I mean? Stick with what you know.
January 26th, 2010 | 8:13 pm
Wesley: Good point. Those Rhine Maidens can be quite a handful (no pun intended).
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