The Dutch show the consequences of opening the door to the assisted suicide banshee. A proposal to allow doctors to assist suicides based solely on age is gaining strength in the Netherlands. From the story:
A campaign to give elderly people in the Netherlands the right to assisted suicide said Monday it has gathered more than 100,000 signatures, hoping to push the boundaries another notch in the country that first legalized euthanasia. The signatures are enough to force a debate in parliament, where it is certain to face resistance. Even if widely approved, the proposal would normally go through a lengthy process of committee work and consensus-building that could take years. The legalization of euthanasia for the terminally ill in 2002 was preceded by decades of discussion and quiet negotiation that attached stringent conditions and medical supervision.
Can’t media ever get it right? Assisted suicide has been openly practiced since 1973, only being formally legalized in 2002. It has never been limited to the terminally ill, and the “guidelines” are not “stringent,” nor are they enforced with any vigor. Indeed, Dutch doctors now openly engage in infanticide, nearly 1,000 people are euthanized each year who have not asked to die, and the country’s Supreme Court has made it legally available to the depressed.
Those points aside, this story proves what I have stated repeatedly: The Culture of Death is never satiated. It is always hungry. It always wants more.
March 8th, 2010 | 7:44 pm
Culture of death… hmmm… I agree. It is everywhere.
does this include war and killing civilians (albeit unintentionally)? lying and/or misleading to advance a war? failing to ensure your own people and children access to reasonable, prevention based healthcare while simultaneously demanding them to fund a war when their security isn’t really at risk from the causes cited for the war? spending countless billions on explosive instruments to kill people, which never actually get used to kill people? trumping up false fears of death by ‘evil-doers’ to justify killing such evildoers? exploiting trade practices and resources for non-essentially items (diamonds) or items we could easily sacrifice on, to slowly kill people on the other side of the globe through economic impoverishment leading to survival hardship? does this include violent video games and movies we export, along with soldiers, to other countries? worshiping a violent god who condones rape and murder in the old testament of his “holy” word? forced killing of the elderly? failing to curb just a little of our chemical gluttony to ensure future generations don’t confront violent conflict over scarce resources? refusal to sacrifice a little so our neighbors don’t face early death from years of neglected medical care?
Nay, seems we have a culture, dominated by primitive minds, that relishes the death, actual or imagined, of sentient humans.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
March 8th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
David: Not a place for generalized rants. Thanks.
March 8th, 2010 | 8:15 pm
[...] is underway in the Netherlands to allow for the euthanasia of grandma and grandpa. Uber-bioethicist Wesley J. Smith notes, Assisted suicide has been openly practiced since 1973, only being formally legalized in [...]
March 8th, 2010 | 9:00 pm
[...] 100,000 Dutch Sign Petitions to Permit Assisted Suicide of the Elderly [...]
March 8th, 2010 | 9:12 pm
Hi Wesley.
We reposted this, with link too your post, on:
DRASTIES – Dutch on the world. World on the Dutch
http://www.drasties.com/
Hope that is ok with you.
Thanks JANdeWIT
March 9th, 2010 | 9:48 am
This disgusts me. I am so glad that I do not live in the Netherlands. I wish that there was more we could do to stop what is going on there.
March 9th, 2010 | 5:10 pm
100,000 people is .6 of one percent of the Dutch population. We shouldn’t equate all of Holland with the petition-signers.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
March 9th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
I didn’t, although it is a higher percentage than that, given that a high percentage of the 16 million Dutch are children. But it is alarming and it shows the flow, I think. Not to mention the other horrors that are ongoing, despite which the Dutch people support their euthanasia law.
March 10th, 2010 | 11:52 am
Assisted suicide and VE are practiced in most, if not all, Western countries, with little to no prosecution (unless a party profits from the death).
So isn`t your fight pointless, since it has changed nothing?
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
March 10th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
No. Particularly since legalization will increase the numbers and send an insidious message to the ill, disabled, elderly, and depressed.
March 10th, 2010 | 3:17 pm
In the ’80′s we had 10,000 Maniacs. For the new era someone could start a band named 100,000 Dutch Eugenicists.
Perhaps HCM is correct. Perhaps you should just fold up shop. Resistance is, after all, futile, and history is just one long implacable march towards an inevitable, pre-determined definition of progress. Maybe you should just go lie on a beach somewhere and wait for the happy van people to come take you away in a respectful, dignified and compassionate manner, when it’s your time, of course.
March 11th, 2010 | 3:56 am
How do you know that the numbers will climb? There is, after all, no real empyrical data for illicit VE. It`s built into the system. The closest you can get is through anonymous surverys of medical professionals.
March 11th, 2010 | 12:53 pm
[...] the Dutch now debate whether old age is a killable offense to human dignity, we should remember that as we debate “death with dignity” elsewhere in the [...]
March 11th, 2010 | 6:11 pm
I find it interesting that the Dutch proposal would set at 70 the age above which doctors could assist suicide since this is also the age at which, according to the study on “sexual life expectancy” most men “retire” from sex (this is the study you criticize in a later post at this site). Also, yesterday, a still fit looking Chuck Norris turned seventy. Coincidence?
In response to the earlier dialogue between Stephen and Wesley regarding the number of signatories to the petition, I think 100,000 people is a striking number, no matter what percentage of the adult population it may comprise, but its legal significance is that, according to the article, it forces a debate on the proposal in the Dutch Parliament. Another reason to be wary of legislation by petition or referendum (California, anyone?).
David, You make a valid point regarding the numerous ways in which we can show disregard for human life.
March 15th, 2010 | 8:18 pm
Mr. Smith: I do commend you on your courage in opposing euthanasia. Even though we disagree on the animal issue, profounly, I think we’re united here. I saw recently a very disturbing Frontline piece, showing a man, with ALS, choose to go to Switzerland, and take lethal poison. You have stated that you do not use religious arguments. But without them, one seems to only be left with the consenting adult argument. This argument is legitiment, in many areas, but it leaves one vulnerable to the claim that all consenting adults should have the right to kill themselves, unless one’s dignity is derived from God.
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