Australian pro euthanasia forces are responding to my advocacy, accusing me of scare mongering. From the story:
Tasmania’s Dying with Dignity group has accused an anti-euthanasia advocate of scaremongering about the impacts of legalising assisted suicide. U.S. campaigner Wesley Smith has warned legislation allowing voluntary euthanasia will lead to increasing numbers of people being eligible for assisted suicide, including those who are not terminally ill. Attorney-general Lara Giddings is helping with the development of a private members bill to legalise voluntary euthanasia.
The President of Dying with Dignity, Margaret Sing, says legislators will be able to control who can access voluntary euthanasia services. “It’s very insulting to our legislators to suggest that they are not capable of looking at what’s in front of them and making a decision about it whenever there is a bill before them,” she said.
That’s known in the trade as a non rebuttal-rebuttal. Note how the campaigner and the AG (also quoted in the story) don’t try to deny the facts I presented, such as about infanticide in the Netherlands, organ procurement/euthanasia in Belgium, spousal double assisted suicides in Switzerland, and Oregon’s case of Barbara Wagner being denied chemotherapy for financial reasons but assured the state would pay for a lethal overdose. Indeed, everything I said in that speech–and in the others I have been making–was factual, citable, and provable. For example, we discussed the organ harvesting after euthanasia story in Belgium mentioned in the story here at SHS when I first learned of it.
The pro euthanasia forces in Tasmania clearly agree with me that the facts of euthanasia as actually practiced are proper cause for alarm. That they refuse to let these facts interfere with their ideological zeal, is quite telling about their priorities and the direction in which they seek to move society.
July 13th, 2010 | 7:05 pm
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July 13th, 2010 | 7:36 pm
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July 13th, 2010 | 9:04 pm
The pro euthanasia forces in Tasmania clearly agree with me that the facts of euthanasia as actually practiced are proper cause for alarm.
Actually, I suspect that the pro euthanasia forces think that those facts are just fine, thank you very much. What they realize is that the general public currently feels that those euthanasia facts are proper cause for alarm. Thus, like passing “Health Care Reform” in the U.S., they want to pass the law now, hoping that people will accommodate to it over time, and eventually migrate their thinking in more “progressive” direction.
Joe
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
July 14th, 2010 at 7:14 am
Club 166. Better put than I did. Thanks.
July 14th, 2010 | 7:39 am
I hope I’m not being too naive by giving them (euthanasia advocates) the benefit of the doubt.
It reminds me of someone who dates a cheater thinking, “But he/she would never cheat on ME! It’ll be different this time.” That mindset accepts the facts of what happened to others, but such facts are dismissed as irrelevent because, “This time, it’s special. I can handle it.”
I think Wesley posted a story about the Dutch (?) pioneer of euthanasia who regretted her actions because she never thought it would ‘get out of control’ the way that it had.
July 16th, 2010 | 1:56 pm
I always find it slightly amusing when someone says that something is “offensive” when they can’t think of anything better to say. It’s ‘offensive?’ Tough toenails!
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