Michael Landon, the hugely popular television star of Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, and Highway to Heaven, died in 1991 at age fifty-four. Landon’s last act—if you will—was widely hailed as his best: He publicly announced his diagnosis with terminal pancreatic cancer, appeared on the Tonight Show to openly discuss his pending death with Johnny Carson (almost unprecedented back then), and gave several interviews announcing his determination to hang on until the end. He told Life, “If I’m gonna die, death’s gonna have to do a lot of fighting to get me.” Continue Reading »
A story out of Belgium vividly illustrates how our elderly are becoming personae non gratae in a society increasingly obsessed with avoiding difficulty. Francis and Anne are healthy and happily married octogenarians. Not wanting to live without each other, they plan to die together on their sixty-fourth anniversary. Rather than engaging suicide prevention, their children procured a doctor to euthanize them. Continue Reading »
God may not be dead, but considering the imago Dei in philosophical discourse and public policy certainly is. Not only that, but the rational reasons for acknowledging the exceptional dignity of humans are wrongly denigrated as merely reflecting our religious past in which rigid moralism supposedly trumped reason. Continue Reading »
Those of us who have never experienced severe physical disability have no clue about the depth of suffering it can cause. But NPR’s megastar talk show host Dianne Rehm does, up close and personal. Her husband John had severe and progressive Parkinson’s disease, leading him to suicidal despair. John asked his doctor for assisted suicide. Told that was not possible, he starved himself to death—a process that euthanasia activists call “voluntary stop eating and drinking,” or VSED. Continue Reading »
The worldview of modern science . . . sees health not only as a foundation but also a principal goal, not only as a beginning but also an end. Relief and preservation—from disease and pain, from misery and necessity—become the defining ends of human action, and therefore of human societies.
Dutch euthanasia cases have risen 10% in the last year. From the story:A total of 2,331 people made official requests for help with killing themselves under euthanasia legislation last year, a 10% increase on 2007, Nos tv reports on Friday.The figure comes from the annual report published by the . . . . Continue Reading »
Diane Coleman and Steve Drake from Not Dead Yet are speaking. Coleman discussed the problems people with disabilities face in the health care context.Drake then took the microphone and told a touching story about his birth:The doctor told my parents that the good news was 100-1 that I would not . . . . Continue Reading »
Bobby Schindler, Terri Schiavo’s brother, has become a righteous advocate for the vulnerable and defenseless since his sister’s untimely demise. He opened today’s session of the euthanasia symposium with a stirring critique of media bias and the prevalent anti-disability attitudes . . . . Continue Reading »
