Euthanasia
- Thread starter Luis G
- Start date
unclehobart
New Member
Its not used enough.
unclehobart
New Member
Innate mixed fear, love response. Some people just can't let go of the dying.
Jeslek
Banned
I am totally against it. If someone doesn't want to live, withdraw life support and drugs that prolong life and let him die in peace.
Anyone know what that is? Its an oath. Doctors take it, or used to. A doctor is an honorable profession, and to make them murderers is just wrong in my mind. If you really need to legalize euthanasia, for the love of God please don't let a doctor perform it.
Here is why I am against it:
1. Legalising the deliberate killing of humans (other than in legitimate self-defence/war or possibly for the most heinous of crimes) fundamentally undermines the basis of law and public morality.
2. No system of safeguards could ever be foolproof, so in practice legalising ‘voluntary euthanasia’ would result in legalising involuntary euthanasia. This has been the experience in both Nazi Germany and, currently, in Holland. See bottom.
3. Legalising 'voluntary euthanasia' on the basis of excruciating 'hard cases' would result in its being routinely practiced on a large scale. Bad cases do not make good law. One leading medical ethicist said more than twenty years ago "We shall begin by doing it because the patient is in intolerable pain but we shall end up doing it because it is Friday afternoon and we want to get away for the weekend". The precedent of abortion is chilling: "Aging Advisory Services" would offer a 1-stop shop where you could pop in your inconvenient relatives and, for a suitable fee, euthanase them in your lunch-hour.
4. Even if someone sincerely wants to be euthanasia this may well be due to depression or to a misapprehension of their true prognosis. Palliative specialists report that such requests are often used by patients to assess their worth and value to others. A positive response merely confirms their worst fears and such a decision, once acted upon, is irreversible.
5. Legalised euthanasia would produce huge social pressures on very vulnerable people to 'volunteer', causing much stress and suffering.
6. It would undermine the financing and provision of proper geriatric and palliative care: with stretched budgets euthanasia would be see as the cost-effective option. Indeed it would be very "cost effective".
7. It would also undermine funding of research into these areas.
8. Even without it being explicitly stated, legalising euthanasia (and presumably making it available on the NHS) would mean that the state was offering it as an alternative to people who were seeking benefits for sickness or unemployment or to pensioners, to refugees and people with disabilities. If it were legalised, why not then insist that such people have ‘euthanasia counseling’ before they receive care or benefits?
9. It would fundamentally undermine the relationships between elderly or dependent relatives and their families, with overwhelming pressures being applied on people to 'take the honorable course' and 'not be a burden'.
10. It would fundamentally undermine the basis of trust between doctors and patients that is at the heart of effective medicine. Many people in Holland are rightly terrified of going to hospital and being euthanised against their will. Far from being the 'ultimate expression of patient autonomy' legalised euthanasia becomes the ultimate act of medical paternalism.
11. Any form of suicide is devastating for the people left behind who love the person who has decided that his or her life is no longer worth living: it is especially damaging for children.
12. Whereas the advocates of euthanasia are mostly members of the chattering classes who seem to be having difficulty in coming to terms with their own mortality, the victims would predominantly be the most disadvantaged members of society: the old, poor, disabled, infirm and unemployed.
13. Euthanasia would be executed by people who think "I have a much higher IQ and am much better educated than most of the people" with whom they interact, and claim to "know with complete certainty" that the deepest beliefs and aspirations of others are groundless.
SOURCE: http://www.euthanasia.com/holland99.html
Anyone know what that is? Its an oath. Doctors take it, or used to. A doctor is an honorable profession, and to make them murderers is just wrong in my mind. If you really need to legalize euthanasia, for the love of God please don't let a doctor perform it.
Here is why I am against it:
1. Legalising the deliberate killing of humans (other than in legitimate self-defence/war or possibly for the most heinous of crimes) fundamentally undermines the basis of law and public morality.
2. No system of safeguards could ever be foolproof, so in practice legalising ‘voluntary euthanasia’ would result in legalising involuntary euthanasia. This has been the experience in both Nazi Germany and, currently, in Holland. See bottom.
3. Legalising 'voluntary euthanasia' on the basis of excruciating 'hard cases' would result in its being routinely practiced on a large scale. Bad cases do not make good law. One leading medical ethicist said more than twenty years ago "We shall begin by doing it because the patient is in intolerable pain but we shall end up doing it because it is Friday afternoon and we want to get away for the weekend". The precedent of abortion is chilling: "Aging Advisory Services" would offer a 1-stop shop where you could pop in your inconvenient relatives and, for a suitable fee, euthanase them in your lunch-hour.
4. Even if someone sincerely wants to be euthanasia this may well be due to depression or to a misapprehension of their true prognosis. Palliative specialists report that such requests are often used by patients to assess their worth and value to others. A positive response merely confirms their worst fears and such a decision, once acted upon, is irreversible.
5. Legalised euthanasia would produce huge social pressures on very vulnerable people to 'volunteer', causing much stress and suffering.
6. It would undermine the financing and provision of proper geriatric and palliative care: with stretched budgets euthanasia would be see as the cost-effective option. Indeed it would be very "cost effective".
7. It would also undermine funding of research into these areas.
8. Even without it being explicitly stated, legalising euthanasia (and presumably making it available on the NHS) would mean that the state was offering it as an alternative to people who were seeking benefits for sickness or unemployment or to pensioners, to refugees and people with disabilities. If it were legalised, why not then insist that such people have ‘euthanasia counseling’ before they receive care or benefits?
9. It would fundamentally undermine the relationships between elderly or dependent relatives and their families, with overwhelming pressures being applied on people to 'take the honorable course' and 'not be a burden'.
10. It would fundamentally undermine the basis of trust between doctors and patients that is at the heart of effective medicine. Many people in Holland are rightly terrified of going to hospital and being euthanised against their will. Far from being the 'ultimate expression of patient autonomy' legalised euthanasia becomes the ultimate act of medical paternalism.
11. Any form of suicide is devastating for the people left behind who love the person who has decided that his or her life is no longer worth living: it is especially damaging for children.
12. Whereas the advocates of euthanasia are mostly members of the chattering classes who seem to be having difficulty in coming to terms with their own mortality, the victims would predominantly be the most disadvantaged members of society: the old, poor, disabled, infirm and unemployed.
13. Euthanasia would be executed by people who think "I have a much higher IQ and am much better educated than most of the people" with whom they interact, and claim to "know with complete certainty" that the deepest beliefs and aspirations of others are groundless.
SOURCE: http://www.euthanasia.com/holland99.html
Jeslek
Banned
To all those supporters of euthanasia. I support the death penalty, and if I'm called up I will pull the trigger and kill someone sentenced to death, and I would not have a problem with it.
Would you murder an unborn child? And, if your best friend comes up to you and asks you to murder him (euthanasia), would you?
I answer NO in both circumstances, and I am opposed to both. Unless you are willing to take the knife and murder the baby or person, I don't see how you can support it.
Would you murder an unborn child? And, if your best friend comes up to you and asks you to murder him (euthanasia), would you?
I answer NO in both circumstances, and I am opposed to both. Unless you are willing to take the knife and murder the baby or person, I don't see how you can support it.
unclehobart
New Member
Thats a different argument altogether. Even your base definitions are open to argument.
unclehobart
New Member
This is a euthanasia thread ... not an abortion one. I wont argue it here.
Jeslek
Banned
OK, so what is all that bullshit you have been feeding me with how serious it is if a friend comes to me with "I want to commit suicide, because I'm in emotional distress and a lot of pain." Should I just tell him, "Lets go to this bridge and I will push you right off."Luis G said:
Thats sick.