Tag Archives: assisted suicide

The Guardian: Legalizing Assisted Suicide is Dangerous for People with Disabilities

Friday, 09 September 2016 15:23
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Source: The Guardian

By Liz Carr

If I said I wanted to die, the press, celebrities and the public would support my choice, seeing it as rational and understandable. Hell, they would probably set up a go-fund-me campaign to help me make it happen.

Yet when a healthy, non-disabled person wants to kill themself it’s seen as a tragedy, and support and prevention tools are provided. If nothing else convinces me that to legalise assisted suicide is not a safe option for many of us then this does. Suicide is not seen as socially desirable – so why is assisted suicide seen as compassionate when it’s for ill or disabled people?

Marieke Vervoort, the 38-year-old Belgian Paralympian gold medallist, is only the most recent disabled person to announce that she is considering euthanasia, saying her “body is exhausted”. She is not imminently dying. Yet no one seems to be trying to persuade her that life is worthwhile. Would Usain Bolt be met with the same reaction if he announced his decision to end it all after his last Olympics?

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The Daily Signal: When Assisted Suicide Becomes Coercion

Friday, 29 July 2016 11:30
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Source: The Daily Signal

By: Hans von Spakovsky

Even the best intentions cannot reverse the insidious effects of a wrong policy. When those who advocate for assisted suicide cite a benevolent desire to relieve suffering, the horrifying results of such a practice still lie just beneath the surface.

Recently, an elderly Vermont woman found herself repeatedly pressured to commit assisted suicide. Her grave ailment? Only a broken wrist. Nevertheless, staff at her rehab center “repeatedly asked the elderly woman if she was in pain or depressed; then they would remind her that she could commit doctor-prescribed suicide under the new law.”

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TheStar.com: Disability Rights Groups Especially Sensitive to Dangers of Assisted Suicide

Monday, 18 July 2016 12:08
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Source: thestar.com

By Dow Marmur

Two years ago, when assisted suicide legislation had been again on the agenda in Canada, I wrote on this page: “My faith teaches that life is God’s gift and, therefore, sacred. For humans to take it away in murder or suicide is criminal and sinful. Despite its claim to compassion, assisted suicide may be of that ilk.”

In view of the current debate around Bill C-14 I’d like to reaffirm my advocacy for effective palliative care in place of one or other version of the bill. I wrote then that “my faith also teaches that as God’s creatures we’re obligated to lighten the burden of others and do our utmost to relieve them of suffering. Palliative care for the terminally ill is of that ilk.”

I’m not alone in this among my colleagues. Statements by two Canadian rabbis as reported in the Canadian Jewish News (CJN) reflect a similar view.

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Why States Should Resist Assisted Suicide

Thursday, 16 June 2016 12:22
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By Jay Evensen

My father’s final days did not fit any textbook definition of a quality life. He suffered from the advanced stages of dementia. He didn’t know who I was. In a rare moment when he seemed somewhat lucid, I asked him if he was scared. The look in his eyes as he nodded still brings tears to my eyes.

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Doctors Should Save Lives, Not End Them Through Assisted Suicide

Wednesday, 08 June 2016 12:32
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Source: Tribune-Review, Letter to the Editor

Regarding Christina Thomas’ letter “Legalize physician-aided suicide” : Killing patients has never been a part of the ethical framework of the medical profession going back to the Hippocratic Oath. It has no place in either civilized society or the medical profession as it often targets those who are sick and disabled, those very persons society should be committed to compassionately assisting. Often one hears the reason for allowing this barbaric practice is excruciating untreatable pain that candidates for assisted suicide must endure. This is myth-making on the part of advocates. Doctors are capable of treating pain effectively.

The disability community is very concerned about this push to legalize the practice of killing patients. The advocacy group Not Dead Yet reminds us that many disabled persons live very meaningful and useful lives. Consider the brilliant physicist Stephen Hawking who has lived with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) for over 50 years. Also, in some European countries where euthanasia is legal, individuals have been euthanized by their own requests not for terminal illlnesses but because of grief over the death of a loved one, depression and nonterminal illnesses.

Sadly, some will always find a way to commit suicide. Why would Pennsylvanians want their doctors, those responsible for their healing and comfort, to be co-opted to become their killers? Thomas’ own professional organization, the American Nursing Association, opposes this practice.

Dr. Ralph A. Capone

Greensburg

The writer is a physician board-certified in hospice and palliative care and a bioethics instructor at St. Vincent College.