Angels of Mercy, or Social Devils?

Tiassa

Tiassa

Let us not launch the boat ...
Valued Senior Member
So the Seattle News Fax, which comes around to a couple people in my office, is reporting for its 11/29 edition, that The Netherlands have approved euthanasia in the lower parliamentary house by a 104-40 vote. This article also notes that Upper chamber approval next year is seen as a formality.

The question at hand, I suppose, is relatively obvious.

As a last-paragraph note, the article mentions that Dutch Calvinists have drawn parallels between euthanasia and Nazi Germany. As a less obvious question than the big one, is that entirely fair?

At any rate, and again in search of brevity:

* I think legalization of euthanasia is, overall, a good thing.
* Ethical and legal difficulties need to be worked out, obviously. However, just because we can imagine some people trying to take advantage of the situation is no reason to not go forward. (On the one hand, can you imagine if we worried about people trying to take unfair advantage of capitalism? To the other, are we worried about other people taking advantage of a system, or are we reflecting on our own fears concerning our own capabilities?)
* I believe that each and every one of us has a sovereign right to terminate our own life at will. Furthermore, I support the right of certain people in my life to make certain decisions on my behalf at certain times. If we cannot trust our own families with our lives, do we really live in civilization? Or are we afraid that we've raised our children to be the kind of successful people who would put a round through us if we knock ourselves out on the hatchback?

I think the primary objections to euthanasia presently and always have consisted of a base-level distrust of our own selves. This runs deeply enough to imply that an individual dislikes legalized euthanasia because they fear for their own wellbeing. If I fear my friends killing me when I'm sick, I ought to put a better effort into finding friends. If I fear my children pillaging the estate, maybe I should have raised them better.

The only alternative would be to desensitize the culture, so that there is no visceral emotion at the perception of someone else's pain. Of course, many people do seem to treat compassion and love as concepts we'd be better off without. I don't know ... I remember the IV scars up and down my grandmother's arm, and a host of horrible symptoms. While I don't think the situation called for euthanasia, it did turn my stomach. The only reason people are asking for this right, to terminate the life of an already-dying loved one, is because they can't stand to see someone they believe they love in extended pain. So mass desensitization seems to be a proper solution for euthanasia, but I would imagine violent crime to go through the roof. Give a little, get a little, eh?

thanx,
Tiassa :cool:

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Whether God exists or does not exist, He has come to rank among the most sublime and useless truths.--Denis Diderot
 
Somewhere down at the root of the question is whether a doctor's job is to prolong life or to ease suffering. The Nazis asked this same question when deciding whether or not to require their doctors to euthanize "life not worhty of life". They ultimately decided that it was a doctor's job to tend to the health of the race, not the health of individuals. In this method they justified ordering doctors to kill.

The difference is that they were killing what we today consider relatively healthy people. Down's Syndrome is not a death sentence. For that matter, neither are some of the more dire diagnoses. But what's a modern doctor to do when a family begs to have one of their put out of misery? Even if the patient themself has the same request? We'd do it to dogs and other animals without batting an eye. Do we give more consideration to the suffering of an animal than we do to our own kind? Or do we hesitate because we see our future selves potentially lying in the same condition a few years from now?

I favor death with dignity. A co-worker of mine last week had to watch her mother die a slow painful death. Her mother was begging for a bottle of sleeping pills. She was in sheer agony, a statement that applies to both mother and daughter, as well as the rest of the family. The pills were unable to be smuggled in because the doctors were on her around trhe clock trying to figure out what had gone wrong with this woman's health. It was some form of latent cancer that hit all of a sudden and killed her within 2 weeks. My friend and her family are devastated. I help where I can to get her life back together. What was the doctor's job in this situation? Was it to keep her alive for as long as possible in hopes of a cure, or maybe to learn enough to take care of others in the future? Or should they have consented to the family's wish and looked the other way when the sleeping pills were brought in? Would it necessariuly be murder or suicide?

On the flip-side, when my father's ulcer ruptured and we rushed him to the hospital, he was not allowed any pain-killers until the doctor arrived. With a hole in his stomach, they didn't want to worsen the situation. He begged for us to bring his .38 revolver. I'm glad we didn't. The doctor arrived and administered the pain-killers in a safer manner and I still have my father.

It is a very important issue that needs to be addressed, and a situation that needs to be well-thought out.
 
my dad is a doctor, and my sister has down syndrome.

sometimes i wish to pute her down, to get rid of her, and all the trouble she causes. i seriously almost have (dont think im crazy)
people tease me about her... and my dad gets mad at me for stuff she did, he is in denial of it all.

puteing her down, was something i always thought about, or getting rid of her (my friend had the idea of e-bay).

though it is not my plce to decide, i still wish for another way to get rid of her.

if someone really wants to be killed(pute out of there misery) then i think they shoudl be allowed too. i knwo this kid that used to go to my school. on hs second suicide attempt, he blew off his jaw, blinded and lost his hearing by a 12 gauge. i really do nt think he stillw ants to live. but they keep him alive anyways.

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Dex- I don't think I ever asked, if you don't mind, how bad is your sister's Downe's Syndrome? I've known some people with DS whose only indication of it was the physical deformities. Of course, that doesn't mean that these people can't be jerks just like other "normal" people, but as DS itself isn't necessarily a cause of mental retardation, there must be some other diagnosis if she's being anything other than a normal bratty sister. How much have you learned about her disorder? Understanding can pave the way for a lot of patience (which, as I understand, means only a couple of more years for you before you can legally get outta there).

And before anybody condemns you as a monster for wanting to put your sister down, come on. Anybody with a brother or sister, tell me you never wanted to sell them to Hannibal the Cannibal at some point. I'm 33 and I still wish gypsies would kidnap my brothers! ;)
 
One sister for sale, one sister for sale! One lying, crying sister for sale! (Shel Silverstein)

I forget the one about the Gypsies coming to take you away, but oh, well. (BTW: Barnes and Noble in Seattle has been carrying large stocks of the closest thing to a Bible I think I have: Silverstein's The Giving Tree. Heck, I still need to pick one up, since I didn't grab one in the middle of Christmas shopping.)

Dex, I don't know what to tell you; I have a cousin with DS, who is only a year younger than me. I admit fully that I avoid that part of the family, and partially because of that. It was on those family occasions that I learned that fake, toothy smile with the upper lip that twitches from the pressing need to spit fire. I still have it, and that same smile only comes when I feel like I'm dealing with an adult with the mind of a bratty six year-old. (All things considered, let me say that working for an insurance company has advised me that Down Syndrome is not as big of a developmental difficulty as thought; working in corporate America makes people even more difficult to handle. ;) )

thanx,
Tiassa :cool:

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Whether God exists or does not exist, He has come to rank among the most sublime and useless truths.--Denis Diderot
 
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