Wesley Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism a nd consults for the Patients Rights Council and the Center for Bioethics and Culture. He writes a blog on Human Exceptionalism from which I've gleaned the following shocking facts which illustrate what is meant by a 'culture of death'.
The Suicide Juggernaut. Euthanasia activists on a roll
Advocates of assisted suicide tell two—no, three—lies that act as the honey to help the hemlock go down. The first is that assisted suicide/euthanasia is a strictly medical act. Second, they falsely assure us that medicalized killing is only for the terminally ill. Finally, they promise that strict guidelines will be rigorously enforced to protect against abuse.
In Scotland. A new bill tabled in the Scottish parliament would legalize assisted suicide for “terminal” or “progressive and either terminal or life-shortening” conditions—undefined terms that could easily include chronic ailments such as diabetes, asymptomatic HIV infection, and multiple sclerosis…. the Scottish bill goes a radical step further by creating a new profession—the “licensed suicide facilitator,” authorized by the state to help suicidal patients kill themselves once a doctor has issued a lethal prescription.
Licensed facilitators would be authorized to provide “practical assistance” in the suicide and “reassurance” when a substance “dispensed or otherwise supplied for the suicide of the person is taken.” They would also be authorized to remove lethal drugs—presumably narcotics—from the home after their client died.
In Belgium, Belgian Euthanasia Opens Other Killing Doors - A study in the Journal of Medical Ethics finds that nearly 80% of palliative or terminal sedation cases are done without permission.
Belgian Doctors Brag About Harvesting Organs From the Euthanized. Joint euthanasia/organ harvests have become so normalized that Belgian doctors created a PowerPoint presentation urging colleagues to be on the lookout for suicidal patients with neuro-muscular diseases (such as MS) as potential donors, because unlike cancer patients, they have “high quality organs.”
Belgian Euthanasia Law Designed for Disabled admits law drafter
The Belgian parliament seems likely to legalize child euthanasia: By an overwhelming 50-17, the senate just passed a bill allowing doctors to kill sick children.
In the Netherlands - "14% of deaths in the Netherlands caused by intentionally killing by physicians"
Mobile death squads to kill sick and elderly in their own homes leads to surge in suicide rates in the Netherlands
Around 3 per cent of all deaths in the Netherlands are now by euthanasia…The country last year introduced mobile euthanasia units..In 2002 it became the first country since Nazi Germany to legalize it.
Clinics are assisting the suicides of depressed patients whose own doctors won’t kill them. Back in 1991, a psychiatrist named Boudewijn Chabot assisted the suicide of a woman whose two children had died to fulfill her obsession to be buried between them. The Dutch Supreme Court ruled logically that was just fine because suffering is suffering, and it doesn’t matter whether it is physical or emotional.
infanticide has already become a relatively routine part of Netherlander neo natal medical practice. According to The Lancet, 8% of all babies who die in the Netherlands are killed by doctors, even though it remains murder under the law. Indeed, doctors are so confident they won’t be punished for killing sick babies, they published the Groningen Protocol, a bureaucratic check list detailing which babies can be euthanized.
In Quebec, Quebec Euthanasia to Destroy Religious Freedom. The bill requires all doctors to kill or refer to a doctor who will. And if you have a religious objection, quit practicing medicine–no conscience allowed! At the hearing Christian doctors were not allowed to testify about its proposed euthanasia law.
"End-of-life" care is redefined to include euthanasia which is called "aid in dying". The suffering necessary to qualify for euthanasia is, essentially, whatever the patient determines is “intolerable”–even if the patient turns down treatment that could alleviate the symptoms they are experiencing…People can also direct that they be killed in their advance directive.
In Vermont, Starting in 2016, doctors in Vermont will assist patient suicides under what amounts to an honor system, no questions asked. What could go wrong?Posted by Jill Fallon at February 13, 2014 10:57 AM | Permalink