Monday, November 15, 2010

Some Choices Are Always Wrong And Have Consequences

WOW! In the UK, 67% of respondents to a recent poll, support legalizing euthanasia.
What's even more scary, is that 55% of those polled express the view, that people who assist terminally ill sons or daughters to end their lives, should not be punished, and 58% believe, "people who help a person to commit suicide should not be prosecuted."

Trial balloons in the United States are being floated, that it would be better to assist a person who has profound illness, or just debilitating illness, to commit suicide; either with medical assistance or a friend's "help". Letters to the editor are frequent. Heart wrenching as it may be, suicide is always the wrong choice. We need to remember that, no matter the tragic circumstances. It is always the wrong choice.

One goal of the euthanasia movement is to legalize assisted suicide. They would use the rationale, if we, or the person who wants to commit suicide, has their nutrition either withheld or voluntarily given-up, wouldn't it be more humane to simply legally, lethally inject, rather then allow the person to die of dehydration?

A recent book titled "Imperfect Endings: A Daughter's Tale of Life and Death" by Zoe Fitzgerald Carter, narrates the story of her mother who "chose" to end her life by dehydration. The author narrates how she herself comes to terms with her mother's "choice" to end her life, because she slowly comes to terms that the suffering person has rights. So in the end, she supported her mother's "choice" to end her own life.

We have to reject the mantra of "choice". Euthanasia protagonists have taken up this mantra of an individual's personal "choice", to blur and obfuscate the real issue, which is that there are some choices which are simply wrong.

The mental health and suicide prevention organizations need to take a stand against assisted suicide. Suicide is an unmitigated horror that is being soft-pedaled to the public, while putting vulnerable people at risk, as well as, destroying our medical and legal ethics.

Back to the Brits - British disability rights campaigner Alison Davis, who belongs to the disability rights group, "No Less Human". and who herself is disabled, states, "It is "sheer folly" to propose legal assisted suicide for the disabled, but to spend public funds on suicide prevention programs instead."

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