Media Keep Encouraging Suicide by the Sick
By Wesley J. SmithThe media sells content these days by promoting the supposed virtues of suicide by the sick and disabled. How else explain the National Post doing an extended, puff interview with two ill women [Sara Myers and Aja Riggs] about their plans to commit suicide? From the article:
Q: How important is it for you to have that measure of control over when to end your life?
MYERS: I think that’s paramount. In
an ideal world I’d be able to make the choice and have my loved ones and
family and friends and whoever I wanted to be with me through that
journey. As it stands right now, I don’t have that choice. This is a
choice I will have to do on my own and I’m going to have to make sure
that nobody’s around when I do it. I value life enough to know that I
don’t want to put anybody else in legal jeopardy because I might want to
say “enough is enough.”…
RIGGS: I think that’s incredibly
important. I think that one of the most important parts of this whole
issue is that, as patients, we are in control.
Media play a significant role in
today’s society by providing a very wide range of information in a
variety of ways. They strongly influence community attitudes, beliefs
and behaviour, and play a vital role in politics, economics and social
practice. Because of that influence media can also play an active role
in the prevention of suicide…One of the many factors that may
lead a vulnerable individual to suicide could be publicity about
suicides in the media. How the media report on suicide cases can
influence other suicides.
I’ve seen ALS close up and personal. My good friend and last hospice patient, Robert Salamanca, died from it. He had been suicidal too–for almost two years. He told me that he had wanted to go to Kevorkian, for gosh sakes!
But then, in his words, “I came out of the fog and was so glad to be alive.” He came to bitterly resent advocacy for suicide by hoisting patients with ALS up the flag pole as assisted suicide’s battle flag–-as in NP’s piece-–taking to the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle to make his point. From, “I Don’t Want a Choice to Die:”
Many pro-euthanasia groups “showcase”
people with ALS. They portray us as feeble, unintelligible and dying by
slow suffocation. This is absolutely false, and I protest their efforts
vehemently. By receiving proper medical care, a terminally ill person
can pass away peacefully, pain-free and with dignity. We are not people
just waiting for someone to help us end our misery, but to the contrary,
we are people reaching out to love . . . to be loved . . . wanting to
feel life at its best.
Bob concluded his Chronicle piece:
I exhort everyone: Life is worth living, and life is worth receiving. I know. I live it every day.
We don’t see opinions like Bob’s presented in the media much anymore.
Rather, media propagandistically amplifies the siren song of suicide.
Ditto popular entertainment and pro assisted suicide advocacy campaigns.Many will just shrug that Bob didn’t actually commit suicide, so what is the problem? Here is the problem: Because of the suicide pushers, the Bob’s of the future might not live long enough to “come out of the fog” and get on with life.
Editor’s note. This appeared on Wesley’s blog.
Source: NRLC News
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