Euthanasia

 

US Euthanasia Steams Toward Anything Goes

By Wesley J. Smith
The media and many other observers continue to pretend that the euthanasia/assisted suicide movement is only about terminal illness. But any observer of events in Europe, Canada, and with Kevorkian demonstrate that isn’t true.
Meanwhile, slowly the camouflage is coming off.

For example, a proposed constitutional amendment in Colorado pretends to be about allowing doctors to assist suicides of the terminally ill. But it would really permit doctors, nurses, heck, chiropractors, to help kill nearly anyone (with possible exception of children)–for any reason they want to die–and would authorize active euthanasia.
From, “Liberty at Life’s End (Medical Sovereignty)”:

Coloradans do not currently have the liberty to pursue happiness by obtaining a medical professional’s assistance in achieving a peaceful death thru the administration of oral or intravenous drugs.

(3) The people of Colorado hereby proclaim that mentally competent adult residents of Colorado are Sovereign in the matter of personal medical decisions and have the liberty at life’s end to set the time and tone of their own deaths, asking permission of no person or organization.​

“Life’s end” clearly could mean because the person is committing suicide or being euthanized, since the “right” would include “administration” of lethal drugs. Nor would the killers have to necessarily even be medical professionals:

The people of Colorado hereby further declare that any person or group assisting a Sovereign as defined in Section 3 above obtain Medical Aid In Dying is immune from prosecution upon presentation of acceptable documentation of the voluntary nature of the action.

And, the person killed wouldn’t have to be competent:

The Sovereign’s right to obtain Medical Aid In Dying is not limited to the maintenance of mental competency only, but can be durable into incompetency if desired and documented.

Meanwhile, in California, the new version of the assisted suicide legalization bill gives an open license to death doctors by preventing the possibility of meaningful oversight or transparency. From Assembly Bill X2-15:

The State Department of Public Health shall collect and review the information submitted pursuant to Section 443.9.

Sounds reasonable. But get this!

The information collected shall be confidential and shall be collected in a manner that protects the privacy of the patient, the patient’s family, and any medical provider or pharmacist involved with the patient under the provisions of this part. The information shall not be disclosed, discoverable, or compelled to be produced in any civil, criminal, administrative, or other proceeding.

In other words, nothing could be done with the “information” collected. And it couldn’t be used in a prosecution of a doctor, who say, assisted the suicide of a person who was coerced or not terminally ill.

The moral of the story: The assisted suicide movement’s ultimate goal is anything goes and death on demand. The supposed limitations and protections are merely temporary expediencies.
Editor’s note. The California bill mentioned by Wesley passed the Assembly yesterday. It now moves to the state Senate. This post appeared on Wesley’s great blog.

Source: NRLC News