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2008-11-05 Home Front: Culture Wars
Euthanasia Come to Washington State
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Posted by Beavis 2008-11-05 09:26|| || Front Page|| [11126 views ]  Top

#1 Not a bad idea. Recommend a plastic bag over Seattle.
Posted by ed 2008-11-05 11:30||   2008-11-05 11:30|| Front Page Top

#2 "I'm elated," said former Washington Gov. Booth Gardner, who filed the initiative and was one of its biggest campaign contributors. Gardner is battling Parkinson's disease, though Parkinson's is not considered a terminal disease that would qualify under the initiative.

So...whaddya waiting for?
Posted by tu3031 2008-11-05 12:34||   2008-11-05 12:34|| Front Page Top

#3 As a physician I'm truly angry about this.

It's simple: when I walk into a room to see a patient, I always want that patient to see a healer wearing a white coat and not an executioner wearing a black hood.

Physician assisted euthanasia blurs that line. It will become blurred more by those who advocate (as they did in the 1930s) that the old, infirm, and disabled have a 'duty' to get out of the way. And we all know where that leads.

Tu3031 makes a valid point (in his usual snarky way :-) -- if you're really committed to ending your life, you don't need my help as a physician. There's all sorts of ways to do it without involving me and my profession. You want to off yourself, go ahead, but I'm not going to help you.

This isn't about people needing 'help' to end their lives: it's about validation. They want it to be 'okay'. Tomorrow they'll want it to be a duty. The day after that they'll be making judgments on you and me about who should live and who should die.

Welcome to the new world.
Posted by Steve White 2008-11-05 12:59||   2008-11-05 12:59|| Front Page Top

#4 Sorry, I voted for this; after seeing many terminally ill patients (not as many as Dr. Steve, admittedly, but enough to make my decision) wither away and lose all dignity, this provides them an option. there is no mandatory offing clause, and i am satisfied with the safeguards in the bill.
whether the slippery slope describes becomes reality, i guess time will tell. i do not see any evidence of that in Oregon, and they have had this for several years now.
Posted by USN, Ret. 2008-11-05 14:39||   2008-11-05 14:39|| Front Page Top

#5 ask an ICU nurse what they think
Posted by Lumpy Claque7564 2008-11-05 15:36||   2008-11-05 15:36|| Front Page Top

#6 There was an ad about this featuring a woman in nearly Oregon who's insurance would pay for 'termination' but not for 'treatment'.
Posted by CrazyFool 2008-11-05 15:39||   2008-11-05 15:39|| Front Page Top

#7 of course they pay for the cheaper option, is that hard to fathom
Posted by Lumpy Claque7564 2008-11-05 16:10||   2008-11-05 16:10|| Front Page Top

#8 I'm an ICU doc. I also take care of ALS patients. I know about the issues.


You do NOT need euthanasia to have a death that is dignified and decent. Careful, compassionate doctors and nurses in the various hospice programs around the country handle these issues all the time, and they don't euthanize anyone.



When a person demands euthanasia he/she is either 1) clinically depressed 2) hasn't yet worked through the stages of grief with dying and/or 3) hasn't been educated by their doctors on how pain and suffering can be handled.
Posted by Steve White 2008-11-05 16:37||   2008-11-05 16:37|| Front Page Top

#9 You do NOT need euthanasia to have a death that is dignified and decent.

Hospice services in our area do a pretty decent job of being there for a person who wants to die with dignity. They don't engage in euthanasia.

As said earlier the physician doesn't need to bring about suicide as did Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Best not to become the Soylent Green society. Life gets cheapened.
Posted by JohnQC 2008-11-05 17:01||   2008-11-05 17:01|| Front Page Top

#10 Logical sequel to setting the living babies of failed abortions aside to die.
Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore  2008-11-05 19:50||   2008-11-05 19:50|| Front Page Top

#11 There's all sorts of ways to do it without involving me and my profession.

Unfortunately, some actually do this by drinking and driving. It gets treated as another DUI death when it is a suicide. How do you tell the difference. The nastiness is when they take someone else out in the process.
Posted by Procopius2k 2008-11-05 21:41||   2008-11-05 21:41|| Front Page Top

#12 100 mph into a bridge abutment --- Catholic suicide.
Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore  2008-11-05 22:33||   2008-11-05 22:33|| Front Page Top

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