Euthanasia in the UK

I fear that this is the future in the USA. It is strongly advocated by some politicians, sociologists, and some so-called Doctors. Check the debates on "palliative" care. Each year, euthanasia gains more momentum, much like a cancer, which of course it is. A cancer on the soul of America.

 

I'm not sure which of the legion of articles on that website you want us to read....but anyway...I'm less concerned about British doctors breaking the law (if that is indeed what they are doing), although that is serious enough, than I am about the attempted judicial amendment to the law on assited suicide in the Purdy case. The answer, rather than send people off to Switzerland to end their lives with medical help, or - God forbid! - allow them to do that here, is to expand the excellent system of end-of-life palliative care that we currently have through the hospice movement; that way, some of the horrific last days for those with degenerative diseases will be alleviated and sufferers will be less likely to want to prematurely end their lives.

 

I am not sure of your source, but there is a growing credibility gap concerning conservatives as they have been caught in misrepresenting facts and in outright lies on several topics recently.

 

Thanks, Crabby, for adding nothing to the discussion other than misdirection.

How about some documentation that euthanasia is not happening under the UK system instead of attempting to take us off topic?

 

The 'Affair of the Two Katies' has become something of a cause celebre over here, not least amongst the journos of the Daily Heil!, whose frothing extreme right-wing fulminations make Sarah Palin look like a pinko moderate and who normally never have a good word for the NHS; how odd therefore that it's the Republicans that the Mail has taken a pop at. Oh well, it's a queer old world indeed...

But, cutting through the above froth and noise from the tabloid shallow end of the journalistic swimming pool, there is more than an element of deception in the way the 'anti-reform' camp in the US has misused the legitimate gripes of these two ladies.

[ETA - and now to return to the topic: I'd like some reliable, independently-verifiable data to confirm that euthanasia* is being widely practised in the UK...

*As opposed to assisted suicide which, whilst also alarming, is a slightly different animal.]

 

No sure why it must be "widely practised" before it becomes a concern. How widely must it be shown to be occuring before it is a valid subject of conversation?

The slide from "assisted suicide" to euthanasia is a short one - especially when we cannnot be sure of who is making the request for the "assistance".

If it is a family member asking the doctor to "assist" in the demise of the patient would that not be euthanasia?

If you look to countries where doctor assisted suicide is legal (Denmark?) you will also find many accusations that often it is nothing other than euthanasia by a more acceptable name.

 

Note in the 1st quote below that assisted suicide is against the law in England [UK].

Note in the 2nd quote euthansia is legally considered as murder in England. The bold emphasis is mine.

You need to check the facts before posting alarmist posts from questionable sources. The Right Wing here in the State is being shown as having no ethics when it comes to telling lies, spreading false rumors, and in using scare tactics. Nixon used the big lie. Bush used the Big lie, and it continues in what we see currently concerning several topics such as health care reform. Seems they really have sold their souls to industrialists.

 

Any instance is a cause for concern but as the law presently stands it will be the subject matter of a prosecution. But the thrust of the OP suggests that this is a widespread problem in the UK - that every second GP or hospital consultant is a Jack Kevorkian - and that just isn't the case.

I agree that it is open to abuse. But the Purdy and the earlier Diane Pretty cases were and are based on a very narrow definition of assisted suicide, the issue being whether the husbands of these two ladies would be prosecuted if they helped their wives travel to the Dignitas clinic in Zurich, where would be given medication to take to end their lives; under the present UK law both husbands would be guilty of the criminal offence of aiding and abetting a suicide. Note that in both cases the lawsuit was brought by the patients who were both of sound mind, not the family. Note also that the patients were going to take their own lives in Switzerland and thus die by their own hands, albeit with assitance to travel there from their husbands and the assistance of medication provided there by doctors. That, morally worrying though it is, is not euthanasia.

 

This coming from a supporter of one who said in 2003, "I'm for a single-payer plan," who re-iterated in in 2007, and then claimed this month that he never said it at all.

With a double standard like yours, I'm not sure you should be doing any calling out of "credibility gaps."

 

Don't be surprised at the double shuffle. Liberals always use it to attempt to hide their true beliefs.:tonofbricks: