This is no joke.
The U.K.’s present not-as-great-as-advertised administration is working a physician-assisted suicide bill through Parliament.
It is true that many religious groups vehemently
oppose the Joffe Bill, but they are not the only ones. They unite with
medical representatives and disabled groups, who fear that doctors’
judgements about ‘quality of life’ may imply that their own lives are
not worth living.This is no abstract fear voiced by philosophers such as Baroness Warnock, as Jane Campbell, writing recently in The Times
(London), discovered. Campbell, who suffers from spinal muscular
atrophy, a muscle-wasting illness that means she cannot lift her head
from her pillow unaided, was hospitalised for a case of pneumonia. The
consultant treating her said that he assumed she would not want to be
resuscitated should she go into respiratory failure. When she protested
that she would like to be resuscitated, she was visited by a more
senior consultant who said that he assumed she would not want to be put
on a ventilator. According to the Disability Rights Commission, this
was not was not an isolated incident. As Campbell says, these incidents
‘reflect society’s view that people such as myself live flawed and
unsustainable lives and that death is preferable to living with a
severe impairment’ [SOURCE.].
The kind of experience Mrs. Campbell had is not rare. There is a profound ambivalence on the part of many in the medical community about keeping patients alive.
I know.
I’ve seen it.
When my wife was dying at age 27, the doctors and nurses and hospital administrators all put pressure on us to try to get her to agree not to insist on all the life-sustaining measures that were available. When she adamantly did insist on them (her specific words were "I. Want. To. Live."), they were dismayed and did a lot of grumbling and head shaking and eye rolling out of her presence (but not out of mine).
The medical community is in such danger of forgetting the Hippocratic Oath (which they no longer take)’s requirement to do no harm to the patient that we do not need the doorway of death opened any wider than it already is.
Too many doctors are already trying to shove patients through it out of false compassion–NOT because it will help the patient but because the doctors and nurses and administrators are wanting to keep costs down and because THEY are simply tired of having to take care of the patient and watch her suffer.
This obviously doesn’t apply to every doctor or nurse or administrator. Many still have their hearts in the right place. But many do not.
Too many.
Regarding Britain’s upcoming bill, THOUGHTFUL ATHEIST WRITES THOUGHTFUL ARTICLE AGAINST ASSISTED SUICIDE.
Is there something frightening about a government funded medical system whose doctors will help people commit suicide? Conflict of interest rings a bell. Medical costs are soaring for the government? Not a problem, the doctors can fix it.
Assisted suicide makes depression a capital offense.
Wait…Jimmy, you had (or have) a wife? I never realized that…
This is truly terrifying.
I use a wheelchair. Whenever I’ve had to seek medical treatment, I tend to make a fair bit of noise about my education, and my paying job; that’s not ego, but survival. It’s not that I think I only have value as an overeducated taxpayer… but I’m quite aware there are those who do think that.
There are in fact two Bills related to this subject currently making their way through Parliament.
First, there is a government-sponsored bill (the Mental Capacity Bill) which, it was feared, might open the door to euthanasia by omission (e.g. by doctors witholding food and fluids). There was intense lobbying by pro-lifers and the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales. In the middle of a debate about this bill in the Commons last week, it became apparant that behind the scenes activity by Archbishop Peter Smith (the Archbishop of Cardiff and a qualified lawyer) had resulted in fresh guarantees from the Lord Chancellor which appear to answer the pro-life concerns. You can read a brief description of the story here. We won’t know the exact form of the government’s changes until the bill makes it to the Lords. Let’s all pray that the Archishops intervention has been fruitful.
Second, there is a Bill introduced privately by a member of the House of Lords (the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill). The government does not, as far as I am aware, have anything to do with this Bill which, of course, MUST be defeated.
P.S. The Archbishop wrote an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph which reflects on the real meaning of Christmas and mentions the battle against euthanasia.
Hippocratic oath is dead for many physicians since abortion is legalized !
Mr. Akin, I did not realize you had a wife who had died. I am very sorry. I will keep you both in my prayers.
I work in the medical profession. There’s a specific term for what Mr Akin has described. It’s late & I sure can’t remember it right now. If I do tomorrow, I’ll post it. It’s a well known, & fairly well-advanced, theory of care within the medical community. Drat! It’s on the tip of my tongue! (SIGH) Sorry.
All I can say, folks, is . . . Know what you’re signing & why you’re signing it. Be vocal, adamant, & specific about what you want for yourself & appoint trusted individuals who will carry out your wishes if the unfortunate need should arise. There are health care providers out there who would actively seek to undermine your wishes in favor of their personal beliefs & the facility’s bottom line, which is always the buck. Want it changed? Speak out!
I was once confronted to such a demand : a patient asked me for euthanasia and one of his children asked the same thing for the dying father.
However, it was just anxiety and fear of “What will happen at the moment of the death”…
His child, asked this because he was anxious for his father too and that because there was no hope for his father’s health.
This was asked a week before the death of this man. The beginning of his last week was hard : he knew he would dye soon. The familly too; but they couldn’t speak frankly of this death to each others (too hard).
It was difficult. I remember coming back home saying to my familly : “Pray for one of my patient”.
Then the “miracle” happened : it was a Friday and the beautician came in the patient’s room. By giving him time and comfort, the patient became anew a entire “man” (not just a “patient” waiting anxiouly for his death). He smiled, he was cool. His familly was here; they could speak about his death and the “after his death”. They even joked… I was in his room for giving him treatment. It was “magical”. We felt a strange athmosphere; love was present. A united familly.
He died two days after.
I saw his son after, who asked for euthanasia. We spoke of this “magical” Friday. He agreed : the fear of suffering was the reason he (and his father) asked for “medically” assisted death. And that if death have occured by the hand of the physician, the “magical” exchange could not have existed.
The end is sad,of course, he died.
But I notice that with appropriate help (the beautician here) he didn’t wanted to died anymore. He could taste life again few time before death. And mostly, he could speak to his familly on these important matters and speak on his farewell.
I tremble if a physician full of “false” mercy have listened to him and killed him. These important moments shared with his familly could not have happened.
Hi Jimmy. First I offer my condolences for the loss of your wife. Death is difficult in any circumstance, but is particulary intense when it claims someone so young. I am a registered nurse and deal with mostly very senior patients. I work in an ICU setting and see families make misguided decisions all the time about end of life care. Some families are, frankly, anxious to get on with their own life. They see the sick relative as a burden, plain and simple. Others want to prevent suffering as a previous commentor noted. I try, as a Catholic, to support my patients and point out the value in their lives, even though others may miss it. Sometimes I’m successful, other times I receive the looks that Jimmy mentioned. Again, this is the culture in which we are immersed. And again, all the “respect life” issues are undeniably connected. PRAY brothers and sisters for a collective change in attitude toward the sick, the vulnerable, the aged, the less than perfect children (that’s personal for me since I have an autistic son).