Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Constitutional Right to Die

In an opinion piece written by Ronald Sokol and published Mar 21, 2007 in the International Herald Tribune the constitutional right to die with dignity is advocated.

Using the recent trial of the French doctor and nurse who administered poison to a 65 year old woman who was suffering a cruel, debilitating, and undignified death from pancreatic cancer as a springboard Mr Sokol argues that the right to die will soon become as well entrenched in constitutional 'rights' as the freedom of press and religion are today. Mr. Sokol explains that as more people get older, and medical science extends their life, and suffering, more people will demand the 'right' to a peaceful and painless death.

My web site, EuthanasiaClinic.com, has been using statistics from the Center for Decease Control to show exactly the same thing.

In America the number of people aged over 65 years will increase from about 38 million in 2005 to about 56 million in 2020. If we continue to rely on the current standard tests for determining when a person should be 'allowed' to die then many people will begin to make their own choices of the time, place, and manner of death. It will either be that or they will have to rely on the good will of others to make those choices for them.

In the case of the French woman mentioned above, she had gotten to the point where she 'suffered from fever, trembling, incontinence, nausea, pain and an intestinal blockage causing vomiting of fecal matter' before she was allowed to die. Why is it we have to get to this point before others will let us die?

I am not sure that I agree with Mr. Sokol when he states, 'Within the next half century, perhaps much sooner, the right to choose to die with dignity will be as widely recognized as the right to free speech or to exercise one's religion.', but I certainly do applaud his vision. There are far too many ideologues standing in the way of a person being able to take control of their own life to the extent that they can choose the time, place, and manner of their own death. But as the number of people shown to be suffering needlessly increases dramatically, and the number of court cases against loved ones and physicians grows an awareness will creep into the social consciousness that something needs to be done.

I suggest a rational first step.

There is at least one method which any person can now use to end their own life. It does not require the intervention of anyone else, including a physician. It allows for a peaceful and painless death. It's effect is the same as falling asleep and not waking up. It is the death that most of us hope to have, but which modern medical science is increasingly denying us.

A Compassionate Law would allow the loved ones of a person, who is still cognitively and physically able to end their own life, to be in attendance at the death without concern of legal prosecution. While it does not address the very real needs of those who are beyond the point of being able to administer the means of their own death, it does help those who are still physically and mentally capable by allowing them to have at their bedside their loved ones.

Requiring a person to die alone should not be a punishment for choosing to end one's suffering.

This only covers some of the cases that will come up with a rapidly aging society but it does make an effort towards achieving a rational view of self determination and shows a willingness by society to allow compassion for the dying at a time when they are in their greatest need for displays of love and affection from those around them.


Saturday, March 17, 2007

Euthanasia Hate

Over at a forum for people who live in Cambodia, care about Cambodia, or just want a place to vent, I have been vilified by one of the users because of my stand for Euthanasia. (You can click on the title ofthis blog to see the original post.)

To quote:

"Roger Graham (a,k,a, TOLA), fuck off, you murdering, chicken-hearted cunt! And in as level a tone as possible, I advise you to consider yourself lucky that Kim W- didn't have a brother or father like me, because the earth wouldn't be able to hide you from my justice after what you did to her and then lie about it! I am surprised the Admin even allows you on this forum after your highly conspicuous fiasco in Kompot and the dumber than rocks police that could have had you on a murder rap if they had wanted to.

You have absolutely no right to even joke or chum around or give the impression that you are one of the mates in this forum, you worm! You are a despicable piece of trash that murdered an innocent, clinically depressed woman, who came to you for help, and instead of immediately contacting her family and getting her the crisis counseling she needed you counseled her to kill herself.

So fuck off and go away somewhere so I am not reminded of your despicable existence. "

The poster is obviously well aware of my stand on Euthanasia and has chosen to equate it to murder. And, having taken that high ground, he then goes on to suggest that he would murder me.

It is this kind of dichotomy that continues to baffle me. My stand is fairly obvious and straight forward. You should be able to choose the time, place, and manner of your own death. Those in opposition will bring forth ghosts, phantoms, straw-men, and spectres in order to demonstrate substance to support their arguments that you should not have this choice.

I can not argue against that kind of intransigence.

So I do not. If you think that you should have the right to make your own choices in determining your own life, then I encourage you to do so. Stop listening to those who claim to have a higher knowledge. It is your life, take charge of it and refuse to allow someone else to control it.

See EuthanasiaClinic.com for more information about how to take your own life when you have chosen the time is right for you.


Thursday, March 8, 2007

French Doctors Request Euthanasia

The French newspaper 'Nouvel Observateur', (English language link), carries a petition from over 2,000 French physicians advocating for a normalization of Euthanasia laws.

In a statement published in the paper the doctors declare that they have assisted in the active Euthanasia of patients, 'Because disease was certain to defeat medical procedures, because in spite of treatment, physical and psychological suffering had rendered the life of a patient intolerable, we medical staff, have consciously helped patients to die with decency'.

They ask that the French laws be changed to reflect the laws in neighboring countries of Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands in which active Euthanasia is legal.

'Some forms of pain resist," it quoted Catherine D., a rural doctor, as saying. "If you have to end them by inducing death, I'll do it, even if I don't like it," she said. "Out of respect for the person, who becomes, for a few hours, a person in their own right and not a medical object."

This bears repeating: 'Out of respect for the person, who becomes, for a few hours, a person in their own right and not a medical object'.

Bravo.

See my website for more about Euthanasia. http://www.EuthanasiaClinic.com