miércoles, 5 de julio de 2017

Euthanasia: the slippery slope sold as desired progress | MercatorNet | July 5, 2017 | MercatorNet |

Euthanasia: the slippery slope sold as desired progress

| MercatorNet  | July 5, 2017 | MercatorNet  |







Euthanasia: the slippery slope sold as desired progress

When 'safeguards' become 'barriers to access'.
Aubert Martin | Jul 4 2017 | comment 3 



The plaintiffs with their lawyer, Jean-Pierre Ménard (Alison Northcott)
A month after the publication of a letter by the secretary of the College of Physicians of Quebec – in which he expressed his concern  about a growing “pressure, demanding a form of death à la carte” and in which he denounced those who interpret refusals of euthanasia as a form of exclusion – lawyer Jean-Pierre Ménard is challenging before the courts the cases of two people living with disabilities who were refused the assistance of a physician to kill themselves.
The plaintiffs requested the removal of the “reasonably foreseeable death” clause of the federal law as well as the “end of life” requirement in the Quebec law.
More voices were added to the chorus of “rebels” decrying the cruelty of all criteria that dare make reference to the proximity of death.
Yet not so long ago, the elected Members of the National Assembly in Quebec (MNAs) were congratulating themselves on the wisdom of their law that made reference to… the end of life. This is another reversal of logic in the long list of changes of rhetoric we have already witnessed.
Indeed, at the time of the adoption of the Quebec bill, words like “safeguard” and “strict conditions” peppered the speech of those seeking to calm the fears of people wary of allowing homicide under certain circumstances.
Today, potential extensions of the law are justified by referring to “consensus” and “the will of the people,” while the “safeguards” have turned into “barriers to access”.
Meanwhile, the same promoters of euthanasia who claimed that it was only a matter of “exceptional requests for exceptional cases” have updated their rhetoric to justify the explosion of euthanasia requests: it has become “a response to a need.”
Yet, before the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Quebec and in Canada, warnings of the slippery slope were met with mockery and contempt from those who embraced medical suicide with open arms.
At best, this cautious warning, based on the experience of countries that legalized euthanasia before us, was treated as a scarecrow brandished by alarmists. “The slippery slope doesn’t exist!” responded those anti-skeptics and other merchants of death.
Today, slightly more than a year after the Quebec bill that legalized euthanasia came into force, we see the first obvious signs of the slippery slope: we have gone from exception to promotion. Already the “end of life” criterion is presented as discrimination which prevents people with disabilities from committing suicide, implying that their living conditions justify their desire to die.
Secondly, the argument that euthanasia is about “capable and consenting people” is giving way to the idea of killing an incapable person (with Alzheimer’s or dementia) regardless of the person’s consent at the time of death.
Finally, according to a Canadian study published in May, the proverbial patient writhing in pain on his deathbed has morphed into a person in existential crisis over his loss of autonomy (read: disability).
So we won’t be surprised if tomorrow we are presented with other ludicrous propositions, such as the one currently gaining popularity in the Netherlands: opening “medical aid in dying” to elderly people who feel they have accomplished their lives.
A society does not accept overnight the idea that the state should endorse the suicide of an elderly and healthy person simply because she is tired of living. It must first live through the deep malaise that accompanies every new expansion of euthanasia access that is sold to us as progress.
In fact, when we think about it, the only thing that is “reasonably foreseeable” is the extension of medically assisted suicide to more and more groups of people. If death is sold as a solution to suffering, and if suicide is viewed favourably when a doctor is involved, the real question is not why some are opposed to it, but rather “why say yes to one and no to others?”
Aubert Martin is the Executive Director of Vivre dans la Dignité (Living with Dignity), a Quebec-based organisation.


MercatorNet

July 5, 2017

“Flags. Parades. Beaches. Fireworks. On the 241st anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, these photographs remind us that we are still one nation, united.’” That’s the optimistic introduction to a New York Times photo summary of Independence Day activities across America on July 4th, and good to read in the country’s leading oracle.
In Auckland, New Zealand, July 5th has only a few hours to run and tomorrow will bring probably the biggest street event of the year: a victory parade of the Kiwi Americas Cup team returning from Bermuda where they sailed their, er, boat (a catamaran that can rise on foils clean out of the water) to a stunning 7-1 win. Maybe that’s a good omen for the All Blacks, who are playing against a visiting British and Irish Lions rugby team.
People love it when they are able to celebrate what their country does well and what it means to them. Sport, for all its professionalism and commercial sponsorship (EmiratesTeam NZ, note), has enormous power to put people in a good mood.
In the light of some crazy trends (see below) feeling good about your country is not enough to make it good, but it can at least energise us for the necessary dialogue and debate over cultural issues.


Carolyn Moynihan 
Deputy Editor, 
MERCATORNET



And then there were three: a Colombian gay ‘throuple’ is recognised as a family
By Carolyn Moynihan
But it could have been four. And what then?
Read the full article
 
Worship at the altar of Diversity
By Philip Devine
Duke Divinity embraces a new religion.
Read the full article
 
How Paddington Bear found a happy home on the world’s bookshelves
By Veronica Barnsley
A slice of 20th Century middle-class life.
Read the full article
 
Children object to work eating up dad time
By Lyndall Strazdins
Kids want their fathers around at weekends, evenings and nights.
Read the full article
 
Vale Dr John Sarno: ‘America’s best doctor’
By Zac Alstin
Pioneering a psychogenic approach to pain.
Read the full article
 
Euthanasia: the slippery slope sold as desired progress
By Aubert Martin
When 'safeguards' become 'barriers to access'.
Read the full article


MERCATORNET | New Media Foundation 
Suite 12A, Level 2, 5 George Street, North Strathfied NSW 2137, Australia 

Designed by elleston

No hay comentarios: