Not until I read this article in BBC News did I realize that assisted suicide was decriminalized in Switzerland. I learned about it on this video clip of a couple who chose Dignitas. As with all procedures not universally accepted, usually for religious reasons or those afraid of 'slippery slopes', not everyone is in favor. Unfortunately there are those who claim to being pro-life, who want to take control of the life of totally, mentally competent people who wish to no longer live their life of pain, no hope of getting any better and knowing they are in a terminal illness which will only get more debilitating and painful. While those same pro-lifers seem to give no care for the quality of life or pain level for the person inhabiting that body, they have found legal means of taking over decisions from the inhabitant of the body and make decisions prohibiting the owner giving life up for it.
Today, euthanasia is legal in the USA in Oregon and Washington State. It is also legal in Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, Albania and more recently, Switzerland. It is rumored that kindly physicians may occasionally help the last few hours speed up for near-death patients but nothing has been documented for obvious legal reasons. We all know what happened to Dr. Kevorkian for his humanitarian attempts.
It would seem that religion is the greatest impetus in keeping the laws from legalizing euthanasia. One wonders, in a presumably secular society (which we have thought our government to be.... should wish to be free of religion interfering with laws)why we have remained so backward in rendering a humanitarian service when requested and, more pressingly, begged for by some desperate individuals. Those who have tried to fight for the right to die through courts have usually suffered until their death in the manner they were fighting to avoid; their natural, painful death.
Perhaps the United States has too long allowed itself to be governed by religious zealots rather than people who truly have compassion for human suffering and the desire to control their own bodies. In our rush to allow freedom of religion, many of us have lost our own freedom to someone else's religion.
1 comment:
[Emily Litella]
What's all this I hear about Youth in Asia?
Oh.
Never Mind.
[/Emily Litella]
We put dogs "to sleep" for humanitarian reasons, so not allowing euthanasia must be inhumane!
on the other hand, think of what would happen if we gave this kind of power to Republicans. They would abuse it and euthanize the secular humanists and DEMs, leaving only idiots to walk the Earth. So we might be better off without it.
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