euthanasia

The Slippery Slope of Euthanasia Laws: Brian Pickering

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

From The Daily Declaration

euthanasia

The Slippery Slope of Euthanasia Laws

Brian Pickering

28 DECEMBER 2023

2 MINS

#212121;margin-top: var(--h4_typography-margin-top);margin-bottom: 10px;--fontsize: 22;--minfontsize: 22">ACT Set to Implement Most Permissive Euthanasia Laws in Australia

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is on the brink of implementing the most permissive euthanasia laws in the country, perpetuating a concerning culture of death.

Unlike other states, the ACT is moving forward without requiring terminally ill patients to have a predicted time of death to access euthanasia. This approach deviates from the rest of the nation, where patients are generally required to have a life expectancy of 6 to 12 months to be eligible for assisted suicide.

While the Federal Government paved the way for euthanasia in the ACT in 2022, the Territory’s continued exploration of expanding its scope is deeply troubling.

The earlier consideration of allowing teenagers as young as 14 to access euthanasia underscores a growing and distressing trend. The Government may have abandoned that specific proposal, but it remains committed to exploring even more controversial paths by considering the inclusion of terminally ill minors and individuals with dementia in the euthanasia framework.

This reflects a stark reality in which the sanctity of life and the value of compassionate palliative care are being overshadowed by an increasing focus on providing state-sanctioned suicide as an alternative. The ACT’s eagerness to push these laws forward neglects the potential negative consequences on the vulnerable, sending a disconcerting message about the worth of human life and the culture it is fostering. The sanctity of life should be protected and cherished, not undermined by a rush towards more permissive euthanasia legislation.

#212121;margin-top: var(--h4_typography-margin-top);margin-bottom: 10px;--fontsize: 22;--minfontsize: 22">Tragic Euthanasia Choice for Palliative Patient When NDIS Funding Cut

The recent tragedy of James “Jim” Mills is a troubling reminder of the tragic effects of legalised assisted suicide on our society’s most vulnerable. Diagnosed with brain cancer in 2021, Jim’s reliance on repurposed NDIS funding led to a brutal choice when it was abruptly cut, pushing him to opt for euthanasia rather than stay in hospital.

Reinstated funding came too late, illustrating how the existence of euthanasia fundamentally alters incentives for government agencies, healthcare providers, and patients. This scenario also highlights the impact on palliative care, which faces a significant challenge when assisted suicide appears a simpler option.

Jim’s heartbreaking story emphasises that even stringent safeguards around euthanasia and assisted suicide are inadequate, leaving room for individuals to fall through the cracks and experience heartbreaking outcomes for themselves and their families.

#212121;margin-top: var(--h4_typography-margin-top);margin-bottom: 10px;--fontsize: 22;--minfontsize: 22">Netherlands Euthanising People Just Because They Have Autism

A recent report on euthanising people with autism and intellectual disabilities in the Netherlands is deeply troubling. Cases mentioned in the report, including people with autism aged under 30, set concerning precedents that go beyond the law’s original intent.

It’s distressing that some with autism view euthanasia as a solution, reflecting society’s failure to support vulnerable individuals and hints at a form of eugenics.

We must consider the broader implications and the risk of pressuring our vulnerable into ending their lives. The media’s portrayal of euthanasia as empowerment should not overshadow the ethical, moral and scriptural questions raised by these practices. This report reminds us of the need for a critical examination of these policies.

 

Five Reasons to Reconsider Voluntary Assisted Dying

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

Benjamin Shuhyta shares 5 reasons why Voluntary Assisted Dying is not a good idea.

From The Gospel Coalition

Dying with Dignity? Five Reasons to Reconsider Voluntary Assisted Dying

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

A friend of mine shares with me how she’s watching her mother die slowly. The matriarch of the extended family, always feared dementia and initially joked to her children that she’d rather die. It may have started as joke, but it turned into a plea as her personality slowly retreated. Raw in her grief, her daughter’s angry question is posed by wives, husbands and children in nursing homes across the globe: ‘If it were a dog, you’d sooner shoot it than watch it suffer. Why should my mother deserve any less?’

You’d sooner shoot a dog than watch it suffer. Why should my mother deserve any less? 

My friend’s premise is valid: In NSW, ending life is already permitted in certain circumstances—for animals, including injured pets and wildlife. Euthanasia is the intentional and premature ending of a life due to the belief that the subject would be ‘better off dead’. It is best understood from a consequentialist ethic: That the result (an end to suffering) justifies an otherwise immoral method (the deliberate ending of life). As my friend’s rhetorical plea suggests, one response to the suffering of terminal illness is to permit the premature and intentional end of a human’s life.

In mid-October 2021, NSW MP Alex Greenwich presented a Bill to enshrine a modified form of human euthanasia into NSW law. A week later, his Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021 was referred for parliamentary review, delaying any result by several months at least. As the Bill’s name indicates, the ethical considerations for euthanasia include whether the subject dies of their own will (in this case, voluntarily) and who takes the final step in the process (in this case, the patient, assisted).

Supporters of voluntary assisted dying are quick to point out that it’s not euthanasia: The patient not only requests it, but the patient also completes the act—armed with a prescription of lethal chemicals, the patient self-administers. Such a system, proponents say, gives autonomy and dignity back to the dying, saving them unnecessary agony, returning to them some of the power that disease has cruelly taken from them. The end justifies the means. However, for several reasons, this argument is not compelling.

Read the rest of the article here

The Voluntary Euthanasia Band Wagon

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

The NSW Parliament is considering a law to allow euthanasia to be legalised.

The Bill has been referred to a Legislative Council inquiry and so will not proceed for a few months.

There are always very emotive stories of how somebody suffered horrendously in the last few months of their life. Palliative Care specialist Dr David van Gent argues these things should not happen in Australia with its access to good pain control medications.

Voluntary Assisted Dying

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

CHRISTIAN MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS SAY: SIGN PETITION TO STOP EUTHANASIA

At a time when our nation should be trying to save lives and provide better aged care, new laws promoting euthanasia and assisted suicide are putting vulnerable people in danger.ADVERTISEMENT

Seeing the risk that these euthanasia laws pose to patients and medical professionals, the Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia is rising up to oppose assisted suicide and to promote more ethical health care.

The Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia (CMDFA) is an organisation of doctors, dentists and associated healthcare professionals who are urging all Christians to sign a petition calling for New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian to oppose the introduction of new laws which would allow euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in NSW.

This is to oppose the new ‘Voluntary Assisted Dying’ legislation that Independent MP Alex Greenwich hopes to present to the NSW Parliament in September, after releasing a draft in July.

Greenwich argues that similar laws have now passed in Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania, South Australia and New Zealand. Queensland has committed to a draft bill.

But is that any reason for NSW to jump off the same cliff?

Professor John Whitehall, National Chair of the CMDFA, is one of many medical professionals who say no.

Speaking on behalf of his CMDFA colleagues, he says:

“We have great concern for those who suffer with terminal illness and agree that end-of-life care needs to be improved. We are, however, very concerned about the recent moves across Australia to legalise euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.”

“The CMDFA agrees with the World Medical Association [an international organisation founded by physicians from 27 different countries] that the practice of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide is unethical and must be condemned by the medical profession.

“Euthanasia is in conflict with basic ethical principles of medical practice and we reject Mr Greenwich’s suggestion that these practices constitute a form of medical care.”

Professor Whitehall points to what’s happening overseas and why legalising euthanasia can be a slippery slope:

“The experience in Canada and the US state of Oregon, where they’ve already legislated to allow euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, reveals that it is not possible to legislate in such a way that wrongful deaths do not occur.”

Here in Australia, the death toll from euthanasia is tragically rising. Whitehall says, “Our colleagues in Victoria [where euthanasia has been legalised] are reporting distress as they are asked to facilitate the ending of their patients’ lives within the healthcare system.”

It’s little wonder these caring professionals are distressed, when you look at the statistics.

A recent report shows that since the ‘Voluntary Assisted Dying Act’ commenced in Victoria in June, 2019:

  • 224 people have died from taking the prescribed medications.
  • Applicants accessing Voluntary Assisted Dying were as young as 20 years old.
  • The average age of people accessing this was 71.
  • 23 per cent had a non-malignant diagnosis (not uncontrollable or resistant to therapy).

Seeing that doctors have taken an oath to preserve life, Professor Whitehall says, “We believe it is wrong for a doctor to kill a patient or to facilitate their suicide.”

Many feel it’s particularly wrong that such practices should be proposed at this time, after the Aged Care Royal Commission revealed a significant crisis in aged care in this country. Legalising euthanasia, as Whitehall and his colleagues in the CMDFA say, is not a suitable solution where the provision of palliative care has been shown to be inadequate.

“Our goal is to transform healthcare in Australia by maintaining ethical standards of medicine and protecting the vulnerable members of our community whose lives would be put at risk by such laws,” says Professor Whitehall.

You can take a stand with Christian doctors and other healthcare professionals in the CMDFA by signing the petition to oppose the introduction of unethical laws to allow euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in NSW .

Have your say today by signing the CMDFA petition here.

Where Legalised Euthanasia Leads

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

In the middle of a pandemic and footy grand final fever the Queensland Premier announced, just two weeks out from an election, that if re-elected she will move to legalise euthanasia/ assisted suicide/ death camps. It doesn’t matter what you call it, it all ends up in tyranny of the powerful over those deemed “expendable.”

If you have a vote in the Queensland election, read this carefully before you vote.

 

From caldronpool.com

 

The Netherlands Pushes for Children to be Euthanised by Doctors · Caldron Pool


 
Children between the ages of 1 and 12 could soon be euthanized by doctors in the Netherlands, Health Minister Hugo de Jonge told Parliament last Tuesday.

Children between the ages of 1 and 12 could soon be euthanized by doctors in the Netherlands, Health Minister Hugo de Jonge told Parliament last Tuesday.

De Jonge said the new policy would see around five to ten terminally ill children legally executed every year.

According to the NL Times, doctors are presently only permitted to “give palliative care, like sedation, or withhold nutrition over an extended period of time until the patient dies.”

Doctors, who have been calling for more regulation, say there is a “grey area” between normal palliative care and active life termination.

The Health Minister said his proposal will protect the interests of children and will afford more transparency to the “grey area.”

The Netherlands became the first country to legalize euthanasia in 2002. Since then, the country has seen an increase in those requesting death by assisted suicide.

Cases include a man who was killed by doctors because he was an alcoholic; a 45-year-old woman, and a woman in her 20s, who had traumatic childhood memories; a 54-year-old woman who had a pathological fear of germs; and a 34-year-old mother who was chronically depressed.

It was also reported that a doctor in the Netherlands “euthanised” an elderly woman against her will.

In the first-ever case of its kind, Dutch authorities accused the doctor of performing euthanasia on an unwilling patient after a regional review board found the doctor had “overstepped the mark” by euthanising a 74-year old woman whose final will was “unclear and contradictory.”

However, a court in The Hague ruled that it is not necessary to obtain confirmation of the request when a patient is no longer able to express his or her wishes. The judges also noted that the doctor did well not to ask the patient herself if she wanted to die as it might have caused “agitation.”

In her final moments, the elderly woman reportedly struggled with hospital staff and attempted to prevent the doctor from giving her the lethal injection.

Euthanasia in the Netherlands is getting so out of hand that 200 Dutch doctors took out an advertisement in a major newspaper, which stated: “[Assisted suicide] for someone who cannot confirm he wants to die? No, we will not do that. Our moral reluctance to end the life of a defenceless man is too great.”

Read the rest of this article here

Only One Worldview Brings Life

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

Any time any person (usually a christian) says “Changing this will lead to that,” they are scorned for espousing the slippery slope theory. Sadly, human nature being what it is, the slopes are often slipped.

We see this already in Australia. Just one year after the Same Sex Marriage plebiscite, which we were told would not affect anybody, we find that attacks are being made on the rights of religious schools to teach their beliefs about human sexuality. They said, “If you don’t like same sex marriage you don’t have to have one,” but already the pressure is building for schools and, soon, churches to buckle under and negate their own faith.

People around the world have been shocked by the decision in New York State to allow abortions right up until birth. A baby now has not even the right to live right until it is safely born. The city was lit up in pink in an obscene celebration of this event.

But it gets worse. In the state of Virginia similar legislation is being introduced. The Governor of that state has been reported to have coldly described a scenario in which labour starts before an abortion is completed. The baby is born naturally and then made comfortable while the doctor and the mother decide whether to kill the baby or allow her to live. In normal societies this is called infanticide and fills people with revulsion.

Whenever people decide to live their lives separate from God, it always results in a death culture. Whether it is the traditional pagan human sacrifice or its modern versions of abortion and euthanasia, humans will be sacrificed.

Fifty years ago this would have prompted outrage but now we are not surprised as the slopes continue to be slipped.

A number of times in the scriptures people are given choices and exhorted to “choose life.” Have you ever wondered why they had to be told to “Choose life”? Isn’t that a normal desire?

No. Sin, our built in rebellion against God always drives us towards death. A culture that ignores God will always, in the end, choose death- even the deaths of newborn babies.

Euthanasia-Laws About Consent Are No Protection

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

As the demands for “right to die” laws ramp up in Australia, keep this incident in mind, because the always say “There is no slippery slope.”
From Lifesitenews.com:

Elderly Woman Resisted Being Euthanized When She Saw the Needle, So Her Family Held Her Down

A Dutch doctor who was rebuked for killing an elderly dementia patient without consent and in a traumatic manner has been given a formal reprimand by the Dutch medical complaints board, and may now face criminal charges.

Worldwide horror

The case involved a woman in her seventies, who was placed in a care home after her dementia became so advanced that her husband could no longer cope with care at home. She was distressed and frightened, and after a few weeks, the doctor at the home determined that she was suffering unbearably. He concluded that she was not mentally competent, but that an earlier statement in her will that she wanted euthanasia “when I myself find it the right time”; justified killing her.

The story was greeted with horror around the world, as it emerged that the doctor drugged the victim’s coffee, and had her family hold her down as she tried to fight off the lethal injection. Despite the woman not being mentally competent to consent to being killed, a review panel cleared the doctor of all charges.

No consent given

Now, the Dutch medical complaints board has formally reprimanded the unnamed doctor -the first case in which a practitioner has been formally censured since the Netherlands made it legal for doctors to kill patients at their request in 2002.

The board said that the woman’s will was contradictory, and that although she said she wanted to die on some days, on others she did not. She had written an ‘advance directive’ asking to be killed if her dementia became too severe, but whenever the issue of asking to die was raised, she also added: “Not now, it’s not so bad yet”. The board found that the doctor should have discussed the fact that a sedative was put in her coffee – which did not happen – and only carried out euthanasia if she agreed.

Read the rest of the story here

Palliative Care The Correct Antidote to Euthanasia

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

Slipped in amongst the distraction of the Same Sex Marriage survey were attempts to legislate for assisted suicide in both Victoria and New South Wales. While the NSW legislation failed to pass Parliament, in Victoria the legislation is tracking to be passed.
In this article from the Centre for Independent Studies, Jessica Borbasi argues that if the truth about palliative care is understood, there is no need for any form of euthanasia.

Cancel the one-way tickets to Victoria

Jessica Borbasi

21 NOVEMBER 2017 | THE SPECTATOR; FLAT WHITE

health care pallative heartIt is a sad reality that perfectly well older Australians are looking into their futures and finding solace in the potential of physician-assisted suicide.

Irrespective of what this says about our society and our care of the elderly, the death myths driving the desire for a one-way ticket to Victoria (in anticipation of the legislation being passed) deserve to be critiqued before it’s too late.

Myth 1: Palliative care doesn’t work

There is sound evidence that palliative care not only provides relief from suffering — physical, psychosocial and spiritual — at the end of life but that it also improves satisfaction with care and rates of depression. The benefits of palliative care extend to families and carers.

In Australia, as little as 1-5% of people who receive palliative care have a sustained request to hasten their death.

Myth 2: Palliative care hastens death anyway

Despite popular belief, there is no evidence that quality palliative care — by relieving suffering — hastens death.

In fact, the landmark trial for palliative care found that those patients with lung cancer who received palliative care despite not receiving any ‘active’ treatment actually lived longer than those receiving chemotherapy. This was thought to be due to the reduced rates of depression among palliative care recipients — as depression likely hastens death.

Myth 3: Death is inevitably horrible

The overwhelming majority of patients who receive palliative care are not in pain when they die, do not request to hasten death, and are not fearful.

However, the overwhelming majority of older Australians who die from chronic disease do not receive palliative care. Dying within a health system that is geared towards curing and treating instead of caring and comforting means death has become dreaded.

Death is not inevitably horrible. It is the lack of palliative care and the way the system manages death that arouses dread.

Myth 4: 70% of Australians want to die at home

A South Australian study in 2006 asked participants as young as 15 where would they like to die if they had a terminal illness; 70% said ‘at home’. More robust research has asked people with a terminal illness and their families where they would like to die and where they would like to be cared for.

Most people want to be cared for at home but there is an increasing trend for both patients and their families to request a more supportive clinical environment in which to die. Death in hospital is not the problem — death without palliative care is.

Myth 5: Palliative care is about dying well

Palliative care has more to offer than a ‘good death’. A wealth of Australian and international evidenceshows that palliative care improves quality of life for both patients and their families. It does this by managing symptoms well and supporting patients to be as active as possible prior to death.

The peak of the baby boomer generation will reach 65 years of age in 2021 most of them will have four chronic diseases and with increasing frailty will die at very old ages (most don’t want to go the way their parents did).

We have four years to create a health system that can offer better community based care for older Australians with chronic disease.

Four years to re-arrange the fragmented health system and do away with the myths shrouding death.

We have even less time to provide a view of the future that isn’t so bleak as to inspire a desire to check into hotel Nembutal.

Dr Jessica Borbasi is a medical doctor and a research associate at the Centre for Independent Studies. She is the author of Life Before Death: Improving palliative care for older Australians.

Matt Walsh: Courts in Europe have sentenced a baby to death.

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

Killing babies- this is where you end up when you let Governments determine your rights and when euthanasia (“Dying with dignity”, assisted suicide”, choose your euphemism) is a right. This is what Pope John Paul warned us about when he talked about the culture of death. This is real, and could come to Australia in the next decade.

From Matt Walsh:

Matt Walsh: Courts in Europe have sentenced a baby to death. This is socialized medicine.

Matt Walsh: Courts in Europe have sentenced a baby to death. This is socialized medicine.
There’s a horrific case over in the U.K. that hasn’t gotten a ton of attention here, but it should. If we look closely, we may see our future — and our present.

Charlie Gard is a 10-month-old baby who suffers from a rare genetic disorder called mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome. It’s a horrendous condition that leads to organ malfunction, brain damage, and other symptoms. The hospital that had been treating the boy, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, made the determination that nothing more can be done for him and he must be taken off of life support. He should “die with dignity,” they said. The parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, disagreed.

This is the very crucial thing to understand: they are not insisting that GOSH be forced to keep Charlie on life support. Rather, they want to take him out of the hospital and to America to undergo a form of experimental therapy that a doctor here had already agreed to administer. Chris and Connie raised over $1.6 million to fund this last ditch effort to save their child’s life. All they needed the British hospital to do was release their child into their care, which doesn’t seem like a terribly burdensome request. They would then leave the country and try their luck with treatment here. However slim the chance of success may have been, it was better than just sitting by and watching their baby die.

Here’s where things get truly insane and barbaric. The hospital refused to give Charlie back to his parents. The matter ended up in the courts, and, finally, in the last several hours, the European Court of “Human Rights” ruled that the parents should be barred from taking their son to the United States for treatment. According to the “human rights” court, it is Charlie’s human right that he expire in his hospital bed in London. The parents are not allowed to try and save his life. It is “in his best interest” to simply die, they ruled.

Read the full article here

20 Reason Why Euthanasia Corrupts Everything.

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

Euthanasia is the latest feature of the culture of death to be promoted in the West. The positives are trumpeted in the media but the full story is never told. Here are some reasons why euthanasia is bad for us.

From Lifesitenews.com:

20 reasons why euthanasia corrupts everything it touches, and must be opposed

There are many in-depth analyses of assisted suicide and euthanasia flying about the Internet as the debate heats up in the Canadian Parliament and Senate. I’ve written several myself. Today, however, I want to give twenty summarized reasons for why people should reconsider euthanasia. Canada’s media – with notable exceptions like theNational Post’sAndrew Coyne – have consistently promoted assisted suicide, with the result that many of the consequences and implications have not been adequately considered:

1.  Assisted suicide suggests that for people to “die with dignity,” they must die faster. The underlying insinuation of the “Death with Dignity” movement is that those who do not opt for an expedited exit are not dying with dignity.  

2. Assisted suicide undermines the supposed purpose of the medical establishment: To heal patients, save lives, and reduce pain. To refer to killing patients as a “medical service” is an assault on medicine and on the English language. 

3. Assisted suicide reduces those who qualify for this “service” to second-class citizen status. If someone without depression does not qualify for assisted suicide, for example, but someone with depression does, the state has effectively judged the life of the person with depression as being less valuable. 

Read the full article here