In an article from the National Post (Canada) of 26 April 2010, The Week In Letters Readers give a big thumbs down to ‘death with dignity’, they write of the response to the recent private members bill to amend the Criminal Code to allow people to “die with dignity.” Of the 70 letters that came in to the Editor that week only a handful sided with the idea that the laws around assisted suicide should be liberalized
Two of the comments were:
Dying with dignity? … There is nothing dignified, or heroic, or courageous or laudable about doing yourself in. Rather, it is a sign of greatest weakness and humiliating cowardice.
Killing someone is killing someone… Euthanasia is the slippery slope, and doctors are not God. God has a plan for each of our lives — a time to be born and a time to die. It is not for doctors or the government to decide when someone should die.
recently voted down an Oregon-style “death with dignity” act. The vote was 242 to 133 (nearly 70 percent).
Contrary to promoting “choice” for older people, these acts are a prescription for abuse. These acts empower heirs and others to pressure and abuse older people to cut short their lives. This is especially an issue when the older person has money. There is no assisted-suicide bill that you can write to correct this huge problem…Do not be deceived.
Superior Court Judge Julia Aurigemma has dismissed the case brought by two doctors – with heavy assistance by Compassion & Choices (C&C) – which sought to decriminalize physician-assisted suicide through the courts.
I have just caught up with this post and have great concern about the euthanasia debate.
The last sentence of the quote below, which appears in this post, does not advance the debate at all. At best it shows a lack of understanding of the issues confronting someone who is comtemplating suicide. At worst is is arrogant & offensive.
To speak of people who are facing this issue in terms of: cowardice, courage and weakness makes no sense. These people are typically in a desperate plight feeling that they have no options. This is not an issue about courage and weakness, but rather an issue about suffering and aloneness.
The erosion of the sanctity of human life,which is one of the results of euntahasia, is an issue that will have far reaching consequences on this and future generations. This is the issue not courage and weakness.
“Dying with dignity? … There is nothing dignified, or heroic, or courageous or laudable about doing yourself in. Rather, it is a sign of greatest weakness and humiliating cowardice.”