Voluntary, Involuntary is the choice really yours?
Posted on 01. Mar, 2010 by Shera Crossan in Commentary, Health, Rob Belatucadros, Science and Technology
London, England (LifeNews.com) — A British “ethicist” says doctors in England are already killing patients even though the British House of Lords defeated a bill that would legalize assisted suicide. Len Doyal, ex-member of the British Medical Association’s ethics committee, says British law should go even further and allow involuntary euthanasia.
British law should make the practice legal. He wants the British parliament to allow physicians to kill patients who can’t provide consent to withdrawing medical treatment.
Lord Joffe, a member of the House of Lords, put together a bill that would legalize assisted suicide but not euthanasia. Doyal said the bill doesn’t go far enough. “Some supporters of euthanasia remain silent about non-voluntary euthanasia, presumably because they believe that focusing on voluntary euthanasia offers a better chance of legalization,” he saidmore
Parents say doctors hastened death for dying kids
Now a small but provocative study suggests that doctors may be giving fatal morphine doses to a few children dying of cancer, to end their suffering at their parents’ request.
A handful of parents told researchers that they had asked doctors to hasten their children’s deaths — and that doctors complied, using high doses of the powerful painkiller.
The lead author of the study and several other physicians said they doubt doctors are engaged in active mercy killing. Instead, they speculate the parents interviewed for the study mistakenly believed that doctors had followed their wishes.
Dr. Douglas Diekema, a medical ethicist at Seattle Children’s Hospital, said the study results are not surprising. “I have no doubt that in a small number of cases, some physicians might cooperate with a parent’s desire to see a child’s suffering ended. This might include giving a drug for sedation or pain control that also suppresses the drive to breathe.
“Most physicians don’t intentionally push that drug to the point of stopping a child’s breathing, but some may be comfortable not intervening if a child stops breathing in the course of treating him or her for discomfort,” Diekema said.
The study was published Monday in the March edition of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
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If I ever find myself writhing in a hospital bed I hope I have a doctor like that. I heard a horror story of a man dying of liver surrosis(Spelling failure) refused morphine because it would hurt his liver.
If I ever do find myself with a painful terminal disease though the morphine will only be allowed to immigrants probably.
Another way to kill whites. First, obongo not wanting cancer treatment covered (whites mostly suffer from cancer coincidentally) whereas just about all the illness’ that non whites suffer from will be covered. Now, this, hurry up and kill them quicker.
i’m apprehensive about the idea of mercy killing for kids. maybe bc i have 2 young children. but with many terminal illnesses there comes a point where you have to decide, ‘is this particular quality of life worth sustaining?’ nobody wants to watch a dying patient lay down and suffer during their last days. the only real treatment dr’s have for patients at the end of terminal illness is pain management. my feelings on this are mixed.
just wanted to add… the choice should ALWAYS be yours or your family’s. maybe a standing order for euthanasia signed by the patient (before they are on their death bed) would work.