It used to be a slippery slope:
The founder of controversial Swiss clinic Dignitas has said a person whose terminally ill partner commits suicide should also be given help to die – even if they are perfectly healthy.
Ludwig Minelli wants the deadly drug that is prescribed to his clients to be made available to the partners of those suffering from dementia.
At present Swiss law states it is legal to assist only those with a terminal illness.
He said: ‘A change in the law is required to give dementia sufferers and their families more opportunities.
Minelli is fed up with the, er, killjoys:
He has dismissed concerns that assisted suicide should be reserved for the terminally ill as a ‘British obsession’.
There should be dignity at the end of life, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but also because we “all get there”.
Having arrived at that age at which many of my friends are leaving I can tell you that the first thing we could do is to look after seniors with dignity and within their means.
Currently we take 80% of their income to warehouse them and to hell with the spouse.
Isn’t it interesting that the so called left wing worry about the health of illegal immigrants and don’t give a hoot about old folks who paid their dues.
I guess in the end it cheaper, however sad, to just give us all a pill when we get old.
Waiting for God is a natural process in case anyone has forgotten!
You first Minelli.
Steve Tatlor , Game of Lifeboat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaG2-MGtCVE
“Taylor”…
And so it begins. I recommend Gita Sereney’s “Into That Darkness”, dialogues with the commandant of Treblinka before he was executed. He started in the euthanasia program reviewing the paper work to make sure no one was euthanized “inappropriately”. Once he did that, they had him. He’d bought into the idea that euthanasia was acceptable in the first place. It was down hill from there.
Logan’s Run is becoming less fictional with every passing decade.
Something has to be done with all the baby boomers. They are a drain on the health care system, and think of all the money saved from the Canada Pension Plan.
Without abortion there would have been enough births to fill all the schools, enough new taxpayers and pension fund contributors, and no need to import immigrants, but it was worth it because it’s my body and nobody has a right to tell me I can’t kill any parasite growing in it or decide when I want to self destruct.
It’s our obligation to die to save the planet from our carbon footprint. The boomers are guilty for all of today’s societal ills, so I do not see how anyone could have a problem with them deciding to kill themselves en mass. Thier offspring sure needs the money given the current economic downturn which is a result of their greed in the first place. After all, isn’t it considered an obligation now?. The truth is, suicide/euthanasia is the most romantic, selfless act anyone could do.
For those of you who choose not to kill yourself, I recommend purchasing stock in companies like the one mentioned in thiat article and/or in the funeral services industry.
A slippery slope indeed….
Maturing tends to grant some insight on these matters.
I have turned over enough calendar pages and had the sad experience to witness many sad things/events.
I have known many who have “pulled their own plug” when pain or the quality of life is intolerable. I have deliberately over-administered pain management to severely injured with no expectation of survival…..I have no problem with that and have no regrets.
However, all too often I have known healthy, young people deliberately commit suicide because of something silly in the overall context…..unrequiteted love for example. My reaction and sentiment is “What a stupid way to die”……
One size does not fit all and my default position is life. Each morning I awake is indeed a good morning.
I can condone Dr. Kavorkian to a point but this Minelli person needs counselling….and strict supervision.
Well said sasquatch.
We get more Dr’s by the year that are just serial killers in a white smocks. They don’t even give the Hippocratic oath anymore. More like a promise to kill only the needy.
The biggest supporters of Hitler where Dr’s.
Over 80 percent where party members before he got power. It ws the lure of eugenics, coupled with the rage of the day. Killing off inferior People (The infirm) crooks, blacks, Chinese, the blind & def as well.
Indeed the first experiment where on retarded Children . Killing them in gas trucks. Didn’t work very well.
Just because your a Dr, doesn’t mean your moral.
JMO
When someone tells me they want to kill themselves,
I laugh and say:
–
“Lets make a suicide pact!”
“I will kill you,
then I promise I will kill myself.”
No one has ever taken my offer.
I love that phrase, “more opportunities”. What a lovely euphemism for ‘more ways to kill yourself’.
You know, a long time ago when this issue first hit the news I said it would end with old people getting put down for their own good. Just give Grandad the black pill and then divvy up his loot.
Won’t be long now.
It’s a real short trip from “we should help the poor, grieving (if healthy) loved ones check out!” to “Hold him down, boys!”
In general, most slopes would be far less slippery if we stopped given credence to every nutter at the low end of the slope who manages to score a 300-word story in a middle-market rag.
Davenport – he’s not some random nutter; “In total, 1,041 people ended their lives with the help of Dignitas between 1998 and 2009“:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7271008/Record-numbers-of-Britons-ended-their-lives-at-Dignitas-last-year.html
BTW sasquatch Kevorkian always struck me as a serial killer manquee – ( kind of like this monster, who worked in a different field:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Harlow )
Indeed, you could argue that Kevorkian qualifies as an “Angel of Mercy” serial killer. It’s a thing, you can google it.
Dignity in death? It’s overrated. Trust me on this one.
All together now:
“Oh, hot dignity! Dog dignity! oh, what you do to me…”
Remember when only God decided when you die?
Davenport:
“In general, most slopes would be far less slippery if we stopped (giving) credence to every nutter…”
I can easily glean your attitude and your mood, but I have absolutely no idea what your statement actually means, inasmuch as to “give credence to” means to “accept as true.”
I assume – correct me if I’m wrong – that you’re not saying that the numerous news reports about the existence of Minelli’s going-concern business aren’t true, or that reports about his (repeatedly) professed statements aren’t true. Based on your tone and your sniffing reference to “middle-market rags” I’m wondering if you didn’t mean credibility and not credence, but even that would make no sense, inasmuch as I wasn’t lauding or touting him.
What did you mean, Davenport? That we shouldn’t refer to Minelli, or make public note of his statements, or (?)
It would be helpful if you would explain what you meant by “credence,” so that I and others may begin to understand your point.
If it catches on, it should ease the traffic…….
Davenport’s still desperately trying to pretend we are idiot farm hands, even though the contrary evidence keeps building.
Have you ever seen a dead body Davenport? Ever seen a guy alive in the morning and gone back later to find he’s died between breakfast and lunch? Ever watch a guy -almost- die and then recover?
I’m thinking no, you haven’t.
“Neutral” Switzerland has universal military service. The government issues its citizens SIG SG 550s, and after their services is over, lets them keep the guns (as long as they have the fully-automatic firing disabled). AND they’re required to keep 50 rounds of ammo in their homes.
So WHY DO THE SWISS NEED HELP KILLING THEMSELVES?
EBD: “It would be helpful if you would explain what you meant by “credence,” so that I and others may begin to understand your point.”
You’re right, “credence” is the wrong word. My point is this:
Look at the Daily Mail’s headline: “Let the distraught partners of terminally ill who commit suicide die too, says Dignitas boss.” Then, look at your opening line: “It used to be a slippery slope.”
Your implication being that we’re beyond slipping, and that we’ve now reached the rock-bottom of the euthanasia issue, where anyone, healthy or unhealthy, can kill themselves for whatever reason. Except that, in order for that implication to be true, we need to accept that this Dignitas guy’s views reflect mainstream opinion. The fact is, they don’t.
The Daily Mail likes to publish this sort of thing — the extreme views of controversial types — and act like they’re harbingers of imminent societal collapse. Can’t blame them; it sells papers. But as long as people keep uncritically propagating these types of stories, then it’ll feel like society is indeed slipping down these various slopes.
Let me ask you this: What was your purpose behind posting this thread? Do you believe society writ large is anywhere near accepting this Dignitas guy’s views on assisted suicide?
The simple truth is when society gets to the point where they introduce a bill to be passed, such as bill c384 in Canada, that allows for anyone over the age of 18 to ask for assisted suicide, including those who do not have to have terminal illness, we have indeed reached a slippery slope. That bill allowed for persons who were merely suffering psychological pain to kill themselves, so technically, an 18 yr old who has broken up with a boy/girlfriend and states they are enduring severe psychological pain would qualify for assisted suicide as long as they put it in writing with 2 witnesses and were informed of other options, if they still insisted 10 day’s later, a physician would be obligated to assist them in killing themselves. In other words, the bill allowed for assisted suicide by choice for any type of pain.
“What was your purpose behind posting this thread?”
Well, it certainly wasn’t to be didactic or to pontificate, if you catch my drift.
Your thoughts, and your semi-hysterical interpretation of the post, belong to you and no one else; they certainly don’t lie in my lap, inasmuch as I neither stated nor implied that Minelli’s views reflect mainstream opinion. Very few people without a pre-existing condition and an axe to grind would read the post and come to the same conclusion as yours.
The quip “it used to be a slippery slope” is a reference to the fact that the nascent acceptance (in some circles) of euthanization was, undeniably, initially entirely predicated on a professed and clearly stated belief that it should only be used on the most suffering and terminally ill patients. The fact that a businessman in a highly civilized country is now openly running a going-concern business – at $5,000 USD a pop – that advocates for the right to sell a service to help healthy people snuff themselves shows that the slope was – as in, past tense – indeed slippery.
“Do you believe society writ large is anywhere near accepting this Dignitas guy’s views on assisted suicide?”
Well, has he been arrested yet? See, there’s a world of difference, Davenport, between a societal state wherein such views as Minelli’s are widely held, and a societal state wherein his right to sell his services is accepted, and not proscribed by law. A lot of people in our age have come – resignedly or otherwise – to accept the misbehaviours of all sorts of loons without actually holding those views or behaving the same way themselves.
Perhaps you should draw up an extensive list of topics that should be proscribed based on your misreading of what you see as the implication of any reference to these newsworthy topics. I – and other guest bloggers, and Kate, and many thousands of credible bloggers and journalists also make reference to hard-core Islamists, for example, and to, I don’t know, arsonists; in doing so, none of us are implying that “society writ large” is anywhere near accepting the Islamist’s or the arsonist’s view of the world.
Perhaps you should avoid ‘interpretation’ altogether and start taking straightforward links to newsworthy items at face value. And try to develop something resembling a sense of humour; in all your comments here I can’t think of one instance in which you’ve said anything even remotely funny or good-natured. Your sermonizing (I mean, “middle-brow” as an insult? “Middle-brow” isn’t quite upscale enough for you?) isn’t as, erm, instructive as you think it is – or at least, not in the way you think it is.
Okay, who’s the real late Perry Como, Perry was many things but he wasn’t much of a comedian.