Thursday, September 22, 2005
Death Underground
One tactic of the right-to-die movement is to point to illegally assisted suicides and use this criminal behavior to justify legalizing it. Aside from the fact that this method negates the rule of law in all areas, it also shifts the focus from the reasons why the laws are there in the first place.
Yesterday's LifeSite article on Vancouver euthanasia activist Russell Ogden illustrates this well:
Ogden’s continuing research reveals that euthanasia is far from the warm fuzzy Hallmark card experience most euthanasia activists would have the public believe. Ogden’s 1994 master’s thesis showed that many “botched” acts of euthanasia resulted in “horrific” acts of violence. Martindale writes that half of the 34 euthanasia cases Ogden studied were “botched” and “resulted in increased suffering.”
“In one instance, the individual who assisted in the suicide had to resort to shooting the patient—in another, to slitting his wrists with a razor blade. These failed attempts often led to the acts of euthanasia taking several hours or longer to complete; in one case, it took four days for the person to die.”
But Ogden himself, instead of condemning assisted suicide because of these horrors, concludes that the real problem was lack of medical “support” for the acts of killing. “[The killers] weren’t sure what they were doing,” he said.
Ogden embodies the extremes the right-to-die movement will go to legitimize itself:
Martindale highlights’ Ogden’s involvement with the organization, NuTech, a group that Martindale portrays as an ultra-secret underground of assisted suicide agents working to develop untraceable methods of killing. Ogden calls the movement the “deathing counterculture” and says, “They are taking the place of physicians to deliver virtually undetectable death assistance.”
This sick "ninjas of mercy" fantasy is intended to be shocking. The horror of it is supposed to make the legal variation of euthanasia look good. But what doesn't get brought up is that sanitizing and legalizing suicide doesn't change the intrinsic nature of the act.
As Canada moves closer to the Dutch model in its proposed legislation to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, Parliamentary and Senate committees have used Ogden’s data to support the argument that, like abortion, euthanasia is inevitable and ought to be legalized in order to make it “safe.”
Schadenberg continues, “The reality is that Ogden is not only a euthanasia activist but he is part of the extreme death movement that includes Philip Nitschke, Derek Humphrey and a handful of others whose goal it is to bring euthanasia on demand to the world.”
Canada’s euthanasia bill, C-407, will first be debated during second reading in the Commons at the end of next month after which it is likely to move to the committee stage. The bill, proposed by Bloc MP Francine Lalonde, does not require that a person be terminally ill, only that he is suffering and “lucid.” It will also allow anyone, not necessarily medical personnel, to “assist” a person in committing suicide. Ogden would be undoubtedly be pleased if this passed
This bodes ill for Canada which is considering one of the worst pieces of euthanasia legislation ever. With views like Ogden's being considered as expert advice, it's getting easier to see why.
Yesterday's LifeSite article on Vancouver euthanasia activist Russell Ogden illustrates this well:
Ogden’s continuing research reveals that euthanasia is far from the warm fuzzy Hallmark card experience most euthanasia activists would have the public believe. Ogden’s 1994 master’s thesis showed that many “botched” acts of euthanasia resulted in “horrific” acts of violence. Martindale writes that half of the 34 euthanasia cases Ogden studied were “botched” and “resulted in increased suffering.”
“In one instance, the individual who assisted in the suicide had to resort to shooting the patient—in another, to slitting his wrists with a razor blade. These failed attempts often led to the acts of euthanasia taking several hours or longer to complete; in one case, it took four days for the person to die.”
But Ogden himself, instead of condemning assisted suicide because of these horrors, concludes that the real problem was lack of medical “support” for the acts of killing. “[The killers] weren’t sure what they were doing,” he said.
Ogden embodies the extremes the right-to-die movement will go to legitimize itself:
Martindale highlights’ Ogden’s involvement with the organization, NuTech, a group that Martindale portrays as an ultra-secret underground of assisted suicide agents working to develop untraceable methods of killing. Ogden calls the movement the “deathing counterculture” and says, “They are taking the place of physicians to deliver virtually undetectable death assistance.”
This sick "ninjas of mercy" fantasy is intended to be shocking. The horror of it is supposed to make the legal variation of euthanasia look good. But what doesn't get brought up is that sanitizing and legalizing suicide doesn't change the intrinsic nature of the act.
As Canada moves closer to the Dutch model in its proposed legislation to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, Parliamentary and Senate committees have used Ogden’s data to support the argument that, like abortion, euthanasia is inevitable and ought to be legalized in order to make it “safe.”
Schadenberg continues, “The reality is that Ogden is not only a euthanasia activist but he is part of the extreme death movement that includes Philip Nitschke, Derek Humphrey and a handful of others whose goal it is to bring euthanasia on demand to the world.”
Canada’s euthanasia bill, C-407, will first be debated during second reading in the Commons at the end of next month after which it is likely to move to the committee stage. The bill, proposed by Bloc MP Francine Lalonde, does not require that a person be terminally ill, only that he is suffering and “lucid.” It will also allow anyone, not necessarily medical personnel, to “assist” a person in committing suicide. Ogden would be undoubtedly be pleased if this passed
This bodes ill for Canada which is considering one of the worst pieces of euthanasia legislation ever. With views like Ogden's being considered as expert advice, it's getting easier to see why.
papijoe 7:05 AM
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