Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Euthanasia News Items
From the China Daily, an advisor to the Chinese government is calling for official permission to carry out "experiments" in euthanasia. Given their "One Child" policy and the numbers of older people this smaller generation would have to support, this was inevitable.
The American who ran a euthanasia website from Cambodia has now been arrested and deported, and will not be allowed back into the country.
There were also several reports yesterday that Holland offically announced it will implement the Groningen Protocols for euthanizing children. What struck me the citing of two cases of children with congential diseases in which the child was said to scream in pain at the touch of a caregiver. One had an unnamed metabolic bone disorder and the other had what was called Hallopeau-Siemens syndrome which is a form of Epidermolysis Bullosa, a condition were the skin becomes thin and fragile. The "screaming at the touch" theme caught my attention, because Wesley Smith cites an earlier case of a child with spinal bifida where the doctor used the same excuse for euthanizing a child. Wesley points out that the reason the child was in pain was there was an open lesion on her back that the doctor didn't treat. Had it been treated, she might have been disabled, but no more in constant pain than these folks.
While it's possible that all the cases mentioned above may have involved constant excruciating pain there is no mention of exploring other treatment options or palliative care, and it is unlikely that all of the infant deaths reported as euthanasia in Holland (8% according to a Lancet study that is cited in the article above) involve this kind of extreme pain. So if unbearable pain isn't the motive in these deaths, what is?
The American who ran a euthanasia website from Cambodia has now been arrested and deported, and will not be allowed back into the country.
There were also several reports yesterday that Holland offically announced it will implement the Groningen Protocols for euthanizing children. What struck me the citing of two cases of children with congential diseases in which the child was said to scream in pain at the touch of a caregiver. One had an unnamed metabolic bone disorder and the other had what was called Hallopeau-Siemens syndrome which is a form of Epidermolysis Bullosa, a condition were the skin becomes thin and fragile. The "screaming at the touch" theme caught my attention, because Wesley Smith cites an earlier case of a child with spinal bifida where the doctor used the same excuse for euthanizing a child. Wesley points out that the reason the child was in pain was there was an open lesion on her back that the doctor didn't treat. Had it been treated, she might have been disabled, but no more in constant pain than these folks.
While it's possible that all the cases mentioned above may have involved constant excruciating pain there is no mention of exploring other treatment options or palliative care, and it is unlikely that all of the infant deaths reported as euthanasia in Holland (8% according to a Lancet study that is cited in the article above) involve this kind of extreme pain. So if unbearable pain isn't the motive in these deaths, what is?
papijoe 8:52 AM
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