Freedom is so little understood in this “land of the free” that it is often confused with its opposite. Case in point: Oregon’s 1994 Death With Dignity Act, which a federal appeals court recently shielded from attack by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Click here for more.
Source link: http://blog.mises.org/2181/the-fraud-of-physician-assisted-suicide/
The Fraud of Physician-Assisted Suicide
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The final line in the article sums it up nicely, Suicide is not a medical issue, it is a moral issue.
Unfortunately, the author slants things so tyrannical doctors in Oregon might deny people in pain – and thus under duress from their condition – the deadly prescription.
In Holland you have the reverse. Many elderly and disabled who do not want to die and never expressed any wish to are murdered by roving doctors that apparently take the opposite tack – if they are suffering, they aren’t in enough of their right minds to know they should commit suicide, so they do what they think the patient should decide.
Or even consider the Terri Schiavo case in Florida. She never publically stated (much less in writing) that she would not want to live disabled. But her husband (who has a girlfriend and two children by her) is trying to starve and dehydrate her to death and almost succeeded. Even her condition is being debated. But who decides? Terri can’t tell us. The various sides have agendas.
Though much evil happens if we place liberty ahead of life.
Actually, I don’t know that I’d agree wholeheartedly with the last statement. The true evil comes when we give one person control over the life of another.
Unless the person has expressly chosen someone to be able to decide such matters, in the event that they can’t do so themselves, the assumption should be that they want to live. (and/or, unless they wrote down under which circumstances they would want euthanasia).
Of course, simply because someone has contracted an unfortunate condition doesn’t mean that anyone else (unless already contractually required to) is responsible to pay for health-services for them or provide for those services.
It’s extremely important to remember the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Euthanasia (“mercy killing”) is when a doctor decides you are no longer fit to live. What Holland has is euthanasia. The WW2 Germans practiced euthanasia as well.
Assisting someone who is terminally ill to commit suicide is a completely different matter. I agree that the doctor must serve the patient in this matter, but the doctor must have the option of deferring to another physician if he believes he will violate his vow to do no harm.
One question that I have, though…
Not to be sick, but why is physician assistance necessary to commit suicide anyway?
In my opinion, the whole thing is a nonissue. Not to be sick, but if you’re well enough to decide that you want to commit suicide, you’re probably well enough to sit in a garage with the door closed and the car running.
It seems to me that seeking physician assistance is nothing more than an attempt to get someone else to validate a choice that you’re not too sure of yourself.
Of course, this isn’t an argument to build legal principles on. It’s just an honest question from someone that doesn’t understand how killing oneself requires (from a technical standpoint) a prescription from a physician.
I just want to reiterate here, that a Doctor should have every right to refuse to do this. Doctors should be allowed to refuse treatment. Then the patient can go to a different doctor if he/she wants. It’s a freedom of association issue. But no person has the right to force to doctor to “assist” in something he may or may not find morally repungent.
See http://www.l4l.org/library/asstsuic.html
I think most of these issues would resolve themselves if medical socialism was gone.
Tracy
Yes, Lucas Engelhardt, you are absolutely right. Suicide does not require a doctor.
I would push beyond that fact to enquire: What makes anyone think a doctor is expert in killing people? There certainly are, at any rate, MANY doctors whose daily activities bring them into no closer association with dying than do yours or mine.
Further, if killing people–or assisting at suicides–is a job to be done, it does not require much MEDICAL training, so why not develop some other group to take charge of it?
A physician’s time is expensive. His skills (CURING people) are needed elsewhere. Using a doctor to assist at suicide is like requiring an architect to be the agent in any demolitiion of a condemned building.
As usual, constructive, productive activities take much skill. Destructive activities take much less skill.
What is it about doctors? At a children’s facility I know of, corporal punishment can be administered to a child on a doctor’s sayso but not otherwise. I would assume that a doctor’s judgement in such a matter would be, if anything, INFERIOR to the judgement of someone used to caring for children.
Oh, I can see the point of doctor judgment for corporal punishment. I think it’s silly, but they can at least tell how much corporal punishment is likely to actually do medical damage to a child. (Something I presume we DON’T want to do.)
Here’s an idea. Why not hire self-hitmen? You can’t stand to kill yourself? You get to hire someone to do it for you! And they’ll do it the cheap, old fashioned ways. Of course, since you’ll be dead anyway, does it matter how much it costs?
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