Euthanasia in the UK

[Aaron]

http://www.chninternational.com/CHN LINK TO PAS BY COUNTRY.htm#ENGLAND,_WALES_(U.K.)_

 

[SeekingTruth]

I fear that this is the future in the USA. It is strongly advocated by some politicians, sociologists, and some so-called Doctors. Check the debates on "palliative" care. Each year, euthanasia gains more momentum, much like a cancer, which of course it is. A cancer on the soul of America.

 

[Matt Black]

I'm not sure which of the legion of articles on that website you want us to read....but anyway...I'm less concerned about British doctors breaking the law (if that is indeed what they are doing), although that is serious enough, than I am about the attempted judicial amendment to the law on assited suicide in the Purdy case. The answer, rather than send people off to Switzerland to end their lives with medical help, or - God forbid! - allow them to do that here, is to expand the excellent system of end-of-life palliative care that we currently have through the hospice movement; that way, some of the horrific last days for those with degenerative diseases will be alleviated and sufferers will be less likely to want to prematurely end their lives.

 

[Crabtownboy]

I am not sure of your source, but there is a growing credibility gap concerning conservatives as they have been caught in misrepresenting facts and in outright lies on several topics recently.

Two British women have claimed they were duped into becoming the stars of a campaign to sabotage Barack Obama's healthcare reforms.

Furious Kate Spall and Katie Brickell claim that their views on the NHS have been misrepresented by a free market campaign group opposed to Mr Obama's reforms in a bid to discredit the UK system.

Their anger came amid a growing backlash in the UK over the portrayal of the NHS by conservatives in America, with David Cameron and Gordon and Sarah Brown joining an online campaign to defend the British system from attac

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/wor...-Obamas-healthcare-reforms.html#ixzz0OccOSKSJ

A Congressional committee's inquiry has turned up a 13th forged letter criticizing a climate-change bill, this time in the name of a Charlottesville senior center, and sent to a lawmaker by a Washington lobbying firm.

The letter to U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) was released Tuesday by the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

The founder of the lobbying firm that sent the letter, Bonner and Associates, said the missive was discovered Monday during a internal review by his company's law firm, Akin Gump, launched in response to the House committee's investigation.

Earlier this month, Bonner and Associates acknowledged having sent out 12 fraudulent letters to Perriello, Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (D-Ohio) and Rep. Chris Carney (D-Ohio). At the time, Bonner and Associates was a subcontractor working for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a pro-coal group that was seeking greater assurances about the price of energy under proposed climate change legislation being considered by Congress.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ca..._discovers_another_for.html?hpid=sec-politics

Since the days of Richard Nixon, "The Big Lie" has been the chief weapon of the Republican Party. After eight years in power, the Republicans have shown themselves to be bankrupt of ideas and morality, and along with some Conservative Blue Dog Democrats, they have sold their souls and votes to the right wing insurance interests for millions of dollars.
http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x711196115/JAMES-JOHNSTON-On-national-health-care

 

[targus]

Thanks, Crabby, for adding nothing to the discussion other than misdirection.

How about some documentation that euthanasia is not happening under the UK system instead of attempting to take us off topic?

 

[Matt Black]

The 'Affair of the Two Katies' has become something of a cause celebre over here, not least amongst the journos of the Daily Heil!, whose frothing extreme right-wing fulminations make Sarah Palin look like a pinko moderate and who normally never have a good word for the NHS; how odd therefore that it's the Republicans that the Mail has taken a pop at. Oh well, it's a queer old world indeed...

But, cutting through the above froth and noise from the tabloid shallow end of the journalistic swimming pool, there is more than an element of deception in the way the 'anti-reform' camp in the US has misused the legitimate gripes of these two ladies.

[ETA - and now to return to the topic: I'd like some reliable, independently-verifiable data to confirm that euthanasia* is being widely practised in the UK...

*As opposed to assisted suicide which, whilst also alarming, is a slightly different animal.]

 

[targus]

[ETA - and now to return to the topic: I'd like some reliable, independently-verifiable data to confirm that euthanasia* is being widely practised in the UK...

*As opposed to assisted suicide which, whilst also alarming, is a slightly different animal.]

No sure why it must be "widely practised" before it becomes a concern. How widely must it be shown to be occuring before it is a valid subject of conversation?

The slide from "assisted suicide" to euthanasia is a short one - especially when we cannnot be sure of who is making the request for the "assistance".

If it is a family member asking the doctor to "assist" in the demise of the patient would that not be euthanasia?

If you look to countries where doctor assisted suicide is legal (Denmark?) you will also find many accusations that often it is nothing other than euthanasia by a more acceptable name.

 

[Crabtownboy]

Thanks, Crabby, for adding nothing to the discussion other than misdirection.

How about some documentation that euthanasia is not happening under the UK system instead of attempting to take us off topic?

Note in the 1st quote below that assisted suicide is against the law in England [UK].

Note in the 2nd quote euthansia is legally considered as murder in England. The bold emphasis is mine.

You need to check the facts before posting alarmist posts from questionable sources. The Right Wing here in the State is being shown as having no ethics when it comes to telling lies, spreading false rumors, and in using scare tactics. Nixon used the big lie. Bush used the Big lie, and it continues in what we see currently concerning several topics such as health care reform. Seems they really have sold their souls to industrialists.

World Briefing | Europe: England: Euthanasia Case To Go To Top Court
By Warren Hoge (NYT)
Published: Friday, November 2, 2001

In a ruling that will test England's law banning euthanasia, the Law Lords of the House of Lords, the country's highest court, agreed to hear a terminally ill woman's request to allow her husband to help her die. Diane Pretty, 42, suffers from motor neuron disease and is paralyzed from the neck down. She is seeking to have her husband Brian be immune from prosecution for assisted suicide, which carries a maximum 14-year jail term. Warren Hoge (NYT)
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache...=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&lr=lang_en&client=firefox-a

In England, euthanasia is regarded as murder, a crime that can result in a life sentence, and assisted suicide is punishable by up to 14 years imprisonment. The topic was brought back into the limelight with the case brought in the European Court of Human Rights in 2002 by Diane Pretty. Mrs. Pretty, who suffered from motor neuron disease, claimed that British courts were contravening her human rights by refusing her husband the right to assist her to die. The Court ruled against her in April of that year; she died two weeks later
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache...=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&lr=lang_en&client=firefox-a

 

[Matt Black]

No sure why it must be "widely practised" before it becomes a concern. How widely must it be shown to be occuring before it is a valid subject of conversation?[/qb]

Any instance is a cause for concern but as the law presently stands it will be the subject matter of a prosecution. But the thrust of the OP suggests that this is a widespread problem in the UK - that every second GP or hospital consultant is a Jack Kevorkian - and that just isn't the case.

[qb]The slide from "assisted suicide" to euthanasia is a short one - especially when we cannnot be sure of who is making the request for the "assistance". [/qb]

I agree that it is open to abuse. But the Purdy and the earlier Diane Pretty cases were and are based on a very narrow definition of assisted suicide, the issue being whether the husbands of these two ladies would be prosecuted if they helped their wives travel to the Dignitas clinic in Zurich, where would be given medication to take to end their lives; under the present UK law both husbands would be guilty of the criminal offence of aiding and abetting a suicide. Note that in both cases the lawsuit was brought by the patients who were both of sound mind, not the family. Note also that the patients were going to take their own lives in Switzerland and thus die by their own hands, albeit with assitance to travel there from their husbands and the assistance of medication provided there by doctors. That, morally worrying though it is, is not euthanasia.

 

[rbell]

I am not sure of your source, but there is a growing credibility gap concerning conservatives as they have been caught in misrepresenting facts and in outright lies on several topics recently.

This coming from a supporter of one who said in 2003, "I'm for a single-payer plan," who re-iterated in in 2007, and then claimed this month that he never said it at all.

With a double standard like yours, I'm not sure you should be doing any calling out of "credibility gaps."

 

[SeekingTruth]

This coming from a supporter of one who said in 2003, "I'm for a single-payer plan," who re-iterated in in 2007, and then claimed this month that he never said it at all.

With a double standard like yours, I'm not sure you should be doing any calling out of "credibility gaps."

Don't be surprised at the double shuffle. Liberals always use it to attempt to hide their true beliefs.:tonofbricks: