Euthanasia For Alcoholics?

[Keith Maitland]

The Netherlands is one of the most euthanasia-friendly countries in the world, allowing people to kill themselves for virtually any reason. That now evidently includes alcoholism.

Read here

http://liveactionnews.org/netherlands-now-allows-euthanasia-alcoholics/

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Just goes to show that any pleading about strict safeguards is rubbish.

Shows that secular reasoning can lead to elimination of people.

[Harrowby Hall]

Shows that secular reasoning can lead to elimination of people.

Once again, our Vlad shows that he does not understand the meaning of secular.

[Udayana]

The Netherlands is one of the most euthanasia-friendly countries in the world, allowing people to kill themselves for virtually any reason. That now evidently includes alcoholism.

Read here

http://liveactionnews.org/netherlands-now-allows-euthanasia-alcoholics/

"liveactionnews" is not really an unbiased news source is it?

[ad_orientem]

Quite scary.

[Keith Maitland]

Udayana,

"liveactionnews" is not really an unbiased news source is it?

From the BBC this morning.

Watch this short video.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38166185

[jeremyp]

Just goes to show that any pleading about strict safeguards is rubbish.

Shows that secular reasoning can lead to elimination of people.

Are you suggesting the man was actually murdered?

[Brownie]

I've read all of this thread and watched the video.  It is so terribly sad.

Many people do not realise how desperately ill and wretched an alcoholic can be.  The poor guy was quite young and had tried rehab a few times without success.   How depressing that is, I can almost feel the abyss that he saw.   No wonder he didn't see any point in going on.

He was, however, quite capable of taking his own life.  His brother says he wanted to spend time with loved ones, say goodbye properly, before dying.   My view is he could have spent pleasant time with them, then written a letter, and done it himself.  Employing a professional euthanasia outfit has so many implications.

I'm not advocating suicide btw but have empathy with the man.   There but for fortune/grace of God, go I.

[Udayana]

Seems clear from the BBC news report/video that this was a case of "unbearable suffering", after numerous attempts to beat his alcoholism and depression. Personally I'm inclined to believe that with appropriate methods such cases can be "cured", but obviously this case was not, hence reasonable grounds for support with assisted suicide. 

It doesn't mean that "Euthanasia spirals out of control" as suggested by the Live Action article.

[Brownie]

I agree with your first para, Udayana, with some misgivings about the assisted suicide aspect.

The problem is, where will it all end?  I think that is what the 'spiralling out of control' accusations are getting at.  The ethical boundaries change so quickly.

I wonder about the people who are employed professionally to do this work, especially after seeing the famous Swiss clinic on TV.