House of the Chakram

how do you feel about it?

Yahoo! News - Netherlands Hospital Euthanizes Babies "A hospital in the Netherlands — the first nation to permit euthanasia — recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns, and then made a startling revelation: It has already begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives."

When I read the title of this article, I was initially outraged, saying "OMG, WHAT?!"

But, after reading the whole thing, I was forced to revisit my own feelings about euthanasia. Why? My Aunt Martha ended her life a practical vegetable after years of Alzheimers, brought on by brain damage caused by years of domestic abuse. She was only in her 50's, but at the end, she could do nothing for herself. She sat in her wheelchair, blankly staring out into the world, living in an antiseptic sterile environment of a nursing home with overworked and unsympathetic caregivers. She had to be fed, bathed, dressed, and taken care of the same way one would an infant. But even an infant has more interaction with the outside world.

She'd get bruises when the caregivers dropped her while trying to bathe her. She had teeth knocked out from similar accidents. The clothes we'd brought to keep her warm were stolen by the very people there to take care of her.

It was so depressing to visit her...I wondered whether her mind was trapped inside the body that had failed her, or whether she was even aware of her surroundings. The former seemed like torture...the latter, well, just incredibly sad.

Had I been in her place, I would have wanted to die. It would have been a relief.

Yes, I am a supporter of euthanasia, and doctor-assisted suicide. If someone wants to die, who are we to say no? How can we (as a society) have the arrogance to say "No, you must continue living in constant agony." I've already told my husband that if I become a vegetable from some accident or other that I want the plug to be pulled, so to speak. There's no way I'd want to live if my existence was one of constant agonizing unrelievable pain, or one of life sustained only by tubes and machines. If the only thing keeping my body alive were machines, and my brain was non-functional, I'd want it to end.

As for "people with no free will", like newborns with horrible agonizing deformities who might only live days or weeks anyway, well, all you have to do is put yourself in their shoes. Would YOU want to live a life like that? I can't imagine anyone saying yes. And as a mother, there's no way I'd want my child to suffer like that.

IMHO this issue is similar to the abortion issue in it's arrogance. Most of the anti-abortion and anti-euthanasia activists seem to me like people who self-righteously want to impose a standard of morality on the rest of us without empathy or sympathy for the people in these situations. THEY never had to worry about these issues, but by God they know what's best for the rest of us regardless.

I HATE people like that. And we have 4 more years of them. I can't tell you how many people I've run into out here who are really dreading what horrible freedom-smashing things are going to come out of the government in the next 4 years.

Rant, rant, rant, I know. But this issue got under my collar today.

posted by Michelle @ 9:48 AM