Before the U.S. Senate recently took up such driving conservative issues as gay marriage, TV indecency and flag burning, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., devoted a May subcommittee hearing to another: assisted suicide. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a Bush administration attempt to override Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act. Brownback told The Oregonian newspaper, “I held a hearing on this topic because I think we should carefully consider the unintended consequences and slippery slope of doctor-assisted suicide and euthanasia. Legalizing doctor-assisted suicide can lead toward involuntary euthanasia, as we’ve seen in the Netherlands.” So far it’s all just talk, though: No lawmakers have said they’ll propose anti-euthanasia legislation this year.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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28 Comments
Brownback Bullshit. I will post more on this tomorrow.
Brownback says anything that is good for Brownback. Personally, I am sick and tired of the puritans in our leaderships inacting laws on socialist agendas’, like seatbelts, smoking, alcohol and/or drug usage, religion, and forced vaccinations of our children. sometimes it might be more humane to allow terminally ill people an out, without pain.And by all means we should have more control over our futures than to vote for an elected official, and his or her vote should be what we wanted not from their belief structure.
Please read the riveting testimony of Diane Coleman (Not Dead Yet), Rita Marker and Wesley J.Smith (co-author w/Ralph Nader)at that hearing; http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=1916
I think one of the most cruelest things you can do to a person is keep them alive and suffering for the sake of keeping them alive.
We need a right to die act. If people want to take their life by ending their suffering, the burden they place on their families both emotional, physical, and financial, and a whole host of other reasons, then let them take the magic pill.
We don’t keep our pets on machines and suffering for years. We put them to sleep. And I’m not trying to compare pets to humans, but just remember this; That people often treat their pets better than other people and their pets have lives that people in the developing world would envy.
I’ve seen and still seeing what we do to our elderly. We throw them in prison like nursing homes and wait for them to die. It’s a sad exisitance. Give them the diginity and let them go in peace. I plan on doing it for myself.
The reason why the ultra conservatives care about this issue, because they use the Bible for their belief system and they think it is a sin to take your own life, same with gay marriage, and evolution. That is why they don’t want people to do it or believe in it. They are using the force of government to impose a religous doctrine. And I couldn’t disagree with them more.
Wow, I agree with you, Joe.
Ditto
Joe
The first words in the 1st amendment deals religion out. It seems the Founding Fathers could see this one coming as England had shared power with “The Church.”
The basic premise of freedom gives all choices to the individual, certain ones which pertain to his own state of being.
I fail to see how the high court can’t protect that right.
This turd is a self righteous assIf it passes, I hope he has to walk in their shoes
“I fail to see how the high court can’t protect that right.”
Well Ed, for crying out loud. Bush, who never met a civil liberty he didnt hate, was appointed by SCOTUS and in turn, he has been appointing his minions to the supremes as fast as folks can die or resign.
Could THAT be why the courts dont protect anyone but themselves anymore?
I mean, any decision that wasnt approved by the decider and his handlers gets labeled “activist judges trying to overturn laws made by elected officials”.
But you dont live in kansas ed, so you dont know what the republicans here are trying to do in terms of gutting the courts. People like ruby, bonbon, brenda, susan, et al. are working hard to kill the judiciary. Damn pesky laws anyway.
Mini me. If the bushbots can destroy the protection of the courts on the federal level, you know the “wanna be” deciders like bonbon, brenda, connie morris, ya know the kansas koulter girls, they can SURE destroy the courts in kansas.
Just look at susan and big jim’s stunts in ratting out their own republican leadership. I see how loyal they are to their own people. How bad do you think they hate the dems if this is what they do to their own?
Do you suppose the kansas koulters told steve morris and pete brungardt “you are either with us or you are against us”?
Do you suppose they asked them “why do you hate america”?
heheh
NO WINGNUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Joe Williams,
When you’re right, you’re right. Eloquently put.
ksfarmgrrl,
Indeed. And even more than NO WINGNUTS, I’m thinking NO THEOCRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lifevoice,
Care to debate, rather than just cuting, pasting, and running?
One of those one hit, paid conservative posters we talked about yesterday? Did you see that link?
Sure explains some weird posting around here.
Let’s see
Never ending war in IraqHistorical high budget deficitHistorical high national debt (near 8 TRILLION)Dow Jones below 11,000 AGAINHealth care in hyper-inflationThree dollar a gallon gasGlobal warmingDomestic spyingRepublican corruption9-11 cover up
And Brownback brings us the anti-euthanasia bill.
Praise Allah!
Excellent post, Joe. Couldn’t add any more to that.
I second CF Williams. No bell on that post.
Almost makes me feel like you sat with me at my mom’s bedside and watched her go from vibrant and loving life to dying over a miserable two and a half year period.
I wouldnt have treated my dog like that, much less my mom.
After two years, she finally quit eating and drinking and taking her medicine. Her doc asked her if she knew that would make her die. She closed her eyes and nodded her head, since the stroke left her unable to speak. She gave informed consent the best she could.
And no matter how horrible, I had to honor her wishes, as I knew she would have honored mine. No feeding tubes, no forcing medication. She knew what she wanted, what she was doing.
She was tired of the pain and the suffering and the struggle. She was 87 and wanted peace. But what if she had been younger, or couldnt give consent? Would it have been as easy to follow her wishes?
And sadly, the docs and the nurses and I couldnt give her peace any other way except to sit by and watch her starve herself to death, dehydrate herself to death, and refuse medication so another stroke could take her. She just got a little morphine to ease the pain.
nice. I wouldnt treat my dog that way. I wouldnt even treat brownback’s family that way. One size does not fit all in this arena. It certainly doesnt fit politics.
Very well said, Joe. I’m right beside you on this one.
Well said Joe. While I find abortion to be a heart-rending issue I find this one to be relatively easy. Having faced this sort of question both with family and with myself (heart surgery) I know that I do NOT need the heavy hand of government involved.
While I support a person right to die. I can foresee a insurance company deining care to someone because it is expensive and trying to force them into suicide. The right to die should be made by the one dying not the insurance companies, government bureaucrats and hospitals
Amen Dingus
true dingus, and we dont want the nursing homes letting a public pay person die so the bed can be filled with a higher dollar private pay person.
As someone who’s been on both sides of this issue, I urge every one of you to put your wishes in writing! Don’t put your loved ones in the position of having to guess what you want done. This is your decision to make, and it is up to your family, insurance company and the state to make sure that your wishes are followed to the letter!
Well said Jed.
If this were DU, I’d give that post a K&R, er, a kick and refer. I’d sense a guest editorial if you just had some damn values! :)
If you dont deal with your own eventual death now, someone else will have to deal with it later. If you love ‘em, do it yerself!
“No lawmakers have said they’ll propose anti-euthanasia legislation this year.”
And they shouldn’t. It’s not a federal matter. The states can legislate as they choose, which Oregon has done.
Next topic.
JOE WILLIAMS
This is not a shot.
When you really think out a post as you did here you are in the most simple way eloquent.
Let me say that better. Simply ELOQUENT! Well said!
I am definatly putting my wishes in writing. I’d hate for my loved ones to have to make a hard choice.
Living Will – Kansas
http://www.ksbar.org/public/public_resources/pamphlets/living_wills.shtml
Yet, somehow Oregon hasn’t seen the dreaded slippery slope. People know if they or their loved one wants this or not.
This isn’t about some mythical slippery slope; it concerns Brownback’s religious belief that suicide for any reason is sinful. Never mind the horrible pain, the tubes and wires and incredible medical bills for treatment that in the end is unsuccessful. Never mind the suffering of the families who have to watch a loved one descend into the hell of Alzheimer’s or cancer, it’s a sin! If God didn’t want them to suffer, He’d have arranged for them to get hit by a truck.I’m sorry Sam, but not everybody sees the value of prolonging horror.
Anyone know where the term “slippery slope” came from and its origins?
I only ask because it was used in X-Men3. Weird.