Speaking to the British Medical Association, Professor Tallis said that:
"Unbearable suffering, prolonged by medical care and inflicted on a dying patient who wishes to die is an unequivocal evil."Well naturally if anyone were to inflict unbearable suffering on a dying patient, that would be evil. If a patient is already suffering, it would also be an evil to fail to provide adequate palliative care, or to kill the patient.
Dr John McGough, also a member of HPAD, used the example of vets putting down animals, saying that this was considered compassionate and kind. He wants doctors to be able to do the same for people. This is a shaft of light into the real thinking of the assisted dying lobby. Essentially we are being encouraged to see the medically assisted killing of human beings within the same moral compass as putting down a dog.
There is a poll in the article, asking "Should assisted dying be legalised?" At the moment, the "Yes" votes are winning by 581 to 252 votes. If you vote and re-blog the poll, we could give a voice to those who do not think that people should be put down as animals are.
Thanks to Care Not Killing for the link.
4 comments:
Thanks for the link. The poll is now 56% against assisted dying. The article deliberately confuses when it talks of medical care prolonging suffering. There is no moral problem in discontinuing medical care when there is no hope of recovery. Of course discontinuing non-medical care such as food and drink is another matter.
... Oh, and by the way ...
... "Help control the (pet?) population. Have your (pet?) spade or neutered!"
Was there ever a time when the term "ethicist" actually had any stigma attached to it? It's as if so many words now days have lost much (if not all) meaning.
Thank you, Father. I posted a link to your piece yesterday evening and I am pleased to see that the balance has shifted(not that I can claim much credit but I am sure that "every little helps"!).
Commissioning a poll is Step 5 in destoying the culture
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/06/how-to-destroy-a-culture-in-5-easy-steps
Post a Comment