Euthanasia!?! "DOCTORS are HELPING HASTEN the DEATHS of sick CHILDREN"

[theearthisround]

http://www.informationliberation.com/index.php?id=1001

CHICAGO - Researchers in the Netherlands, the first country to legalize euthanasia for terminally ill people, have found that doctors are helping hasten the deaths of sick children in a variety of ways, sometimes at the edges of what the law allows.

......
The new study looked at 64 deaths of ill children during a four-month period. Of those, 42 cases involved medical decisions that could hasten death.

Doctors were given immunity against prosecution and their responses were kept anonymous in the government-sponsored study.

The decisions ranged from withholding life support, a practice accepted in the United States, to administering drugs such as morphine with the intention of ending suffering and hurrying death.

Only one case involved euthanasia in its strictest definition: doctor-assisted death at the patient's request.

(more)
http://www.informationliberation.com/index.php?id=1001

[WindRavenX]

1. These kids would not survive:

In one case described in the study, an 18-month-old child with a progressive neurodegenerative disease was given sedatives and opiates after the parents requested it to shorten the child's suffering. Doctors estimated the child would have died in four weeks without the drugs.


They aren't just killing kids. They are giving kids who would DIE anyway a good death.

[shireen]

5. totally agree. n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. How does the administration of morphine hasten death?

[Occulus]

13. Overdose. n/t

[growlypants]

18. stops ones breathing

[moobu2]

3. I'm all for it.

It's inhuman to allow someone to suffer unimaginable pain when there isn’t any hope for them to recover.

[sui generis]

4. so?

it happens here too.

In the examples given, the rationale seems justified. Medical practitioners don't typically join the profession so they can get to kill children. It is not a decision taken lightly by anyone involved.

[Just Me]

6. oops

that's what i get for failing to read,...being in a one-track mind-set *blush*

[Warren DeMontague]

7. Thankfully, in this country, terminally ill patients in pain cant even GET

morphine to alleviate their pain, because the doctors are all terrified of the DEA. And chemo grannies can get hauled off to jail for smoking pot.

YAAAAAAAAY Merika!

[dogday]

8. Quality of Life color is Green

as long as you can pay, you can stay is the motto for the republicans. If we can afford it and you can't, well then see you on the other side :sarcasm:

[expatriate]

9. If you have seen some of the deaths sick kids

like this suffer through without morphine administration, you would understand why the Netherlands has this law.

If you have seen someone dying of terminal bone cancer, when even morphine doesn't have an affect any more, you would understand why the Netherlands has this law.

If you have seen pancreatic cancer patients who have bitten their lips entirely off from the horrible pain, you would understand why the Netherlands has this law.

There is nothing noble in allowing people to suffer endless, untreatable pain. There are conditions where the pain becomes so great that no drug known to man can touch it.

Work in a hospice and listen to people in agony begging to be killed, and all the medical staff can do is give them painkillers that DON'T WORK ANYMORE. I've worked in one. You will then understand why the Netherlands has this law.

[theHandpuppet]

16. Bless you, expatriate

For your compassion for the dying, and for your understanding of death with dignity.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. Good for them!

And if it's "at the edge of what the law allows" then, obviously, it's still legal.

That's such a republican way of saying something - instead of admitting they are within their rights, they like to say "They were skirting with breaking the law", to make it sound worse.

I'm all for euthanasia and giving people the best deaths we can give them, even children. Maybe especially children.

Why should an 18 month old be forced into knowing life only as extreme pain and suffering in their last couple weeks?

[samdogmom]

11. I would choose this way to die if I was terminally ill.

I maintain quality is much more important than quantity. I would never force another person to do this, but I would hope this option could be possible for me. Unfortunately in our society, we treat animals with more dignity than humans.

[theearthisround]

12. Its a slippery slope ppl... U want the Gov deciding whos "terminally ill"?

First they came for the terminally ill...
Then they came for the mentally retarded...
Then they came for the sick...
Then they came for me...

[Ariana Celeste]

14. It's not a govt. decision.

It is a decision between the patient and the doctor. Obviously in some cases, the patient's parent and the doctor. There's nothing wrong with that.

If the govt. got involved, there would be a problem. But, as it stands, it is still a patient/doctor decision.

So how is it a slippery slope?

[Zenlitened]

15. Really? Government representatives were involved in each case?

:shrug:

[expatriate]

17. The government in this case does not make the decision.

The patient and doctor do, or the parent of the patient in the case of minors.