Imposing Religion

A woman called into the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) 180 show to explain that if people were given the option of end-of-life physician assisted suicide, millions of people would be immediately at risk for being murdered by being coerced into signing up for suicide by their relatives, their doctors or the government. Then she uttered three incomprehensible sentences about God and Jesus. This let us know the first argument was a smokescreen and her real motivation was she wanted everyone to adopt her religious superstitions.

But does her paranoid argument have any merit? The way things are now, there is no formal procedure for physician assisted suicide. However, it goes on all the time under the table. Fellow physicians look the other way. It seems to me, an improper physician assisted suicide is far more likely today, than it would be with a formal procedure with mandatory review by several experts to make absolutely sure there was no coercion and that all alternatives had been exhausted.

The formal procedure would also force sober second thought. The suicide could not be rushed through as it can today. Further, someone rashly considering suicide, might apply for physician assisted suicide and in the process be given treatment for depression, illness or whatever temporary problem triggered the suicidal thoughts.

It is goofy to discount the real suffering of the terminally ill in order to prevent imaginary potential harm to people who would not even use the service.

~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)