In pre-Nazi Germany, the "right to die" became the "duty to die" for those with a "life unworthy of living". When the crazies under Uncle Adolf moved in, they just accelerated the program. Eventually even opposition to the existing national socialist regime could be classified as a mental infirmity. Could the same thing happen again in the EU?
Meanwhile, the ill and infirm in hospitals in the Netherlands are afraid to drink their orange juice as the doctors are transformed from healers into killers. In a demonic twist, this is labelled "compassion" - which means "to suffer with" someone.
And the US is not far behind...
Lord have mercy!
Gordon
PS: For an interesting read, check out the thorough study of the transformation of the medical establishment into a killing machine by Robert Jay Lifton, entitled the
The Nazi Doctors.
http://www.amazon.com/Nazi-Doctors-.../103-9648624-7047828?ie=UTF8&s=booksSwiss may expand assisted suicide law
Fri Feb 2, 7:29 PM ET
LAUSANNE, Switzerland - A ruling by Switzerland's highest court released Friday has opened up the possibility that people with serious mental illnesses could be helped by doctors to take their own lives.
Switzerland already allows physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients under certain circumstances. The Federal Tribunal's decision puts mental illnesses on the same level as physical ones.
"It must be recognized that an incurable, permanent, serious mental disorder can cause similar suffering as a physical (disorder), making life appear unbearable to the patient in the long term," the ruling said.
"If the death wish is based on an autonomous decision which takes all circumstances into account, then a mentally ill person can be prescribed sodium-pentobarbital and thereby assisted in suicide," it added.
Various organizations exist in Switzerland to help people who want to commit suicide, and assisting someone to die is not punishable under Swiss law as long as there is no "selfish motivation" for doing so.
The judges made clear in their ruling that certain conditions would have to be met before a mentally ill person's request for suicide assistance could be considered justified.
"A distinction has to be made between a death wish which is an expression of a curable, psychiatric disorder and which requires treatment, and (a death wish) which is based on a person of sound judgment's own well-considered and permanent decision, which must be respected," they said.
The case was brought by a 53-year old man with serious bipolar affective disorder who asked the tribunal to allow him to acquire a lethal dose of pentobarbital without a doctor's prescription.
The tribunal ruled against his request, confirming the need for a thorough medical assessment of the patient's condition.
Whether any Swiss physician would be prepared to prescribe a lethal dose of pentobarbital to a mentally ill person remains unclear. The country's national ethics commission could not be reached for comment late on Friday.
Switzerland is one of a number of countries in Europe that allow assistance to terminally ill people who wish to die.
Netherlands legalized euthanasia in 2001 and Belgium in 2002, while Britain and France allow terminally ill people to refuse treatment in favor of death.
