A recent article written by Michael Cook for Mercator.net examined the current trends in the euthanasia lobby and concluded that the legalization of euthanasia will lead to people dying against their will or the death of people with chronic depression or mental illness.
The first case that Cook examined was the recent statistics from Australia concerning people who have died from the use of Nembutal, a drug used by Veterinarians for the euthanasia of animals.
Philip Nitschke, known as Australia’s “Dr. Death” has been promoting the use of Nembutal to commit suicide.
A recent Australian study found that at least 51 people in Australia died from Nembutal use with 14 of those being under the age of 40. Of the 38 cases that were fully investigated by the coroner, only 11 involved people with chronic physical pain or terminal illness.
This means that the people who are acquiring Nembutal through mail order, flights to Mexico, or stealing it from Veterinary hospitals are often chronically depressed or mentally ill and rarely are they suffering unbearable, uncontrolled pain.
Nitschke told the Australian media that the actual number of Nembutal deaths was probably closer to 125. In response to the number of young or depressed people who died by Nembutal, Nitscke was reported to have said: “There will be some casualties”.
In the Netherlands a group of leaders from the euthanasia lobby is petitioning the Dutch government to allow people who are over the age of 70 to simply obtain a lethal dose to use at any time. The group is led by Eugene Sutorius, the former President of the Dutch Euthanasia society and the lawyer who extended euthanasia to people who are chronically depressed by successfully defending the Dutch Psychiatrist who euthanized a person who was chronically depressed.
The petition has received more than 40,000 signatures which is the number required by the Dutch parliament to allow the petition to be debated in parliament.
When you are told that the euthanasia lobby is only concerned about legalizing euthanasia for the terminally ill consider two facts. First, the Dutch & Swiss do not require a person to be terminally ill but rather “suffering”; and Bill C-384, the bill that would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada, is not limited to the terminally ill.
Then there is the case of Ray Gosling, the retired BBC broadcaster in the UK who confessed to smothering to death, 20 years ago, his former male partner who had AIDS.
Finally, there is the interview with writer Martin Amis in the UK who stated that the answer to the aging population is to set-up euthanasia booths on street corners in the large cities.
As much as Amis was trying to be provocative, his message has resonated with the people in society who think that life is expendable.
The euthanasia lobby is that scary.
[Euthanasia Prevention Coalition International Newsletter, March 2010, www.epcc.ca]