Monday, January 14, 2013

All I can see is the start of a slippery slope....

Consider this story from Belgium:

Deaf twins who discovered they were going blind and would never see each other again are euthanized in Belgian hospital


"A pair of identical twins, who were born deaf, have been killed by Belgian doctors after seeking euthanasia when they found out they would also soon go blind.

In a unique case under the country's euthanasia laws, the 45-year-old brothers, from Antwerp, chose death as they were unable to bear the thought of never seeing one another again.

They were euthanised by doctors at Brussels University Hospital, in Jette, on December 14 by lethal injection after spending their entire lives together.

Euthanasia is legal under Belgian law if those making the decision can make their wishes clear and are suffering unbearable pain, according to a doctor's judgement... But this case was unusual as neither twin was suffering extreme physical pain or was terminally ill."



And later in the article: "Just days after the twins were killed, Belgium's ruling Socialists tabled a legal amendment which would allow the euthanasia of children and Alzheimer's sufferers."

Slippery slope... slippery slope... that's all I can see... coming soon to a country near you.

22 comments:

  1. We already are desensitized by easy access to abortions. Euthanasia isn't much of a leap.

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  2. I read about this yesterday.

    Slippery slope? More like a greased playground slide headed into a burning pit of oil with bayonets poking at you from the top.

    I'm afraid it's all over. I'm out of hope.

    Just Me

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  3. I wonder what Helen Keller would think of this decision.

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    1. After figuring out this article was actually "real" and not some sort of bizarre joke, I, too, thought of Helen Keller.

      It's hard to believe that no family members, physicians or therapists could talk these two brothers down from the cliff of death. Did anyone even try?

      Very sad...

      Mara

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  4. Wow. Better be careful to not complain of a cold or someone will be signing the documents and yanking out a kidney! Slippery Slope indeed!

    Lana

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  5. Not a slope -- a straight-down chute to merciless hell. Total 100% agreement here. Ultimately anyone 'uneconomic' will be eliminated.

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  6. No nation that perpetuated genocide ever started out with wholesale murder. They gradually built up to it, desensitizing the morals of the community.

    Remember, the first people murdered in Nazi Germany were the disabled and mentally ill, often with the permission of the family.

    We may well look back generations from now and realize that the first people murdered in these United States were the unborn, followed by the elderly and disabled. Where it goes from here, only God knows.

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  7. So much for Europe - but we knew that already...

    And we look to THEM as beacons of civilization?

    How about counseling for a pair of seriously disturbed twins?

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  8. hang on, the hills getting steeper.

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  9. In the UK expensively ill people are being denied food and water on something called the Liverpool Care Pathway, a euphemism for socially sanctioned murder. They're killing people even who volubly want to live.

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  10. The decision wasn't made for them. Don't adults have the right to decided what happens to themselves? Is it more civilised for people outside of the circumstances to force them to endure it? If you choose to live through pain, suffering and inevitable death that is your choice but don't we respect others enough to allow them the same choice? Is it kinder to make a human suffer when we often euthanise our pets out of goodwill?

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    1. Yeah, let them ignore the impact it would have on those left behind, because, you know, death doesn't affect anyone but those that actually die. You failed to notice that they weren't in actual physical pain, or had an incurable disease that would eventually kill them anyway. Its a great way to encourage kids to just kill themselves when they're going through some terrible emotional period when they're not sure how they're going to get through it, like these twins were obviously thinking. They must've not valued themselves very much in the first place.

      Coming from someone who's dealt with clinical depression after a parent's sudden death, its very disturbing to see that people like you think we should let those who express the wish to kill themselves to just let them. The thought of never seeing my mother again was unbearable, and even scary when I could end up with what she had and not catch it in time. It led me down the road of very dark thoughts, and for a while I could no longer see the blessings and people I still had around me. When you have such thoughts, its usually because you just can't see an alternative, not because you actually you want to die.

      It could take something as simple as a kind word to change someone's mind and make them feel their life still has value and meaning, but seeing as how people in our modern society are so disconnected with each other, what happened shouldn't be so shocking anymore. Just sad.

      As for the animals, who said they wanted to die?

      ~Lily~

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  11. reading this news on yahoo yesterday and i was horrified...by the twins decision to do this and by their friends and families who allowed it..

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  12. I read this also and feel to my knees...GOD help us ...we are so far lost!

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  13. Santina,

    "The decision wasn't made for them."--Maybe not, but they were certainly willingly assisted in killing themselves.

    "Don't adults have the right to decided what happens to themselves?"--Only God as their Creator has the right to decide when it's time for them to die.

    "Is it more civilised for people outside of the circumstances to force them to endure it?"--It is certainly more loving for their loved ones and others around them to help them to find ways to cope with their circumstances than it is for them to encourage them in a plan to kill themselves. I don't know what you mean by "civilized".

    "If you choose to live through pain, suffering and inevitable death that is your choice but don't we respect others enough to allow them the same choice?"--Everyone in this world will have pain and suffering at some point, and everyone will die. Yes, you can choose how to deal with that, but it is certainly not disrespectful to someone to not help them end their life anymore than it is disrepectful to not kill your neighbor b/c you know he has terminal cancer.

    "Is it kinder to make a human suffer when we often euthanise our pets out of goodwill?"--A pet is not a precious eternal soul made in the image of God. It is simply an animal, for whom we care and help them out when they are suffering without understanding or hope of a cure. We can and must help other human beings with their suffering by many means, many of which would not work for an animal. Helping someone kill himself is not kind, it is evil.

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  14. I've never commented twice on one post, but here it is.

    This subject - state sanctioned murder of imperfect citizens - is one that I don't approach with any objectivity and don't intend to.

    I take my cue simply from the bible. The bible is FULL of admonitions from God to CHOOSE life.

    We've been given dominion over animals. We've been charged to be good stewards to them. To appreciate them for what they provide and to not mistreat them. But, we have dominion.

    No human has been granted dominion over another human.

    I'm done now. I won't comment on this again. Onward.

    Just Me

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  15. I know this might sound terrible, but I do hope their loved ones and those that agree with this, get everything they want.

    As they say, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

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  16. To a couple of the Anonymous and Lisa Beth.

    "Matthew 7:5

    Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beame out of thine owne eye: and then shalt thou see clearely to cast out the mote out of thy brothers eye.
    - King James Version (1611)"

    It is not up to us to judge these things. Those that choose this path, as well as those who chose to murder these men, experienced/await the wrath of the Almighty.

    Man was given free will to make man's own selections. Some choose wisely, some choose poorly.

    Those that choose poorly end up in Satan's Hell. You cannot prevent free will so other than informing others of the wrath of Hell, stop judging them.

    That is the responsibility of God alone. While you may be dismayed and saddened by their choices, accept they choose to go directly to Hell, no "$200, Get Out Of Hell free cards will work.

    Am I saying nothing can be done? Far from it but posting your mild rant's in a blog comments, where you will quickly move on to the other problems of the day, mean nothing. Take the message to the politicians, the lawmakers, the pulpit, to the masses, to the Church, to the public.

    Patrice has done so by posting this, to the masses.

    Otherwise, please examine yourself as your blog comments are meaningless except to extinguish your own guilt by doing nothing otherwise. While you may express your sadness, please diminish your judgmental attitude. You cannot change individual choice.

    To think otherwise is to think like the current gun grabbers; that your opinion is the only one that matters.

    Do no more and you are truly, Hypocrites.

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  17. This is horrible and terrifying.

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  18. Judging? I was doing no judging, other than between right and wrong. God never, ever tells us not to discern between right and wrong. I am not the one saying anyone was going to hell. I was answering Santina's ill-considered questions. Did you really read my post?

    Hypocrite? Since you have no clue whether I just "rant" on someone's blog and do nothing else, you can keep your KJV quote to yourself. And obviously, posting a comment here does not mean nothing, b/c people are reading it, are they not? If Patrice has done a good thing by posting this to the masses (and I agree that it is was good for her to bring it out), then I have also by posting a comment here and refuting error as I see it.

    I am not experiencing any guilt whatsoever over this issue. I am sad, but I am also righteously angry over people's choices to flout God's laws, whether it's their free will or not. Also, it's not my opinion that matters at all. Only Almighty God's does.

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  19. To quote a commenter, Jim Skipper, from the second site posted the by ubiquitous "anonymous" above: "While, granted, slippery slope arguments are sometimes fallacious, when dealing with people and group behavior, logic and reason seldom apply." Depraved human nature, when given an inch, generally takes a mile or just outright plunges right off the cliff. If one has even a rudimentary understanding of human nature and has observed the world around them and read of the progress of civilizations in history, then...HELLO! It's not rocket science, y'all!

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