But there is another reason that will soon be causing more distrust: No, not racism per se, but ableism: The idea that the old, the handicapped, and those who can't quite cope with life are looked down on.
From a talk by John Kelly, a spokesman for the disability group not dead yet , discussing how he has to confront the healthy minded elites who push assisted suicide but if you look more closely than the propaganda, (or watch what is starting to happen in Canada etc.) you might be more frightened: because the backstory is eugenic elimination of the unfit.
I keep thinking about Canada, where people like me – I’m a quadriplegic paralyzed below the shoulders, but I am not terminally ill – have become eligible for their so-called “aid in dying” program – and by aid in dying Canada means euthanasia 99.9% of the time.
At first, Canada legalized euthanasia/assisted suicide for people whose deaths were “reasonably foreseeable,” but then expanded eligibility. There have been documented cases of disabled people being offered euthanasia instead of services
In the US, proponents insist they only seek assisted suicide for people labelled “terminally ill,” meaning death is probable within six months, but there have already been calls to expand eligibility
the stories you hear has a cultural background and mindset of those affluent elites who claim to speak for the poor and working class of all ethnicities.
...Ezekiel Emanuel, chair of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school...noted that most of those who have used aid-in-dying laws are white, well insured and college-educated. “These are people who are used to controlling every aspect of their lives, and they want to control this aspect of their lives.”
But they seem unaware that there is a different way to look at life, especially by those who work hard and have struggles in their lives.
And part of this is because these groups have a religious viewpoint of life: The idea that God is in charge, and this illness, or sickness, or problem is one of the struggles he has given us. It is also a knowledge, based on experience, that bad things happen, even to good people, but there is an ultimate reason for everything that happens, and that God, and family, and friends will help you in your need (remember even in the USA, which if you watch TVs and movies is full of selfish people with few family responsibiities, nevertheless has 50 million people who help family or a friend as an unpaid caregiver).
Without recognizing this cultural divide, such issues cannot be discussed clearly.
So it's voluntary, so what's the big deal? Well, because once giving out death is seen by personnel as a medical treatment, then some medical personnel will decide to give this treatment to those who don't want it.
Let me tell you a story. I was doing a temporary job at an IHS hospital on one of the Lakota reservations, when at change of shift, one of the regular docs came to the ER and asked if we could check an x ray for feeding tube placement on an older lady who was recovering from a stroke.
The night shift ER docwas a locum from a professional group, and was a resident at a big hospital in the Eastern USA, and when he heard the request, he said blithely, well why don't you just sedate her HaHa. I was horrified, but knowing the my next door neighbor was in the AIM and would stop this fatal intervention, I stayed quiet to see what would happen.
And to my relief, the staff doctor merely said: Oh, we don't do that type of thing here. And walked off to tell the nurses he would drive back later in the evening to check on the patients...(and later we made sure he would not be allowed to work there).
Incidents like this are why minorities often refuse to sign do not resussitate orders
and as Mr Kelly notes, it may be why the popularity of killing off the sick and handicapped are not as popular in much of America: not just among minorities but among the working class whose opinions are usually dismissed because they are "racist"and "deplorables" so are looked down upon by those in charge of the culture.
A 2013 Pew Research Center study showed that Blacks oppose assisted suicide by 65%-29%, and Latinos by 65%-32%. Majority Latino Lawrence, Massachusetts, voted 69% against the 2012 Argos question, while white working class towns like Taunton and Gardner also opposed. Wealthier Massachusetts towns voted heavily in favor.
Sigh.
No comments:
Post a Comment