Bill Richardson’s book “Last Week” is all about making life easier for the family — eager to assuage their own pain of “uncertainty” and despair in the face of death — by killing Grandma speedily. In this view, Grandma is now dispensable in proportion to the difficulty she poses. She is not deemed to be a valuable human being to comfort and care for in her suffering, endowed with the gift and sanctity of life. Although Richardson’s story tells of Grandma consciously and lovingly choosing death, in reality, many elderly people who suffer at the latter stages of their life due to illness, decline or immobility, are made to feel like a burden, so some choose death to “help” their children. Many children, meanwhile, are eager to see them die to get on with their lives, and also to get their hands on their parent’s will. This was a topic I heavily explored during my talk show days with legal and social representatives who supported the sanctity of life.
Abortion (which becomes more sinister the more an infant develops) is another mind-blowing case of indoctrination, as millions now take for granted that it is a “right” a woman has to her own body. Similarly to many elderly people, some women find themselves without support, isolated and pressured or coerced into an abortion against their genuine wishes in order to get rid of what is considered to be a “problem”.
Killing Grandma and using the excuse that doing so is “helping” her is yet another step down the precipice of far-Leftist degeneracy. What makes Richardson’s book even more revolting is that it is being marketed to kids.
“New children’s book says it’s ok to kill Grandma,” by Mary Zwicker, Campaign Life Coalition, June 15, 2022:
A new book in Canada is marketing assisted suicide to young children, promoting the idea of killing grandma as an act of love and compassion instead of the murder that it is.
Bill Richardson’s new book, Last Week, published in April 2022, has been described by critics as “sensitive” and “compelling.” It presents the killing of the sick and elderly — euphemistically called here in Canada “medical aid in dying” (MAiD) — through the eyes of a young child who must say goodbye to his grandmother, Flippa. The book mentions Flippa’s daily habit of walking to the beach and swimming in the ocean. However, as she gets older and weaker, Flippa is no longer able to swim in the ocean or do the things she loves. Because of this, life no longer seems worth living. This leads to Flippa’s choice of assisted suicide over a natural death.
With one week until Flippa’s death, the young child faces a variety of emotions, counting down every precious second until the last goodbye. Richardson describes scenes of comradery, as family and friends gather together to laugh, cry, and reminisce over the past as they share fond memories of Flippa’s life. Through this glimpse into these last moments with a loved one, Richardson attempts to portray euthanasia as a route which allows people to come to grips with a loved one’s death, free from the uncertainty surrounding a natural death.
Richardson, previously a broadcaster with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), said that he was inspired to write the book because of euthanasia’s growing prevalence in today’s society. He said that because of more and more people viewing euthanasia as a legitimate option, it was an issue that children would increasingly have to deal and cope with. Richardson, who identifies as “a gay man,” wanted to write a book that would help children come to grips with their emotions, while at the same time helping them to understand the concept of someone choosing their own death.
“Are you sure?” the child asks his grandmother, in one emotional scene. “Very sure,” she answers confidently.
Euthanasia or “physician-assisted suicide” was legalized in Canada in 2016 with Bill C-14. While the original bill legalized euthanasia for only the terminally ill or for cases where death was “reasonably foreseeable,” new and ambiguous legislation makes MAiD available to a much wider group throughout Canada. In 2021, Bill C-7 was passed which allows euthanasia for people whose deaths are not “reasonably foreseeable,” including those with mental illness.
Alex Schadenberg, executive director of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, told Campaign Life Coalition that a book such as Richardson’s is part of a massive campaign in Canada to try and normalize euthanasia.
“The movement from legalization to all-out killing has come very quickly,” he said. Schadenberg said that traditionally, family and friends would journey with a sick person as they approached death, but that today, this journey is “replaced with the planned death by lethal injection.” He added that since euthanasia is “caused by someone, and not a natural death,” it, therefore, “counters the normal response to dying.”
When asked about his thoughts on Richardson’s new book, Schadenberg said that children see the world in a straightforward manner, and “a book which normalizes the concept of killing grandma is designed to change the cultural view of living.” He said that Canada has quickly gone down the road of killing her own citizens. He said that, while euthanasia originally began as an option for people already dying, it quickly extended to those who were not terminally ill. From there, it included people with mental illness, those with disabilities, and is currently moving towards the possibility of euthanasia for children. In conclusion, Schadenberg said that Canada is a prime example of why euthanasia must never be legalized.
Seth Dillon, CEO of the U.S.-based satire site, The Babylon Bee, also commented on Richardson’s new book, calling it “deeply disturbing.”
“They want to normalize this stuff so that children grow up thinking it’s normal and healthy and good,” he said to pro-life activists at a gala dinner following the Canadian National March for Life on May 12. “There’s a reason they’re writing books from a child’s view on this. It’s to get into the heads and hearts of children and normalize this stuff.”
Dillon said he could not believe that, instead of focusing on improving care systems and the quality of life for people, leftist elites prepare children for the reality of the old and the sick getting “put down” by doctors who should be helping them. “It’s depressing,” he said.
Not too many years ago, doctors still recognized the sanctity of life and swore to treat each patient with the respect and dignity that they deserved. In acceptance and acknowledgement of the sanctity of life, doctors swore to uphold the value of human life from conception to its natural end when they took the Hippocratic Oath: “I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly, I will not give women a pessary to cause an abortion.”
Sadly, medical professionals today are no longer committed to upholding and protecting the sanctity of life. Instead of encouraging patients to embrace the life they were given and reminding them of their inherent value, doctors are trained to accept and even promote a patient’s request to be murdered. Instead of giving such individuals the help and comfort they deserve, euthanasia tells people that life is not worth fighting for. There is no hopefulness or charity in the message of euthanasia. There is no encouragement or reminder that each individual is uniquely valuable. Instead, euthanasia sends the unethical and immoral message that assisted suicide is a legitimate solution to the problem of suffering.
Not only does Richardson’s book normalize assisted suicide, but it also promotes euthanasia as an act of compassion. By marketing it as such to young children, books such as Last Week normalize and desensitize a whole generation to ideas that were previously accepted as evil, allowing them to be widely accepted and embraced by society at large. Euphemisms such as “medical assistance in dying” replace previous terminology such as “assisted suicide” in an attempt to further soften the graphic reality of murder and make it appear comfortable, compassionate, and ethical…..
SKA says
Best of all hastening the demise of all these “useless eaters” helps the Western tyrannies reduce the rolls of those eligible to receive their contractually guaranteed social security payments which the fiscally irresponsible Western regimes are incapable of honoring. (Bill Clinton: (Define ‘honor’ .”) Keynes’ bon mot “We all die eventually” must be amended so: “We all get snuffed eventually.”
Shawn says
So sick of Liberal ideology.Watching what these things do just tells me they gotta go and soon.
Wellington says
A slippery and dangerous slope. Most definitely.
Be careful lest we descend into ethical Hell, especially if we indoctrinate children into this rot.
The world is spinning out of control. Surely anyone of sense and knowledge can see this and the three chief culprits are so easily identified once again—1) Islam; 2) Western Leftism; and 3) traditional authoritarianism.
The only real and valuable ally in the fight against these three malevolencies, these massive errors, is Western Civilization at its best. One knows this or should know it. Alas, so many—so many—still do not.
gravenimage says
+1
Tom says
First it was to ease the suffering of those who were dying and in pain. Then it became a way for anyone who wanted to die.
Then the government implied that it was a human right for people to have the choice.
Now we see the start of the brainwashing of the young people to accept killing the elderly en mass.
The government would want this because it will save them countless billions of dollars on pensions, welfare and healthcare for the elderly.
gravenimage says
All grimly true, Tom.
Rarely says
Leaving aside the issue of whether assisted suicide is morally, ethically, or religiously alright it is absolutely abhorrent that the issue would be brought to the attention of children. What the f*** is he trying to accomplish?
The average 6 yr old can’t easily handle the death of a goldfish let alone a grandparent. The “putting down” of a terribly sick dog suffering great pain is incredibly traumatic to people of all ages but try to explain it to a child.
When a sick grandparent has been “put down” how many children will wonder, when they are sick, if they will be “put down”? The possibilities are endless and none of them good.
“Putting people down” for any reason must never be put in the mind of a child.
I am prejudging the book but if it says what it appears to then the author is a moron.
gravenimage says
True, Rarely–and grandma here is not even sick. The only mention I have found in this book is that she can no longer go snorkeling in the ocean. Well, by that standard a good number of adults, even those half her age or less, should be put down.
Rarely says
Just can’t lay this garbage on children. Period.
SKA says
It all ties together with the transgendering abomination. Once enough permanently sterilized and mutilated young people become suicidal at that time the State will be right there ready to induct them into “merciful murder.”
The bottom line is that the hateful demonic powers behind their earthly pawns have a visceral hatred for all human beings and want to see as many of us killed as possible.
somehistory says
SKA
Absolutely!
Wellington says
In complete agreement, Rarely. It’s another example of child abuse.
gravenimage says
Agreed, Rarely.
And SKA, you are right–there are more not-ill younger people also opting for state-sponsored suicide. *Deeply* disturbing.
Keith O says
I have seen this up close and personally.
Both my parents went due to cancer, as has several friends and I can state without a shadow of a doubt that if I end up with a terminal illness like that, there is no way that I want to suffer the way they did.
When you have to watch your own mother in agony for months on end, there is nothing sacred or beautiful about that, it is NOT living.
If anything, forcing a human to suffer through pain and humiliation because of social norms is barbaric and cruelty of the worst kind.
Lets see all these fools bleating about the sanctity of life change their attitude when they are on the receiving end of terminal cancer.
gravenimage says
Keith, I agree with you re painful terminal illness, that patients should have a way out if they decide to. And I am very sorry about your parents.
But that is *not* what this book is pushing. Grandma is not ill, nor is she in any kind of pain.
Infidel says
I agree w/ you on this. As Gravenimage notes above, this book goes way beyond that and advocates putting down the elderly, whatever their condition
My dad passed away last year after multiple organ failures, and my aunt did shortly after after a long period of acute pain. When they did, I was relieved for them, since they no longer had to suffer. One can both mourn their passing and celebrate their lives, w/o wishing on them an extended suffering that serves no purpose
Fitna says
Thanks for that post Keith and sorry for your loss. This is a bit topic like abortion and I know I’ll barely scratch the surface here, but I’ll just drop a few points.
Firstly some people have warped the message to imply the elderly are being murdered and ofc euthanasia is entirely a voluntary choice with plenty of safe-guards to ensure people aren’t forced into it against their will.
‘Sanctity of life” is an absolutely meaningless phrase people use when they oppose people deciding for themselves when they choose to end their lives.
We put down our sick and elderly pets without a thought, because we know they’ve reached the end of their life and we wish for them not to suffer.
Oddly the anti-euthanasia crowd don’t feel that humans should be spared from an extremely painful terrible death. Because some goat-herder from 2000 yrs ago said “life is precious” they take that to mean it can never be ended except by natural means, when you’re gasping for every breath for months until you expire.
Euthanasia, contrary to the hysterics we see from the opponents in fact is humane and allows for a safe, fast, peaceful, painless and dignified death.
Think of all the ways that suicidal people use to kill themselves and often end up botching it, badly mangled, because they took bad medication, jumped from a building or bridge, used guns/knives, etc. all being a burden on the healthcare system as well.
Nobody has asked to be born, it was a decision forced on us by others. There is no obligation to live for anyone else. So people have a right to die any time they wish for any reason.
The whole point of being in a democracy and being able to choose means that you have the freedom to take the euthanasia route or not. Nobody has any business telling anyone else they can’t end their own life because of their morals or beliefs.
If you had a car accident and are barely kept alive by machines, who is anyone to tell you that you must keep suffering indefinitely? It’s asinine and ludicrous.
I know of my father’s friend who was in the exact situation, he was entirely paralyzed, but his wife kept him alive for 10 yrs in order to claim his pension…she was elderly so I can understand, but still it’s pretty sickening to be motionless and conscious, staring at a ceiling for years, unable to talk, think, move, speak. That’s a living hell, it shouldn’t be allowed.
In the 21st century we now have the means to provide people with good medical care when they get ill but also a good death when we’re too old or sick to keep living.
Regarding the Hippocratic Oath of ‘Do no harm’ well letting a person live in agony is doing them harm. Opponents of euthanasia don’t seem to understand that bodies break down, that we experience pain and suffering.
Morality is based on compassion and avoiding causing harm and suffering to others. If it’s not based on that, this it is not morality.
In some religions, morality is twisted to mean anything. Muslims say ‘Allah is merciful’ while they slaughter innocents. In the past some Christians felt that owning slaves was moral and just.
Some people don’t want to believe other people suffer, have bad lives or simply decide they don’t want to live anymore. What is it their business if someone chooses to end one’s life? We all will die one day, some decide to do it sooner.
Lastly (though I could write a book on this), quality of life…if you are fully paralyzed what’s the point of living an extra 10 days or 10 years when the quality of life is gone?
For me if I lost my sight, I wouldn’t want to live, because my livelihood is based on seeing and using all my senses. Once that’s gone, then life has lost its value for me. No one else can expect me to live to make them feel better.
To choose to live or die is a personal choice and thank goodness we have the medical science now to make death an easy and quick experience, rather than relying on unreliable methods that can leave you worse off than before.
Everyone should support universal euthanasia for all at any time and for any reason.
Heck if you want to die in extreme pain over a 10 year period, so be it. Hit me with the Nembutal so I fall asleep and never wake up after 5 mins. Just don’t tell me I can’t choose my own way and I have to suffer like you (to the anti-euthanasia crowd).
Adaptively Emergent says
I agree with you Fitna for the most part. I helped and worked with “Dying With Dignity” to help legalize MAiD. I saw my father and other family members suffer horribly during the last part of their lives. It was extremely traumatic and it still haunts me today. Being able to use mental illness as a reason to get MAiD will not be allowed until March of next year. It is currently not allowed despite the claim in this article. I do have concerns over this aspect however. Mental illness can bring about a very strong feeling to want to end one’s life as a consequence of the pathology of the illness itself rather than a through a balanced and clear consideration of the actual situation. There need to be very strong safeguards and conditions before even considering something like this. It should be a requirement that all current treatment options are exhausted including the use of low dose Lithium Oratate with therapy which is the only proven substance to both reduce or eliminate biologically induced suicidal ideation and feelings and prevent actual attempts at suicide. If it is determined that the individual is in fact a rare case of someone who is completely treatment resistant and suffering horribly from the effects of their intractable mental illness, only then should it even be considered. There must be a clear long term medical history making this case.
Fitna says
Thanks AD, glad we mostly agree, but why do you wish to prolong the suffering of mentally ill patients?
I understand in some causes their mental illness might be caused by their life situation and perhaps with some therapy they might live a normal health and productive life, but nobody can really determine with any certainty that will happen.
Often times therapy and drugs are useless and in some cases they have a chemical imbalance or brain disorder that cannot be fixed.
It seems some people place a ridiculously high and unrealistic value on life as if its the greatest good in the world, where the measure should be a person’s suffering and happiness that should decide if they should have access to euthanasia.
At the end of the day we can never fix people’s lives, only they can do it themselves and only they know if it can be fixed or not. I’d rather err on the side of giving the patient the benefit of the doubt and knowing what is best for them.
Sometimes, after a person has walked the Earth for 20 years or so, they know they’ve tried every avenue to get better but they can’t. Suicide, ending one’s life is sometimes the only right answer to end the misery and suffering one is experiencing.
No one can decide that for another person. Except in the case of severely retarded individuals, I think the family should have that right. This is why abortion is necessary. There’s plenty of stories of people destroying their own lives in order to look after these people who are in a physical and/or mental vegetative state.
The problem is that euthanasia is already far too restrictive with no sensible reason expect to please religion loons who think they know better than us because they think they’re following the will of an imaginary sky daddy.
Adaptively Emergent says
Hi Fitna, I definitely don’t want to prolong anyone’s unecessary suffering. The reason I express caution with respect to mental illness and MAiD is due to my own experience as someone who has suffered greatly from it in the past and others around me who do as well. I tried many medications to no avail. I was ready to end my life and if MAiD was available then, without proper safeguards, I wouldn’t be here today enjoying my life as I currently am. For me, Lithium Oratate made all the difference in eliminating all my horrible symptoms without any side effects unlike the Lithium Carbonate that I was initially on. If I had taken my life I would’ve caused a lot of pain and suffering for those who love and care for me. I don’t want those around me and others in this situation to take that root unless it is absolutely necessary. This is why I am more cautious with respect to the application of MAiD in those suffering from mental illness. I speak from experience and advise caution going forward in this regard so as not to inadvertently reduce the overall well-being of our society by being careless in this situation.
Fitna says
AD I’m glad that after much suffering, trial and error, you found the right drug to control your mental illness and presumably you’re living a fuller, happier life.
But what you call “safeguards” I call ‘roadblocks.’ Your faulty assumption here is that people don’t know what is best for themselves and if they dig around, eventually they’ll find an answer (as you have) that’ll magically cure their life.
What you’re not understanding is that sometimes people simply no longer want to live, they don’t care if there is a medicine that will make them feel better, because it won’t fix their life, or the ‘existential angst’ they’re suffering.
It’s myopic and egocentric to assume that you know what’s best for others and if only they follow your path, they too will find happiness and peace at the end of that long dark tunnel.
What I’m saying is that euthanasia should be freely available to anyone, at any time and for any reason. There are people who are fine, who have no mental illness and have lived a good life, but they’ve decided they’ve had enough and want to end their life.
It’s not up to you or anyone else to start pestering them as to why they don’t wish to live and to find a million different ways to keep them breathing and “happy” against their will.
But that’s the beauty about having a choice, it’s that nobody is forced to do anything they don’t want to do. If living is what you prefer even if you’re suffering, nobody is stopping you. If however someone else chooses they don’t wish to live, then that’s their prerogative, nobody should be stopping them.
What I don’t understand is the anxiety people feel and the need they have to stop some total stranger from ending their own life. You haven’t been in their shoes, you know nothing about them, so who is anyone to tell them they must keep living against their will?
That is cruelty, that is causing suffering and needless pain to others. That is what the anti-euthanasia or so-called ‘pro-life’ crowd is doing to people who have decided they had enough of living.
On this topic you’re one of the very few people on this page that seems to understand the need for MAiD, but you’re really not thinking things through to their logical end.
As for living for friends/family-yes it will cause others to suffer, but every person living today will eventually be gone, along with all our friends/relatives, etc. We cannot live for anyone else but ourselves.
Now on a personal note, I’ve had a tough life and there were times if maid was available I might’ve seriously considered that option. However because I was around I helped a few family members close to me, who could’ve ended up far worse off had I not been around to save them.
Which would add credence to your argument. However, they could’ve opted for maid as well to end a bad life they were experiencing. Fortunately everyone is doing a lot better now, but perhaps at the time that was the right choice.
Before maid people were (and still are) relying on other less assured methods, like nitrogen euthanasia. Some people have kept a nitrogen or helium tank at the ready, in case their health suddenly deteriorated or their life fell apart.
They felt comfort in knowing that they can always “push that button” and self-terminate any time they wanted, so in fact they were just fine to keep living for as long as they could.
It’s not an easy decision to want to end one’s life…people don’t just suddenly wake up one day and decide they had enough of living.
In most cases they’ve thought about it for many years and realized they wish to die on their own terms, rather than let “nature” take its course, which usually means a horrible end.
The last thing I’d want is for myself (or family members) is to go senile, lose my mental and physical faculties, end up in a mental institution or become bed-ridden, trapped in a horrible existence and die a slow painful death.
So I will certain opt for maid once I feel the quality of my life has diminished greatly and it is no longer worth living and I’m very glad after much hard work thanks to heroes who’ve come before me, that have made this option available and easier to obtain than before.
If we want to be a compassionate society, then we must allow people to end their lives at a time of their choosing and not give in to the mob of inane and insane bullies who think they know better and think suicide is offending their god whoever she is.
gravenimage says
Fitna–with all respect–do you believe that someone who just cannot go snorkeling in a wetsuit should be put down? Because that is what this children’s book is saying.
Then, saying that people with mental illness must be taken out by the state is quite chilling. You do know what states decided this was acceptable, don’t you?
Fitna says
“Fitna–with all respect–do you believe that someone who just cannot go snorkeling in a wetsuit should be put down? Because that is what this children’s book is saying.”
Hi Graven, with respect also, ofc not and I’m sure that’s not what the author intended either, or I doubt the book would be published. It is very likely a misrepresentation of the position of euthanasia that it is an individual’s choice.
Then, saying that people with mental illness must be taken out by the state is quite chilling. You do know what states decided this was acceptable, don’t you?
Have you read the book, is that what it actually says that the state must terminate the mentally ill? I have my doubts.
I’m sure we’re also differentiating between people who have mental illnesses but can function normally (more or less) and those who are mentally and/or physically handicapped who have absolutely no way of surviving without the help of the state or family.
Imagine a worst case scenario where people have babies that are mentally or physically handicapped and the parents give them up for adoption or to the state. Now imagine that the state goes bankrupt, whose responsibility do those handicapped kids become?
Additionally isn’t a tiny amount of suffering better than a whole lifetime (80 plus years)?
My position is to allow euthanasia freely to anyone for the asking. It is a choice, nobody is forced to end their lives, that is an option made available if they want it.
However for parents who end up with a mentally or physically handicapped baby, then imo it’s the family’s and state’s decision to terminate that fetus or euthanize them because they will become either a burden to the family or the state.
I know of a family friend who told me of relatives that had a handicapped child and they had to do everything for them, into adulthood and it utterly ruined their bodies looking after him.
The Nazis also gave advanced technology like jet engines and rocketry, should we give up technology because the Nazis happened to use it also?
Hitler was creating a state of ‘supermen’ (ubermensch) so he wanted to eliminate the untermensch, the undesirables. That is obviously not what MAiD supporters are advocating for.
So if nobody wants to or cannot afford to look after the mentally/physically handicapped then what do you propose is done with them?
It’s very easy for arm-chair philosophers to pass judgment on those who advocate for euthanasia, because they’re not the ones cleaning up after people in vegetative states, feeding, changing, bathing and clothing them and dealing with all their problems from zero to old age.
Those who understand how the real world works, realize that people who are mentally and physically handicapped are a burden to society and themselves and better off not existing or having been born.
Again I differential them from people who have mental illnesses, because the vast majority of them are generally autonomous and can make independent decisions.
Once people become old and senile and are completely unable to take care of themselves then euthanasia is a mercy but that would be their family’s decision.
Fitna says
corrections:
-him (not them)
-differentiate
-regarding last sentence: or they would have expressed their desire to be euthanized in their will, should they lose their mental faculties and the ability to give consent (through senility for instance).
gravenimage says
Hi Fitna. You wrote:
“Fitna–with all respect–do you believe that someone who just cannot go snorkeling in a wetsuit should be put down? Because that is what this children’s book is saying.”
Hi Graven, with respect also, ofc not and I’m sure that’s not what the author intended either, or I doubt the book would be published.
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Fitna, that is the only ‘disability’ Flippa is listed as having in the article above, and in other articles that are quite positive about the book.
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Then, saying that people with mental illness must be taken out by the state is quite chilling. You do know what states decided this was acceptable, don’t you?
Have you read the book, is that what it actually says that the state must terminate the mentally ill? I have my doubts.
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This book does not touch on mental illness that I know of, nor did I ever say that it did.
But further changes in the Canadian euthanasia law certainly do:
“Canada will soon offer doctor-assisted death to the mentally ill. Who should be eligible?”
https://nationalpost.com/health/canada-mental-illness-maid-medical-aid-in-dying
“In March 2021, Bill C-7 was passed that made changes to the eligibility criteria. Gone is the “reasonably foreseeable” criterion and, as of March 17, 2023, when a two-year sunset clause expires, MAID will be expanded to competent adults whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness.”
No indication of how these are deemed competent adults if their only reason for wanting to die is that they are so mentally ill that it has rendered them incapable of wanting to live.
And this should not surprise–this is the same sort of thing that has happened in the Netherlands–first the law was just used by the terminally ill and in pain, then by older people concerned about becoming a burden, then by unhappy younger people, and now the mentally ill–a slippery slope.
And this in Canada has happened in just a few short years–just since 2015.
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I’m sure we’re also differentiating between people who have mental illnesses but can function normally (more or less) and those who are mentally and/or physically handicapped who have absolutely no way of surviving without the help of the state or family.
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Which of these groups do you believe should be euthanized? I’m unclear on this.
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Imagine a worst case scenario where people have babies that are mentally or physically handicapped and the parents give them up for adoption or to the state. Now imagine that the state goes bankrupt, whose responsibility do those handicapped kids become?
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Are you saying then that any handicapped child should be killed by the state if they misspend enough tax money? Now *that* is disturbing.
Even during periods where there was much less tax money the state seldom murdered those dependent on the state.
And polities that *have* done this, like Nazi Germany and some Communist countries, have seldom done this on a purely financial basis. This is more generally ideological.
Asking private charities to step up would be better than the state taking out whomever it deems worthy of death.
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Additionally isn’t a tiny amount of suffering better than a whole lifetime (80 plus years)?
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And the state gets to decide this? *Deeply* disturbing.
In the past such matters as being homosexual or unmarried women having sexual yearnings have been deemed mentally ill in the past. Do we want to see people killed for this?
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My position is to allow euthanasia freely to anyone for the asking. It is a choice, nobody is forced to end their lives, that is an option made available if they want it.
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People can certainly be coerced into doing so.
Then, there are people who go through periods where they feel suicidal–after a loss or personal crisis, say–and if they know that this is allowed and even encouraged by the state, they are far more apt to take it up.
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However for parents who end up with a mentally or physically handicapped baby, then imo it’s the family’s and state’s decision to terminate that fetus or euthanize them because they will become either a burden to the family or the state.
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*Oh my God*–you believe that the state has the right to take out infants because they may become a burden to the state?
And you believe that parents have the right to kill children they consider inconvenient?
They have the right to give up custody, but *not* the right to murder their children.
Fitna, you may not realize it, but this is *just horrifying*.
Also, I have worked with the severely handicapped, and they were often able to live fulfilling lives. That the state might have considered them too handicapped to live is deeply disturbing.
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The Nazis also gave advanced technology like jet engines and rocketry, should we give up technology because the Nazis happened to use it also?
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Most people–*including most Germans*–were actually horrified by the Nazi state murdering people, including disabled war veterans. Is this *really* something you want to embrace?
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Hitler was creating a state of ‘supermen’ (ubermensch) so he wanted to eliminate the untermensch, the undesirables. That is obviously not what MAiD supporters are advocating for.
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Actually, if they deem both mentally and physically handicapped people to be killable by the state, this is exactly what they are advocating.
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So if nobody wants to or cannot afford to look after the mentally/physically handicapped then what do you propose is done with them?
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They are not being murdered by the state now. How ’bout we continue that policy?
More:
It’s very easy for arm-chair philosophers to pass judgment on those who advocate for euthanasia, because they’re not the ones cleaning up after people in vegetative states, feeding, changing, bathing and clothing them and dealing with all their problems from zero to old age.
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I worked as an attendant for the handicapped for years when I was in high school and college. Do I wish that these people had been murdered by the state? I *do not*.
Moreover, one of my clients was quadriplegic and needed help with basic physical functions, but was also co-head of the Center for Independent Living.
More:
Those who understand how the real world works, realize that people who are mentally and physically handicapped are a burden to society and themselves and better off not existing or having been born.
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I know a lot of both mentally and physically handicapped people who are loved and often revered by their peers and loved ones.
Believing that anyone who is deemed handicapped is better off never having been born is *very disturbing*. Implying that wanting to murder the vulnerable represents the “real world” is *quite false*.
Moreover, we are actually better equipped financially, medically, and logistically than ever before to take care of disabled people.
Then, there is the contributions that they make.
Should Stephen Hawking have been taken out? Helen Keller? John Nash? FDR?
Adaptively Emergent says
I want to be clear when I say that I tried many different medications with various side effects, that most of them were ineffective. Lithium Carbonate used to be the gold standard medication, the first line medication to try and the ONLY medication that has been proven to prevent suicide. It has now been replaced with more profitable but less effective medication that have horrible short and long-term side effects. Lithium Carbonate has side effects that can be completely mitigated using Lithium Orotate. The problem is that no large scale studies have been done on this version of lithium simply because there is no profit in it since it is not patentable. Because of this there is no incentive in the private sector to front the money for its approval, it comes down to the public sector to get it done so that it can officially be prescribed. Lithium Carbonate was prescribed for me as a last resort other than ECT, rTMS and other exotic therapies such as ketamine etc, when it should have been the first option. After over a decade of trying many other toxic medications I finally got relief from my symptoms using Lithium Carbonate albeit with weight gain and the long term risk of kidney damage and thyroid issues. I realized that these side effects can be completely avoided using Lithium Orotate and I testify that it works at a much lower, safer dose while maintaining all the benefits due to its ability to bioaccumulate in the brain. It is as though I never had a mental illness. If this is ever officially approved, there is no excuse in it not being the gold standard treatment for many mental illnesses. I simply want others who suffer from mental illness to have the same chance and opportunity to be well as I had and avoid going down the route of getting MAiD unless it is absolutely necessary.
gravenimage says
Adaptively Emergent, I hope you find medication that works for you. In the meantime, I’m glad that the state has not decided that you cannot continue to live.
gravenimage says
Canada: new kids book teaches it’s ok to kill grandma
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Well, *this* is disturbing.
“Flippa”–grandma–isn’t terminally ill and in pain; she’s not even dependent on her family to take care of her–she just can’t swim in the ocean–in a wetsuit!–any more.
Sorry, Flippa–you need to take yourself out.
In the cover illustration here she looks pretty hale and hearty–she’s wading with her grandchild in the surf. She also seems fine cognitively–save perhaps for letting herself be pressured into letting the state kill her.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/58837357-last-week
This is utterly sickening–that this is aimed at *indoctrinating children* that their grandparents are disposable is particularly appalling.
This kid looks pretty young–but it’s still more important to kill grandma than it is to let her survive and be with her grandchild.
Author Bill Richardson’s partner Bill Pechet’s mother also died by state assisted suicide–sounds like she was pretty healthy, too–just old.
And there’s an afterword in the book from the same physician who presided over his ‘mother-in-law’s’ death.
This is essentially propaganda for assisted suicide. *Very troubling*.
This, from an interview with Richardson:
“As for being comfortable with the discussion of MAID, well, when anyone asks me about this book and I describe its reasons, they know someone, or know of someone, who has benefited — I used the word advisedly — from a medically assisted death. It’s become absolutely commonplace.
Within my own extended family there have been two assisted deaths in the last couple of months…”
https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2022/04/05/One-Last-Week-Live/
I hope not. I’m over 60, and I don’t know anyone who has done this. If this is becoming commonplace in Canada, this is a huge moral problem. I very much doubt all of those people “benefitting” from assisted suicide were terminally ill and in pain.
For himself, he says “At 66, I’m properly of an age to die and no one can say too soon…”.
Screw that. In fact, the average life expectancy for men in Canada is almost 80, and many men live longer. Also, life expectancy there and in most of the West goes up every year. Maybe that will all change with the state disposing of healthy old people. Appalling.
Infidel says
Actually, in the US, over the last 10 years, life expectancy has been going down due to the high rate of fentanyl deaths and other opioid overdose deaths. Also, the life expectancy of women tends to exceed that of men
gravenimage says
Infidel, life expectancy of the aged is rising. I don’t think granny here was a fentanyl addict.
gravenimage says
More on assisted suicide in Canada:
“On 17 March 2021, when Bill C-7 received Royal Assent, the law no longer requires a person’s natural death to be reasonably foreseeable to access medical assistance in dying (MAID). Furthermore, the bill now states that only one independent witness is required for formal requests to receive MAID.”
By the way, many physicians in Canada had ethical issues with this:
“A 2015 survey indicated that 29% of Canadian doctors surveyed would consider providing MAID while 63% would refuse.”
The above is from Wikipedia.
“The number of Canadians receiving MAID has increased annually since its introduction”
“Based on the available data, the number of medically assisted deaths in Canada has been increasing steadily since the legislation was introduced. In 2017, 2,838 medically assisted deaths were reported by Health Canada, compared with 4,478 deaths in 2018. In 2019, there were 5,425 medically assisted deaths in Canada, accounting for 1.9% of all deaths. In 2020, this increased to 7,383 deaths (2.4% of all deaths in Canada), representing a 36.0% increase in the number of MAID recipients from 2019 to 2020.”
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220110/dq220110d-eng.htm
Now, I’m sure some of this growth is from more people learning about the availability of MAID. But how much is due to increased pressure from others?
In about 2/3 of these cases, the patients had cancer. Not sure re the others how many were sick at all.
Oh, Bill C-7 passed last year was passed which allows euthanasia for people whose deaths are not “reasonably foreseeable,” including those with mental illness. So much for rational informed consent…
somehistory says
“Flippa is no longer able to swim in the ocean or do the things she loves. ‘
So, because grandma can’t enjoy the ocean any longer, she must die…even though she *loves* her family and they love her. Love is the most important thing one can share with others, but to this idiot who wrote the book to sell murder to little kids, the ocean swim is so much more.
This creature…and all like him,,,,are evil creatures.
I have written here before about working a lot of different jobs and kinds of jobs. For a long time, I was working through temp agencies…work is flexible and not so grinding a doing the same thing week after week.
One of the jobs I had was with a company that operated hospices…sending nurses and doctors out to take care of the terminally ill until they died. To be put in a hospice, the doc would have to certify that the patient had six months are less to live. If the patient lived longer than six months, the doc would just do the paperwork again.
Every day, I had to read the medical reports the nurses wrote after seeing the patient. One thing they would say they did was talk to the patient about dying. They would write that they said things like, “….you must think about dying. You have to get ready to die.” and they would write that …”cried” and said, “i don’t want to die, and I don’t want to get ready and I don’t want to think about dying.”
and the nurse would write about what she said to the family members who would visit while she was there…and telling them they had to help her convince the patient to get ready, etc.
I went home each day with a horrible headache from crying silent tears and trying to hold them back so I could see to type.
For this creep to try to make dying by the hands of another when that loved one is not even ill…is demonic.
these same kinds of creatures are the ones who say that putting the needle in the arm of a convicted murderer is “cruel and unusual” and inhumane.
My little granddaughter asked me a few months ago, “are you going to die?” My son said they had been talking about a singer…..they listen to music a lot…who had died at an old age and my little sweetie thinks I’m old. She thinks her parents are old, too. I told her,”no, I’m not,” and she was happy with that.
These poor kids in Canada…and spreading elsewhere if the demons behind it are successful…don’t stand a chance of feeling normal emotions. they’ll grow up thinking murder is just another chore on a long list.
A long time ago, there was a joke.
A little boy watched his father make his grandfather eat out of a pig trough. It was a big black thing in the back yard.
One day, the little boy asked his father, “Daddy, what color do you like?” and the father answered,
“I don’t know, son. Why do you ask?”
“Well, grandpa says his favorite color is black, and I just wondered what color you like.”
gravenimage says
Very disturbing stuff about hospice, Somehistory. I was shocked.
My experience with hospice has been pretty positive, for both my mother and father. But in both cases they were pretty near death when hospice came in, and they just largely served to take some of the pressure off relatives and other caregivers and let them die at home. I never heard of them pushing either the patient or family to focus on death. This is appalling.
somehistory says
I was shocked and upset and stayed that way the entire time I worked there. The name of the company actually means something about “life” but all of the focus was on death and dying.
I have learned over the years that love and hope and keeping positive about things can actually keep a person going when they might not without those. There was one case where a guy was dying and nothing seemed to be making him better; the doctors tried everything, but he kept declining. Until one day, a nurse was assigned to him and something clicked between them and some time later, he went home from the hospital.
there has to be a reason for people to want to live; take that away and they might just fade away. On the other hand, it is not normal to want to die. It just isn’t.
My mother was in terrible pain the last few weeks of her life. The doc could have operated and relieved it, but he told my brother that it would just be temporary and that it would be better if he just kept her sedated until it was over; so he gave her morphine until she died, while my brother sat with her and sang songs to her…and mainly it was because my sisters were just too tired of taking care of her and listening to her…she had gone blind and needed daily help. They had all refused to allow me a part, so I had no say in their decisions. All of my older brothers who would have stopped that, had all died.
I found out recently what the doc should have known about what she needed to resolve the problem that was causing the pain and would recur with surgery. It’s a simple thing and it angers me that he did not even consider it. My mom said she was tired, but she didn’t really want to die.
This book presents something that is superficial…no matter how much the woman may enjoy the swim, as a reason for living and when that’s gone, the reason to live is gone.
it was not more important than her family and the little kid that could learn a lot about life from her. As well as experiencing her love as long as she was around. Making even more memories for him later on.
The entire thing about killing off old people or even disabled young people is like the movie Solent Green. It’s depraved and demonic. but so much that is going on is depraved and demonic.
gravenimage says
So sorry about your mother, Somehistory.
Agree on all points–this is one of the most disturbing things going on in the West, and I fear it is apt to get worse.