No Refunds
I have no idea why I always seems to find the weird stuff on Friday.
This is basically an update from on those Dutch Deathmobiles.
From Der Spiegel, an introduction to the very helpful Dr. Petra De Jong, director for Netherlands’ Right to Die-NL (NVVE) organization.
These are some of the reasons why de Jong has lobbied so hard to establish a euthanasia clinic. She recalls the case of a 28-year-old woman who had suffered from depression from an early age and had been in therapy for years. The woman asked her psychiatrist for help in ending her life, but he declined. She eventually pulled a plastic bag over her head and suffocated herself.
De Jong says the new clinic has also been created to fulfill the death wishes of individuals who are not terminally ill, as was the case with this woman. Of course, the doctor adds, the euthanasia clinic will evaluate each case on its own particular merits. During her career as a practicing physician, she has personally terminated the lives of 16 patients, adding that it has always been a difficult decision.
Assisted suicide that does not fall within euthanasia guidelines is still illegal in the Netherlands, but never fear, De Jong is on the case to change that!
The NVVE intends to continue fighting for the legalization of assisted suicide in the Netherlands. Thousands of people call the association’s office every year because they want to die and are looking for advice. NVVE staff members don’t try to talk any of them out of killing themselves. “It’s not our job,” de Jong says. “It would be paternalistic.”
Instead, the callers are provided with information on how to ensure that their suicide attempts succeed. Association members receive a password that allows them to access a list of death-inducing drugs on the NVVE website. However, these deadly substances are only available over-the-counter in other countries, such as neighboring Belgium.
I agree very much with the saying “Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” I bet we all do. Most of the time despair does actually fade if you wait it out, or when you find out that the despair is actually a side-effect or symptom of a treatable physical condition. That’s been my experience, anyway.
There are cases when I think euthanasia is a kindness. I don’t know if I trust it not to be abused if it is legalized. Regardless, I definitely think assisted suicide outside the parameters of euthanasia is sociopathic.
The Crawdad Hole 
Saw this on johnwsmart as a comment (I haven’t clicked the huffpoop link)
Does this strike anyone else as an extremely self-centered comment?
Not sure I understand why Obama had to make a comment ? Children are shot everyday in this country for numerous reasons which is just as much a tragedy as this boy’s death.
When I saw Sharpton and the mom grandstanding for the cameras, I’m just not sure what to make of it. The shooter’s hispanic, but the initial reports stated he was white because his name was George Zimmerman (“that’s a white name” ! ). The guy’s probably a nutjob, but he should have been held, that’s what I don’t understand either. But in Obama World, everybody’s guilty until proven innocent 😦 That’s what we have trials for.
Not for Obama.
yes,
It’s my understanding that Oregon does not allow euthanasia for depressed patients. That’s seems a very wise rule to me.
Otoh, if I were suffering from MS, ALS, terminal cancer or the like, I would very much appreciate the right to have a doctor administer a drug cocktail and allow me to go peacefully.
GOP tweeters having fun with the #ILikeObamacare tag.
twitchy quotes ’em so I don’t have to
http://twitchy.com/2012/03/23/conservatives-take-over-ilikeobamacare/
I don’t think it’s necessarily sociopathic. Some people suffer from what might be considered terminal mental health issues. They may choose to suicide anyway, despite intervention, and they ought to have a safe place to do it that doesn’t leave the mess for their families to clean up.
Right now we tell people who have, for example, Type A bipolar with schizoid tendnancies to either just “live with it,” or “be compliant,” regardless of their life circumstances. That IS paternalistic, and it’s also cruel. The whole way we think about mental health is idiotic, and for the same reason so much of our culture is idiotic: the dominence of MEN in positions of power within each field. The world will only get better when more than one point fo view is recognized.
Incurable pain with no end in sight? Sounds like an argument for euthanasia.
The biggest problem with euthanasia of mentally ill people of course is the issue of whether they can actually fully consent to it. There is always the danger with euthanasia that we are killing someone not to end their pain but to end our own discomfort in witnessing the suffering, as well as to end the burden on the caregiver.
But what De Jong is lobbying for is basically a suicide helpline: Call if you feel like killing yourself and we’ll tell you how, no questions asked! I have a real problem with that.
Going back to the issue of pain — I wanted to touch on this but I didn’t have time for a long post. Lately I have been feeling more and more than culturally we are turning into a pain-phobic society.
It’s like we are so afraid of the possibility of pain that we go through all these contortions to avoid it and end up worse off than if we had just faced the pain and gotten it over with.
Twitter buzz is that Santorum just completely melted down and lost his shit on Cavuto’s show. I didn’t see it, but it’s being talked about as “epic meltdown”.
Stick a fork in him, he’s done.
Sarah greets Obama on the anniversary of his greatest accomplishment. LOL
http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin?sk=wall&filter=2