Germany: The campaign for euthanasia

By Dietmar Henning
12 July 2008

At the end of June, former Hamburg justice senator Roger Kusch assisted in the suicide of 79-year-old pensioner Bettina S. ...He then informed the press and showed video clips...Kusch declared that the reason given by the woman for her planned suicide...was her fear of being admitted to a nursing home. When asked why he had not offered to help...Kusch answered...it would not have been possible...

...how is one to judge the case of elderly citizens who seek their own deaths because they are confronted with intolerable conditions...or because they are subjected to a continuous campaign arguing they are a burden to society? Such problems cannot be solved in a society that accepts the principle of profit-making as its highest good. A system that subjects its elderly and sick citizens to economic hardship, neglect and social isolation... In such cases it is nonsense to speak of any sort of self-determination.

...Kusch has absolutely no interest in such problems. He belongs to a growing category of politicians who vehemently reject any social solutions...Against a background of mounting social polarisation they unconditionally defend the “right” of the individual to amass enormous sums of wealth...And their response to the growing problems of poverty and isolation in old age is the “right to suicide.”

The former British prime minister... Margaret Thatcher once declared: “There’s no such thing as society...The social consequences of this philosophy can be witnessed today in Britain, where social decay has assumed alarming forms.

In this sense, Kusch’s bizarre activities are in line with a specific social trend—suicide as the last demonstration of an individual’s freedom and “self-determination” in the midst of social decay. There could be no more telling indictment of a sick society.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jul2008/euth-j12.shtml

I support the ability for people to choose

I saw her at the beginning of that seven years and she spent much of the visit crying and wishing she could leave. I heard that they were making her eat even though she didn't want to. I am also aware that Scott Nearing starved himself to death when he turn 100. Somebody told me that is a relatively painless way to go.

Now it is not that the staff is cruel or anything, it is because federal regs require it. Nursing homes are more regulated than Nuclear Power.

or the fear of being a burden isn't a choice at all.

as a commodity. The only point that is relevant is human life. Obviously this women choose because like many other fragile people they believe society offers them no other choice. So that argument that they support the person's choice is a short term response to a much more needed choice. Dignity!

:scared:
Can't quite put my finger on why... :think: