Battin Assisted Suicide Report Demonstrates the Vapidity of "Scientific Studies"
The "scientific study" has become the modern-day equivalent to Biblical scripture: They can be made to support whatever result the "studier" desires.
Case in point: A just released study by Margarette P. Battin of the University of Utah, claiming that there is no assisted suicide "slippery slope." Unmentioned (of course) in the stories about the study (such as this one on Scientific American.com) is that Battin has been an ardent euthanasia and assisted suicide legalization activist for more than 25 years, a woman so committed to the cause that she has long supported permitting assisted suicide for categories of people way beyond the terminally ill. Indeed, as reported in Rita Marker's seminal book Deadly Compassion, Battin was published in the Hemlock Quarterly all the way back in 1982 promoting what has since come to be called "rational suicide."
In 1985, she spoke at the Hemlock Society annual conference, where in addition to promoting assisted suicide and euthanasia, she suggested such deaths would be a splendid way to save money. From Marker's account (page 150):Those least capable of withstanding the pressure to request euthanasia or commit suicide would be people who have been the least self-determining throughout their lives, Battin suggested. She noted that particularly vulnerable would be a woman who has lived for her family and has always been concerned about the needs and comfort of others. There will be an interest in avoiding the burdens of care and large bills," she pointed out. "We may wish to comply with this interest."
This advocacy has continued steadily for more than 25 years. As I noted in Forced Exit: Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide, and the New Duty to Die (page190), Battin even supports the so-called "duty to die." I wrote :Other bioethicists have also weighed in on establishing a duty to die. University of Utah philosopher Margaret P. Battin, for example, has argued that global egalitarianism may one day require people in richer countries to forgo expensive life-sustaining treatment or even commit suicide to promote "the interests of justice in health care," which would be "reflected in more nearly equal health prospects and life expectancies around the globe. Not surprisingly, Battins is an enthusiast for legalizing euthanasia.
Besides her clear bias, Battin's so-called study acknowledges that elderly, disabled, and other non terminally ill people are indeed being euthanized in the Netherlands, including killings of patients who did not ask to be euthanized. If that isn't the slippery slope, what is?
Labels: Margaret P. Battin. Euthanasia.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 8:51 AM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
It isn't a slippery slope: It's the crash at the bottom. We finished the slope a long time ago.
Not yet. We are still fighting the good fight and holding the assisted suicide agenda mostly at bay. But it's a very iffy thing.
I'd say we're still holding our own - my psychologist had me sign a notice that said that he had a moral obligation (his words) to do everything in his power to assist in my recovery from mental illness and to do nothing to jepordize my mental and physical health and well-being, meaning that he would offer no counsel that would include pro-suicide counseling, among other things. The fact that all the doctors in the clinic I attend have similar forms that you have to sign before seeing them suggests that there's still a majority who think that life outweighs death. But that doesn't mean we quit while we're ahead.
Agreed. The "rational suicide" folks remain a minority as do advocates for a duty to die. But they keep working and I sense some among the mental health community and in hospice who would rather not struggle but accommodate in the name of comity and tolerance of diversity. That is a prescription for capitulation.
"Besides her clear bias, Battin's so-called study acknowledges that elderly, disabled, and other non terminally ill people are indeed being euthanized in the Netherlands, including killings of patients who did not ask to be euthanized. If that isn't the slippery slope, what is?"
I find this disgusting. I am pro-life like Aubrey de Grey; I respect the right that people should live as long as they wish to so one should acquire permission before initiating euthanasia.
See this:
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/HETHR_bios/degrey/
HKR: I saw deGrey speak at a transumanism conference in which he literally said that money going to help care medically for poor Africans would be better spent on his research, and indeed, that to not invest that money was as much terrorism as blowing up a car. See my The Catman Cometh in the Weekly Standard.
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