Arrested Final Exit Network Activist Part of Assisted Suicide Establishment
In the wake of the arrests of four assisted suicide activists from the Final Exit Network, I believe an effort will be made to cast them as fringe characters within the movement.
Don't believe it. One of the four is Ted Goodwin, who is the head of the FEN. Goodwin has been a stalwart in the movement for many years, to the point that in 2008 he was elected vice president of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, the international umbrella organization to which most euthanasia/assisted suicide organizations belong. That means, unless he resigns in the meantime, he is next in line to be elevated to the chair of president in 2010. (Goodwin resigned as head of FEN. In an earlier version of this post, since corrected, I erroneously stated he resigned as VP of the WFRTDS.)
The World Federation of Right to Die Societies doesn't advocate for restricting assisted suicide to the terminally ill. Its 2006 "Toronto Manifesto" states:
The World Federation of Right to Die Societies (an international non-governmental organization) is aware of the increasing concern to many individuals over their right to die with dignity. Believing in the rights and freedom of all persons, we affirm this right to die with dignity, meaning in peace and without suffering.What constitutes unbearable suffering is whatever the suicidal person decides is unbearable suffering--as Compassion and Choices stated in its Seven Principles--meaning in the context of the Manifesto, it could be just about anything from cancer, to disability, to mental illness, to an elderly person being tired of life.
All competent adults--regardless of their nationalities, professions, religious beliefs, and ethical and political views--who are suffering unbearably from incurable illnesses should have the possibility of various choices at the end of their life. Death is unavoidable. We strongly believe that the manner and time of dying should be left to the decision of the individual, assuming such demands do not result in harm to society other than the sadness associated with death.
The voluntarily expressed will of individuals, once they are fully informed of their diagnosis, prognosis and available means of relief, should be respected by all concerned as an expression of intrinsic human rights.
Along similar lines, in 1998 the WFRDS issued the Zurich Declaration, signed by some medical professionals within the movement--including Philip Nitschke who in another context advocated that troubled teenagers be allowed access to suicide--again illustrating the nearly open ended license that is the end goal of the movement. From the declaration:
We believe that we have a major responsibility for ensuring that it becomes legally possible for all competent adults, suffering severe and enduring distress, to receive medical help to die, if this is their persistent, voluntary and rational request. We note that such medical assistance is already permitted in The Netherlands, Switzerland and Oregon, USA."Severe and enduring distress" is so loose and broad a definition you could drive a hearse through it.
Remember this: The soothing assurances that assisted suicide is merely a last resort choice for the terminally ill only when nothing else can be done to alleviate suffering is demonstrably false. Goodwin's beliefs in this regard are well known, and he never advocated for a terminal illness limitation. Most people on both sides of the issue knew what the FEN was doing and that their dark work was not limited to people who were dying. In other words: He wasn't elected to high leadership in the international euthanasia movement by accident.
Labels: Assisted Suicide. Final Exit Network. Ted Goodwin. World Federation of Right to Die Societies.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 8:47 PM
9 Comments
9 Comments:
Today on a local radio show I heard the host talking about whether it wouldn't be better just to give a terminally ill person a shot than to cause their death by starvation and dehydration; he was focused on the issue incompetely. A woman called in and talked of how humane starvation and dehydration are and he kept asking her is that what you consider
Christian. The last call of the day was from a young woman who said that her mother had been in hospital and the head of the palliative care unit (the "famous" advocate of assisted suicide whom the New York State Attorney General sued successfully) had been helpful. The host asked, isn't palliative care keeping someone comfortable. Well, she went on, saying how difficult the "decision" had been and that she had asked Dr. Quill, "What would you do if it were your mother?" And of course it ended up that, she said, "basically, we gave her a shot," and she said how wonderful it was that Dr. Quill had been right there with them and come into the room every 20 minutes to supervise the dying, and how eternally grateful to him she was. This is how hospitals get people to authorize the euthanization of their loved ones. They have "meetings," "offer support," "help with the difficult decision" -- in other words, let the family members avoid responsibility and having to be there for the patient when the going gets rough. There are enough dummies around so that people end up going through agonizing "humane" deaths of being starved and dehydrated to death on doctors' recommendation, or just "basically given a shot." And they think this is, and speak of it as, a good thing. Another guy had called in and talked of how he had intervene when everyone else had been about to starve and dehydrate someone who had helped to raise him to death, and the person had lived comfortably for three more months and died peacefully. One last comment: The woman in the photo looks positively creepy, and the man looks like a typical type of his type. One can just see them cheering Kevorkian as he displays the flag with the swastika in it. And what are those macabre sunglasses, and what are they for? Do they hate the light that much? Apparently.
I heard about a woman whose father had been in the same hospital, and "palliative care" had been called in, and she had looked forward to their being able to do something for her father, and what happened was that a doctor who by description sounds like Quill came in and merely said to her father, "You're dying, you know." That hospital has residents who have never seen the patient before come in and say, in the patient's hearing of course, to the family member, "S/he may not make it through the night," and when you tell them to stop and take them out into the corridor and tell them not to do that, they say, "The thinking is that they should know," and when you say well why make them overhear it, why didn't you say it to them directly, they go sheepish. And that's hardly the worse of it. Someone said to me today that they couldn't understand why a hospital would want a patient to die, that one would think the hospital would want them to stay alive so that the bill could get larger, at least. I tried to explain to them the "cost" theory but it was just too far out of the realm of what they could possibly imagine. Yet this is what goes on all the time, and people don't find out until it's too late and they are at the "mercy" of the "place of care."
Oh, I forgot, at the end of the radio show, after the young woman had described how "helpful" the "palliative care" department chairman had been in making sure that her mother died by advising her when she asked that if it was his mother he'd let her go (doctors at that hospital are always saying, "if it were my mother," and telling one that their own mothers had said they would not want life support, and the lack of logic there is stunning; one's own mother is not theirs, and is someone else with their own rights and preferences), the host of the show, who opposed dehydration and starvation, said, "God bless you and him." In other words it's not the killing that's bad, just the method, apparently. Even though he had been critical of the hospital in a case where the hospital had had the person's chosen health care proxy and power of attorney pushed aside so that it could pull the plug on the patient. This is what we're up against.
Wow... I read "Your Heart Belongs To Me" by your friend (and my fav author) Dean Koontz. This guy looks like he might have modeled the "good doctor" in his novel...
There is something obscene about living people who look happy and as if they are enjoying life advocating death. It sort of suggests that they enjoy the idea of death -- for others -- too.
He doesn't look like he's missed any meals lately, and she's wearing black, and what's with the sleeve length. I see she doesn't mind jewelry. What a couple. Sorry SHS, I just can't help but observe. Sometimes the outer person does match the inner one. I just can't stand this type and the harm they do to society.
I think I see that there are patterns on her muu-muu dress. I think I see an American flag in there. I wonder if it has Kevorkian's swastika on it. Maybe the sunglasses are for after cataract surgery, but who has their picture taken right after cataract surgery? Looks more like she just likes the dark. I'm sorry, I know this is like analyzing what who wore on the red carpet at the Oscars. Only far different.
Just wanted to add that I read in the BAltimore Sun today about the two guys with ties to here who are being arrested in this GA sting of Final Exit. As far as "characterizing them as fringe elements," the article quotes many, many people saying, "Gosh he is just such a compassionate man. The nicest man...." about both of them.
See? As lanthe is pointing out again, and as is obvious, this is all being cast in the light of compassion. The very best, nicest people are doing it.
Holyterror: Well, you know how when they finally catch a psychopathic serial killer, the neighbors say, "He was such the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet, I never would have imagined it, I can't believe he lived right next door all these years and I never suspected a thing." I've run across, as we all have, lots of people who are real bastards and whose "compassion" gets remarked upon over and over. More than one of them, in fact, was a doctor. It's part of the syndrome of narcissism. Now, why IS that?
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