A resolution against assisted suicide, coming from the most unlikely of places, has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The sponsor is a Democrat from California. I know it’s hard to believe, since California Democrats have done as much as anybody to drag the country Left, and it’s the Left that’s been actively pushing assisted suicide.
You could be forgiven for thinking assisted suicide is needed to deal with infrequent cases of intractable physical pain. That was the original rationale that got some states sold on the idea, way back when. However, advances in modern pain medicine have wiped that rationale out completely. The resolution points out that fear of pain is almost at the bottom of the reasons people now give when requesting assisted suicide. Losing autonomy and enjoyment in life now rank at the top. So the rationale has loosened and people can now seek government help to kill themselves just because they’re tired of living. Assisted suicide numbers keep increasing in jurisdictions where it is allowed, proving that critics were right to warn we were heading down a slippery slope.
The resolution lays out many reasons to reverse course. First and foremost, the elderly, the disabled, and the depressed are often pressured by family members, financial heirs, and even medical professionals into killing themselves. There are no controls on this in assisted suicide laws. Society has an interest in protecting the vulnerable from coercion and the disabled from negative stereotyping.
Second, assisted suicide is permanent while the desire to end one’s life is often temporary or can be resolved in a different way. There are ways to deal with depression or fears of being a burden on others. Depression is treatable. Also, there have been stories about adult children wanting to care for their elderly parents and feeling their lives would not be complete without that experience.
Third, assisted suicide laws are full of holes, like Swiss cheese. There is no requirement a medical attendant be present in the event of complications, for example. The dirty little secret is that assisted suicide is often a protracted and painful death, sometimes lasting four days. Assisted suicide laws provide very little in the way of mandatory reporting, leaving major questions unanswered about whether it is staying within the bounds of the law. Not only is there lack of transparency about what’s really going on, there is also deliberate subterfuge. Some states require physicians to report the cause of death as the underlying condition, covering up just how many assisted suicides there really are. This is by design. The Left always has to hide what it’s doing and its true agenda, and they’re hiding the ball here.
Finally, medical prognoses are often mistaken. There are countless stories of people living for years who were told by doctors they only had weeks or months to live. How would you like to be cheated out of years of your life because your doctor was wrong and you believed a mistaken prognosis?
The use of federal funds for assisted suicide or advocacy for assisted suicide was prohibited during Bill Clinton’s presidency. The current resolution aims to keep it that way and prevent the federal government from supporting assisted suicide in any way. Also, the resolution points out that assisted suicide, while adopted in a handful of states, has been rejected over 200 times in 30 states since the Left started agitating for it in earnest in 1994.
The resolution does not touch on my main concern about this subject. It’s a very short jump from government-assisted suicide to government-directed death. There is no doubt in my mind the Left wants the power to tell you when to die and assisted suicide laws are just the first step, no matter how warm and fuzzy, or ‘compassionate’, the Left makes them sound. Government-directed death is the true hidden agenda – that’s what’s really going on here. You’ve been had.
