Euthanasia isn\u2019t really about compassion but fear of decline and a loathing of dependency \u2014 and of those experiencing them.<\/p>\n
That nasty truth has become abundantly clear with a new column published in the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0of London in which former Tory MP Matthew Parris argues that euthanasia\/assisted suicide should not only be permitted \u2014 but encouraged. In \u201cWe Can\u2019t Afford a Taboo on Assisted Dying,<\/a>\u201d he writes (my emphasis):<\/p>\n I can\u2019t dispute the objectors\u2019 belief that\u00a0once assisted dying becomes normalized<\/em>\u00a0we will become more apt to ask yourselves for\u00a0how much longer we can justify the struggle<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The word \u201cjustify\u201d is telling. It does not only concern the suffering of the person who is ill, disabled, or elderly but the suffering that person is supposedly\u00a0causing<\/em>\u00a0to family and society. Parris believes that, eventually, for such a person to continue to live will be considered unjustifiable:<\/p>\n I can\u2019t dispute the objectors\u2019 belief that\u00a0once assisted dying becomes normalized<\/em>\u00a0we will become more apt to ask yourselves for\u00a0how much longer we can justify the struggle<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The word \u201cjustify\u201d is telling. It does not only concern the suffering of the person who is ill, disabled, or elderly but the suffering that person is supposedly\u00a0causing<\/em>\u00a0to family and society. Parris believes that, eventually, for such a person to continue to live will be considered unjustifiable:<\/p>\n Is life still giving us more pleasure than pain?\u00a0How much is all this costing relatives and the health service<\/em>? How much of a\u00a0burden are we placing on those who love us<\/em>? How much of a burden are we placing on ourselves? . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If assisted dying becomes common and widely accepted, hundreds of thousands \u2014 perhaps millions \u2014 will consider choosing this road when the time comes, and in some cases, even ask themselves\u00a0whether it would be selfish not to. . . .<\/em><\/p>\n Within a decade or more [assisted suicide] will be seen as a normal road for many to take, and\u00a0be considered socially responsible \u2013<\/em>\u2013 and even, finally,\u00a0urged upon people<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In other words, the creation of a \u201cduty to die.\u201d Come on, Granny! Time to swallow the pills. We need your money to send Junior to college.<\/p>\n Read more at: wa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Euthanasia isn\u2019t really about compassion but fear of decline and a loathing of dependency \u2014 and of those experiencing them. That nasty truth has become abundantly clear with a new column published in the\u00a0Times\u00a0of London in which former Tory MP Matthew Parris argues that euthanasia\/assisted suicide should not only be permitted \u2014 but encouraged. In … Continue reading Normalizing Assisted Suicide Will Lead to a Duty to Die<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/warning-300x100-300x100-1.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8fAkI-6tW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24920"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24921,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24920\/revisions\/24921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}