Cnn just did a special on a military veteran who wants to end his own life, the NY Times had an extesive article on the rising cost of paying for aged people with dementia, suicide and euthanasia are continuing to gain respectability as a "choice".
This from Bloomberg -
Boomers Push Doctor-Assisted Dying in End-of-Life Revolt
Bills under consideration in northeastern states as well as in Kansas are modeled after laws in Washington and Oregon, the only two states that currently permit doctors to prescribe life- ending drugs. One of those, in New Jersey, is sponsored by Burzichelli’s brother-in-law, state assemblyman John Burzichelli. Often referred to as physician-assisted suicide or doctor-aided dying, the movement has come a long way from the 1990s when Jack Kevorkian, a Michigan pathologist, was in the spotlight for hooking patients up to a homemade device that helped them administer lethal drugs.
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While Caplan (note from Faranda - he used to write an ethics column for the NY Times; now pro-euthanasia) has changed his views, opposition from doctors, religious organizations, anti-abortion groups and disability advocates hasn’t been swayed. They are waging their own campaigns at the state level against legalizing any form of aided dying.
The Washington, D.C.-based anti-abortion advocacy group National Right to Life takes the position that all life has value and the priority should also be trying to improve the quality of life for patients with terminal illness, said Jennifer Popik, legislative counsel for the organization. The group helps its state affiliates lobby against the measures.
“You don’t fix the problem by killing the patients,” Popik said. “We want the focus to be on saving as many lives as possible and having people’s quality of life be as high as it can be.”
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