There was a time when Dr. Kevorkian was arrested and tried for assisted suicide. This was to help people that were terminally ill and had no cure or hope for recovery. They were in tremendous pain and helping them with their decision to end life with dignity was aided.
Yet with one out of every 3 Medicare dollars being spent for the last 2-3 years of a person’s life, President Obama and our government is now rethinking its stance on suicide.
Since Berwick, the new head of CMS- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid is so enamored with the National Health Service, it is with interest that we see this article regarding Britain’s new view toward end of life issues. This article, written by Farah Master appeared on Sept.21st.
LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) – It used to be an issue just for the terminally ill. Now as populations around the world age, governments are increasingly being confronted with the taboo idea of dying as something people can volunteer to do.
“The demand for the option, if not the practice, is growing rapidly,” said Dr. Philip Nitschke, 61, founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International.
The Australian doctor — nicknamed Dr Death for his work on suicide — is travelling the world to teach people how to end their lives safely with a suicide drug-testing kit.??”Very few will go down this path, but almost every 75-year old I meet now sees merit in having ventolin generic albuterol their own bottle of Nembutal in the cupboard as an insurance policy, in case things get bad,” Nitschke told Reuters, referring to the barbiturate used as a sedative.
Nitschke’s is an extreme view, but as the proportion of older people increases rapidly in countries such as the United States, Australia, Japan, Germany and Britain, the suggestion of an option to escape indignity could spur political tremors.??Littered with ethical red flags — particularly around the possibility that families or organisations may encourage the elderly or infirm to end their lives — the issue of assisted suicide has been forced up the British political agenda.
Calls for reform and a legal decision in July forced the government to promise to clarify the law. Draft guidelines are due this month with a final version by next spring, but Derek Humphry, former president of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies said significant changes in Britain would likely not come until after a 2010 election.??In Britain, nearly 20 percent of the population is over 65 — a proportion the Office for National Statistics predicts will have grown by 50 percent by 2020.
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Of course two issues that we will have to be wary of- one is murder- how would we know? The second is suicide due to depression. After all, there is no way back- at least none that we currently know.
