Tuesday, October 6, 2015

California pushes gateway drugs

"California Governor Signs Bill To Legalize Physician-Assisted Suicide"
In a statement, Brown, a Democrat, said that he carefully considered the theological and moral implications of his decision.
“In the end, I was left to reflect on what I would want in the face of my own death,” said Brown, a former Roman Catholic seminary student. “I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and excruciating pain. I am certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill. And I wouldn’t deny that right to others.”
Tim Rosales, a spokesman for California Against Assisted Suicide, criticized Brown’s decision, saying that for some patients, the cost of medical treatment could far outweigh the cost of assisted suicide.
“His decision was based on his personal background, as somebody of wealth and access to medical care, and that’s a very different background and a very different reality for millions of Californians living without that same access,” said Rosales, “These are the people who will be hurt by giving doctors the ability to prescribe lethal overdoses for patients.”

20 comments:

Chip Ahoy said...

Haunting.

Are you in hospital or what?

May I suggest lighthearted reading? Princess Bride, for example. You'd enjoy that.

The thing is, Jerry Brown's expressions cannot be trusted. He does make very good points, by disallowing you're basically saying, no, you must suffer to the end that is your fate. Don't worry too much, though, the end is near and you can hasten the desired natural end with a seriously bad attitude.

But Jerry Brown does not say he is also looking at it as a matter of governance and of a way of handling spiraling costs for lives with diminishing payoff to State. We sense this holds far more sway than the individualized straightforward emotional aspect of the life's end drama and pain.

Haunting because the situation is not rare. Haunting because the memorial is haunting. The spot a rooftop pool only 4 feet deep but some 20 or so floors up. Not many people, only about fifteen. Maybe a dozen. A large rooftop for so few people and the eulogy short as my own dad's snappy military presentation. The big difference though was this man suffered like nothing I've heard of before. Hearing the details was chilling. This is the haunting element of the whole thing. Learning it shocked all of us. Few of us knew. In his last months the man broke both arms and was in wheelchair. Broken arms, wheelchair, visualize that, you cannot even wipe your own butt. Without pain.

John's saying was, I did not know this, "it is what it is." That was the theme of his eulogy.

And it's haunting the living shit out of me. John was not old. And there are other people too, seems they're dropping like flies, all with their own stories of suffering at the end, time spent in hospice, who might have taken an offer signed into law by the likes of Jerry Brown. From cradle to grave, now let's get along.

deborah said...

Great title, Lem.

I think assisted suicide is important to have, very important, but it's a slippery slope to guilt granny into going earlier than she'd like.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

yeah-- where are you, Lem? Are you still hooked up and tied down? Did Troop send you a cute nurse yet?

Leland said...

There is a difference between making suicide legal and making it legal for doctors to poison their patient. One keeps the decision purely that of the patient.

ricpic said...

The usual tortured BS from leftist Brown and at the end of it of course the usual attack on Thou Shalt Not Kill.

ndspinelli said...

Liberals are practicing population control from both ends of the life spectrum.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Are you in hospital or what?

No, I'm back home. I was discharged last night.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Liberals are practicing population control from both ends of the life spectrum.

Unless you are a criminal on death row.

bagoh20 said...

"Great title, Lem.

I think assisted suicide is important to have, very important, but it's a slippery slope to guilt granny into going earlier than she'd like."


Exactly, how I see it too. Great one, Lem.

With advances in medicine we become ever better at torturing people in their end days, and wasting hard-earned resources indefinitely.

Of course their are dangers, but there are also similar ones by not permitting this. Hospitals and doctors feel justified in draining a person's estate or insurance while providing nothing real in return, while torturing the patient and family, only to force the patient to exit in the worse possible shape, unable to even say goodby. People can take advantage of the situation either way, so I see the choice as simply one of freedom.

In the past, nature would finish that which had no future until we figured out how to force the unnatural upon ourselves. In the past, keeping hopelessly inured people alive was understood to be torture.

The Boats

ndspinelli said...

Lem, Most of those criminals are in the middle of the age spectrum. And, although I don't get into arguments about it, my personal belief is anti death penalty.

ndspinelli said...

Good to hear you're home. Hospitals save lives but they suck. Almost impossible for me to sleep in one, I need dark and quiet to sleep. There's NOTHING like your own bed.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

When my aunt was at the end of her life, the hospital did everything they could to spring her out. There was nothing they could do, so she was merely languishing. The final hospital bill was incredible. Tax payers covered it. The price tag disgusted me. Our system is beyond repair and the pols are only making it worse.

She left the hospital and stayed at a nursing home for another week. That was 100% out of pocket, and I paid that invoice. It was not nearly as expensive as the hospital stay.

I have mixed feelings about assisted suicide. It's a personal issue/decision, but in cases of dementia or Alzheimers, abuse is a possibility. (or a certainty?)

Dad Bones said...

We're already able to decide in advance to be removed from life support if we have a terminal illness. Is it that much different to be able to decide to be given a fatal drug?

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Glad you're home, Lem.

Hope the palpitations are gone.

edutcher said...

Take care, dude.

The Blonde is almost aggressively DNR - no, she wouldn't be an Angel of Death type, but she watched her father die that way and it caused a bad rift with her youngest - and favorite - brother.

Methadras said...

"I am certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill. And I wouldn’t deny that right to others.”

I wish this moron had the same careful reflected consideration to California Gun Control Laws as he just described in his bromide for assisted suicide.

Methadras said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ampersand said...

There's an old lady that lives across the street, 97 years old, a multi-millionairess who has no close relatives. So far two people have gotten power of attorney over her. One, a somewhat stranger who was at her house every day doing all the work that needs to be done and got his hands on her checkbook to the tune of $320,000. The law is looking for him right now.

The other is a relation, a nephew of her late husband, who is going through her dough , hiring rent-a-cops at 100 grand a year to make sure fellow #1 doesn't show up and 200 grand for a couple of nurses round 2/3s of the clock. He is also mismanaging her properties to where he ran off all her paying tenants.

How easy would it be for a sleazy lawyer and a sleazy doctor to convince the old gal that it would be all for the best to sign on the dotted line for some free candy?

bagoh20 said...

The woman in the above example will die and her money will go to whomever she leaves it to regardless. That will not be affected by this new choice. This only affects how you die, and can only advance the date by about 6 months - just enough to make it dignified and chosen rather than undignified, drawn out, and painful for her and those who might care about her. There are safeguards in the law that make the fraud above impossible. You need two doctors to sign off, and they obviously can't be beneficiaries. It has some risks, but pretty unlikely ones. The risks of not having this choice are much worse, likely, and common. With this choice, a person might, at worst, get robbed of their estate which they no longer have use for,but without it that still can happens just the same, and they get to suffer a long undignified end on top of it, even if they want to avoid that as their last personal choice in a long self-directed life.

ampersand said...

Where there safeguards in place that would keep living babies from being chopped up and sold for parts? Where lawyers are involved there are no safegards. You know like what the definition of Is is.
BTW I'm not opposed to people in pain and agony doing themselves in, I am concerned about
the Kervorkians of the world, who seem to take pleasure in what they do and may pressure people to make a choice they wouldn't have thought of on their own.