JivinJ’s Life Links 10-6-08
by JivinJ
“I thought of them as potential life, but I don’t think of them as children,” says Chris Bailey. “They are definitely more than sperm and egg.”
After much discussion, the couple decided to donate the embryos to research….
“We felt we were so lucky that research had been done and [that it] gave us the opportunity to have children,” says Tanya Bailey. “So why not give our embryos to research as well to help somebody else out?”
How about the simple fact they’re your children and not research materials?
But what I realized is that Lady Warnock (pictured left) and others who share her opinions really think there are humans that have a “duty to die.” Not just the sick or elderly who are a burden on their families, but also the “left-over” embryos from IVF.
This twisted logic says that “left-over” human embryos in the deep freeze have a “duty to die” to give the rest of us “cures.” It is the frozen embryo’s duty to be ripped open for the “betterment of society” just like it is the duty of the sick and eldery to get rid of themselves.
By now you should realize that Lee has been very effective in the years since she first worked on a proposal that mirrored yours. And, Baroness, you can also be effective. All you need to do is remember a few crucial points:
* Be very careful with language. Use soothing phrases.
* Don’t try to achieve your entire goal at one time. Use a step-by-step approach.
* Manufacture statistics. Use them to bolster your claims, whatever they are.
* Portray any opposition as “anti-choice religious zealots.”
* Keep all focus on the current proposal. Never discuss your plans for expansion.
* Always portray your motivation as caring and compassionate. Never, ever, let anyone know that you see legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia as a means of cost containment.



Funny how people who are already alive and living can say it’s the ‘other’ person’s duty/ right to die…I say talk the talk..then walk the walk: VOLUNTEER first!!!
Did these people fail biology 101? Did they get told that babies come from the STORK?
This is extremely sad.
And we don’t have a “Duty” to die! We should respect our elders, especially those who still have their memories – you can learn a lot from those who have lived a LONG TIME.
This is the same mentality that the Nazis started with the extermination of the Jews and others they saw as “unfit”.
Re: assisted suicide…
I am a healthy young woman in a fine mental state. I have never been happier than I am now. I have found security, a brilliant education, love, a home, etc. I am in no way depressed or suicidal.
When I am no longer able to care for myself I want to be euthanized. If I can no longer remember my children’s names I don’t want to live. Should all elderly folk be euthanized? Of course not. I want to be. In my clear state of mind I am deciding this. Should I be put on suicide watch? Uh… no. I don’t want to become ancient and out of my mind. If I am healthy until the day I die, so be it. But when my brain starts to go, then my time in this world will be through.
I honestly feel that it is my choice to make.
Me too Leah, exactly.
There is a whole world between ventilators and feeding tubes and euthanasia. As a pediatric ER nurse, I often consider getting DNR tattooed on my sternum! But that doesn’t mean I want someone to decide when it is my time to go… removing support is one thing, active euthanasia is another.
On a completely flippant note, I lived in OR during the election cycle that had both a gay rights piece of legislation and the right to suicide legislation and remember commenting to dh, “Wow, I guess this makes OR the place to live for suicidal homosexuals!” (Okay, it was funny at the time…. seriously, you couldn’t get away from the ads encouraging you to vote one way or the other.)
I agree–I don’t want a doctor deciding. I have decided for myself and the information will be entrusted to my spouse (who has been ordered not to die before me on pain of… me being really pissed), and HE will decide if I am unable to. I trust him–that’s an integral part of a relationship, isn’t it?
You’re a pediatric ER nurse??? Oh my gosh, I would never be able to bring myself to work in pediatrics. I love children too much to see them sick. I would become terribly depressed.
Elisabeth,
What is the purpose of right to suicide legislation? I can’t imagine reason except maybe to force insurance companies to pay out on life insurance policies. Did the legislation pass in OR? Yikes!
God bless you for being a pediatric ER nurse. It takes a special person to do that. Do you know George Clooney? :)
Janet, don’t forget that our society has become a culture of death. Some think suicide is the answer to everything.
I was extremely saddened when I heard that Richard Farnsworth (he played Matthew Cuthbert in Anne of Green Gables) killed himself.
Liz, Farnsworth was great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1pKEI-Sv-8
I think he had already been through prostate cancer,and then got terminal one cancer, inoperable.
He soldiered on through ‘The Straight Story’ while in a lot of pain.
Elisabeth,
What is the purpose of right to suicide legislation? I can’t imagine reason except maybe to force insurance companies to pay out on life insurance policies. Did the legislation pass in OR? Yikes!
God bless you for being a pediatric ER nurse. It takes a special person to do that. Do you know George Clooney? :)
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ROFLOL…. Um, no… don’t know Clooney or any docs who look like him. (And sad to inform you, Scrubs is also fiction… no whoopee going on in the supply rooms!!!)
The “logic” behind the suicide legislation is that some patients stated they wanted to choose at what point to end their lives if they had terminal illnesses. They claimed it was an issue of dignity and strongly implied that the terminally ill are made to suffer at the end of life due to a lack of adequate pain control.
Of course, the answer to that is to provide dignity and adequate pain control. I am friends with some amazing hospice nurses (and my MIL died in hospice… it was quite an experience. I had cared for her at home until she just got beyond our capabilities to care for in that setting. She lived in hospice for about a week before passing. I still miss her.) More people need to know about hospice and what it offers in many settings… home care, hospice care that is similar to a nursing home setting, hospice care offered in-patient in hospitals… hospice nurses make it their mission in life to ensure that their patients have both dignity and adequate pain control at the end of life while providing valuable counseling and care to the family. They are true angels, extremely compassionate people.
Me, I like the hustle and bustle of the ER but I don’t have patience for the adult ER… I’d likely get in trouble for telling a patient off…. If a two year old comes in with a bean shoved up his nose I figure he doesn’t know better. When a thirty two year old comes in with a bottle shoved up his rectum I want to shake him and say, “What did you THINK was going to happen????” I love my pediatric patients, even the teens who have been amazingly stupid and made some horrible choices. Sometimes I’d like to deck their parents, though…
Oh, and yes, the measure passed. Now they are facing the situation of insurance covering the cost of dying, but not of living. The whole “duty to die” issue. In fact, I believe one case of that is covered in the original article above.