The Slippery Slope Is In Overdrive

Euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, Holland and Belgium, as well as a growing number of U.S. states, including California, Colorado and most recently Maine, whose governor recently signed the Death with Dignity Act.

Death with Dignity is a Catchy Name for a law. Be afraid. Be very afraid of catchy names. Remember the Peacekeeper Missile? The implication was, if we blow them all up, they will stop shooting at us and we will have peace.

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New medical guidance in Canada, where the practice has been legal for three years for terminally ill patients, hints at the monstrous ways Assisted Suicide might be expanded in the coming years.

Did you just say, “Huh? Again I don’t know what Fella is talking about!” Here come the clarification bullets…

Ø We are standing with scalpel in hand ready to pounce on people who have agreed to be euthanized as soon as they are actually dead.

Ø We have always waited for the dying to die before we removed their organs but now more thought is being given to taking the organs from living, about to die, moaning and moving people.

Ø It is a medical fact that organs are better if they come from actual alive bodies (i.e.: kidney transplants).

Ø There are more and more people who are saying death can be caused by the removal of organs from those who have given up for the benefit of those that are viable (except for the organ that is failing).

In the bullets above I have used words that seem to say we are thinking about, considering, arguing about, planning for, etc. The truth is this kind of thing is actually happening where local laws permit such things to happen.

All of these happenings were unthinkable in the recent past but the Slippery Slope is Alive and Well and getting Slipperier.

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Let your mind wander with me for a bit…

Ø It is the finals or the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament in the not too distant future.

Ø Actually it is about to be the Final Point of the Finals.

Ø Pierre Wonderful is charging the net to put away the Final Point because his hapless opponent has just framed a shot that is now floating into perfect position to be the Final Point of the Finals.

Ø The set up is so perfect that the tennis ball looks as big as a basketball.

Ø As he reaches back to slam the tennis ball he is tackled by 2 Nerdy Guys in white coats.

The following conversation takes place as the Nerdy Guys scramble to put a tourniquet on Pierre’s serving arm…

Pierre Wonderful (PW)… “What the heck are you 2 Nerdy Guys doing?”

Nerdy Guys (NGs)… “Lay still. You have been selected.”

PW… “Selected by whom?”

NGs… “By the U.S. Department of Organ Removal and Re-Implantation.”

PW… “Selected for what?”

NGs… “To have several of your vital organs removed and given to a person who can make better use of them.”

PW… “But I’m not dead yet!”

NGs… “It won’t be long before you are dead because we are about to remove several of your vital organs.”

PW… “You can’t do this!”

NGs… “Yes we can. We have been given the authority to do this by Section 2, Sub-Section k of the Organ Removal for the Betterment of Society Law which was passed in 2,045. It plainly says that Society has a right to your organs and can take such organs as needed when needed.”

PW… “But I am important! I am a great tennis player and, if you hadn’t tackled me, I would have been the first player to win the Grand Slam since Rod What’s His Name back in 1969!”

NGs… “That’s not the kind of great that’s important to society as a whole. The person needing your living organs is a Renowned Scientist in the field of Scientific Stuff who is doing important research on issues that can benefit all of mankind and who has paid a lot of money to be at the top of the Highly Recognized and Important People of the World List.”

PW… “Wait! Wait! I object! I am impo r t a…”.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

Lagniappe: This lagniappe is added on to show you that I did not make this up. If you read on, think about this as you do…

Isn’t it amazing how darn near anything can be made to sound logical on the Slippery Slope to You Can’t Be Serious!  

WSJ Article … Euthanasia and Organ Harvesting

About 30 euthanasia patients in Canada have donated their organs after death since 2016. On June 3 the Canadian Medical Association issued guidelines for how the process should work. The grim document describes how the organ donation and euthanasia decisions might be disentangled, but allows doctors to raise the possibility of organ donation with assisted-suicide patients. It also clarifies that organ removal should not begin until the patient is medically deceased and the heart has stopped beating.

But some experts quarrel with this restriction. Last year in a New England Journal of Medicine article, two Canadian medical researchers and a Harvard bioethicist argued that it could reduce the quality of donated organs. A superior model, they suggest, could be to kill the patient by removing his organs. After all, the best organs come from live people, like those who donate one of their kidneys.

Organs can be “compromised” if doctors have to wait until death—meaning minutes after the pulse has stopped. Even a gap of a few minutes between removal and transfer makes a difference. Organs would be in better shape if they were removed while the heart is still beating. Death by organ removal would be a more efficient method of organ harvesting for assisted-suicide patients.

This is more than a little ghoulish, and the New England Journal of Medicine authors admit some patients won’t want the organ harvesting to begin until they are dead. Others, they note hopefully, “may want not only a rapid, peaceful, and painless death, but also the option of donating as many organs as possible and in the best condition possible.”