Is assisted suicide now homicide in the Netherlands?
“[T]here’s a lot of killing going on in the Netherlands that doesn’t involve a gun and isn’t classified as murder, although it should be.” - Christian Post
I seem to remember reading accounts of assisted homicide of the unfit—Lebensunwertes Leben in the original German—starting within a year or so of the euthanasia laws in Belgium and the Netherlands. As I remember warning people back about 15 years back, all kinds of bad things happen when you allow doctors to hide their mistakes with euthanasia, and all kinds of bad things happen when you allow the heirs to decide when they’ll receive their inheritance. Add to that, all kinds of bad things happen when you allow government officials to hide the fact they’ve ignored the actuaries (or feed them nonsense assumptions) by killing off those who otherwise would have needed government-provided services.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
It does seem kind of obvious.
With all the built in motives to off people, what could possibly go wrong?
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Obvious for you and I, but it was fascinating (and chilling) to see the responses I got when I pointed things like that out—I believe the setting was the murder of Terri Schiavo in 2005—those taking the side of MIchael Schiavo would not even consider the notion that he might want her dead because he wanted the money that was supposed to be spent on her care for himself and his new girlfriend and children. They wouldn’t even consider (let alone admit) the difficulty when I pointed out observed cases of involuntary euthanasia in Belgium and the Netherlands.
They had their minds made up, perhaps driven by the cost of nursing home care ($60k/year here in MN), and data to the contrary were not going to mess with that. Just.chilling.
Side note; it would have been interesting to see what happened with Michael Schiavo’s lifestyle after his wife was killed. I have my guesses, but given the above, I would be surprised if it would penetrate the minds of those predisposed favorably towards euthanasia.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
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