Let’s see . . . who should have the final say over whether a terminally ill person has suffered enough and should be allowed to check out of life Earth. Based on the debacle involving Terry Schiavo [1] I’m betting that the country will be split down the middle in this emerging battle in the culture wars, and that tens of millions of fundamentalists will argue that it’s the “humane” to force a terminally ill cancer patient to stay alive against his/her wishes. Many of these people have no problem putting a pet “to sleep” to make sure it doesn’t suffer. But, damn, this is a human being! Ergo, it’s “humane” to make a human experience extended horrific pain. [2] Admittedly, not all terminally ill patients experience crushing pain, but many do. How can it be humane to euthanize a suffering animal but not humane to offer euthanasia to suffering human animal who is soberly asking for death?
Yesterday, a Montana judge has ruled [3] that doctor-assisted suicides are legal:
Judge Dorothy McCarter issued the ruling late Friday in the case of a Billings man with terminal cancer, who had sued the state with four physicians that treat terminally ill patients and a nonprofit patients’ rights group. “The Montana constitutional rights [4] of individual privacy and human dignity, taken together, encompass the right of a competent terminally (ill) patient to die with dignity,” McCarter said in the ruling.
[McCarter’s Court Order] also said that those patients had the right to obtain self-administered medications to hasten death if they find their suffering to be unbearable, and that physicians can prescribe such medication without fear of prosecution.
Let the circus begin! Instead of letting this terminally ill patient go in peace, we’re about to see the fundies patting themselves on the back for intentionally inflicting grievous pain. If makes you suspect that they don’t actually believe in a just God who would show some flexibility to people suffering wrenching and intractable pain. We’re all going to be dead soon enough, right? What’s the big deal that a terminally ill patient voluntarily ends his life a few years (or months) sooner? It also makes me think that some of these fundies should spend less time hearing about hell in church and more time volunteering in hospices.
I know that this rant is technically a bit premature, but just you wait . . .
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