本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛摘自ctv.ca当天的新闻。
Doctors' euthanasia proposal raises questions
Updated Fri. Jul. 17 2009 9:10 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
The Quebec College of Physicians has suggested that euthanasia could be an acceptable form of treatment for some terminally ill patients with no hope of recovery, a proposal that raises questions about the role that doctors should play in their patients' lives.
The college has said that in cases where patients are in severe pain, it is possible that such patients may die from the painkillers that are prescribed to them. It's a scenario that could be viewed as a form of euthanasia.
Medical ethicist Margaret Somerville said she disagreed that what was being proposed in Quebec was strictly euthanasia, and that it was more of a tactical move designed to promote the legalization of euthanasia, which along with assisted suicide, is currently illegal under Canadian law.
"Giving what is necessary to relieve pain is never euthanasia and everybody agrees about that," she told CTV's Canada AM on Friday morning during an interview from Montreal.
"I think it's extremely important for Canadians to know that I believe they have a legal right to all necessary pain relief treatment, including if the only way you can relieve the pain is what we call palliative sedation -- so you put the person to sleep so they don't suffer any pain."
For such a law to be approved, Somerville said a lengthy debate needs to take place to determine how such a change would affect Canadian society, both today and in the future.
"To put it bluntly, legalizing euthanasia means that our law will be changed to approve of one person killing another person, and also that person will be a doctor, one of our carers and curers," she said.
"As well, we have to think about not just how would such a law be used now, but I ask people to think about how would their great-great-grandchildren die if we legalized euthanasia."
As an example, Somerville pointed to the Netherlands, where euthanasia has been legal for 30 years.
"We've seen continued expansion of what's allowed. I mean now, parents are allowed to have euthanasia for their newborn disabled babies. That was never allowed at the beginning," she said.
A full version of the proposal from the Quebec College of Physicians is expected in the fall.
Earlier this week, famed British conductor Edward Downes and his wife, Joan, died at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland.
The couple became one of more than 100 Britons to die in Switzerland, at clinic run by the Dignitas group.
Because of Switzerland's liberal laws on assisted suicide, some 100 foreigners come to the country each year in order to die. It is the only country in the world where foreigners are legally allowed to come and kill themselves.
In some countries, including in the Netherlands and Belgium, the terminally ill are able to receive a doctor's assistance to die.
With files from The Associated Press
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please Add Comments( 17 )
meerkat 23 7
this is a tough one. it will require a full drawn out debate. i think the safest ways for politicians to handle this issue is full disclosure to the public about the debate and then let the population decide in a plebescite.
the example set out in the netherlands is troubling to me however. a line has to be drawn somewhere.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger T 36 21
If we truly believe that we live in a democracy society than it is up to the person of age to consent to his or her rights to be euthanized without any interference as long as it is NOT harmful to others.
It is the rights of an individual age of consent to make the appropriate decisions, by making it a law prohibiting that decsion is an enfrigement on Human Rights.
I personally wouldn't want the law to tell me how to die if I had a servere illness which could cause me more pain and suffering than to live.
Til than blame global warming for all our problems!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Astounded 58 24
Why are animals treated more humanely than people?
I am honestly astounded that people find it acceptable to euthanize animals to end their suffering, but it is taboo to do the same for people.
If someone is suffering from some sort of condition that was untreatable and caused excruciating pain, we should be kind and humane enough to end their suffering should they choose to have it done.
The Canadian gov't should really look again at our euthanasia policies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WSS 42 17
I watched my sister in law suffer extreme pain for 11 days before dying from cancer and the painkiller drugs. This was 11 days of unnecessary excruciating pain.
It was not a peaceful death.
Yes we do need euthanasia.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sam 21 21
I can understand a person who is terminally ill and facing severe pain having the right to choose when to die but I do not agree that a parent should have the right to take the life of their child. It is an infringment on that childs right to life.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
chrisshea 10 19
hmmm for certain case i could understand if patient is awake and wants to die then i dont see why not but if patient is in coma or something nobody should be allowed to decide
and if this became legal how long til doctor start cleaning out the long term treatment wings
need some beds
clear em out
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anne 24 10
I fail to understand why human beings are not given the same compassionate treatment as animals (they are not permitted to suffer extreme pain). That we are doomed to accept horrific circumstance because of divine will, for a greater purpose. Which is obscene. If someone is in vicious pain, give them the drugs they need to stop it, including putting them into a deep sleep where they simply fade away. Not to mention we still won't use heroin, which apparently dissolves the pain while leaving the person aware and functioning. Such stupidity and ignorance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rick in NB Life is a dance 14 36
When i was young i was taught that we have to live life to the very last breath. We were sent here to live a full life, and a full life is what we owe. If we decide to end our life one minute before it's time than we have wasted that life. I fear that i may suffer in my twilight but i know that i will finish the journey. It fulfills me to know i will complete the one task i was given.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
island girl 26 11
Thin edge of the wedge.
I've been in a position where doctors gave up on me (26 yrs ago) proclaimed me terminal and left me to die.
Thank God I mustered strength and survived. However, what if they had followed their incorrect prognosis with some drugs "since I was going to die anyway..." Never underestimate the body's power to heal and survive.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
david sawkiw[saskatchewan farmer] 6 19
All this talk about laws in different countries is confusing me..
Which country are we talking about,Canada or Quebec??
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jay 9 9
I find it odd people don't mind seeing people suffer.Yet these same people are aginst people who want to die because there is pain.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Webster 16 19
What Ms. Sommerville is saying is absolutely correct. This is a terribly slippery slope. One has only to look at the way things have gone in the Netherlands to see that. As she pointed out, they have gone from allowing a terminally ill person to (allegedly) "die with dignity" to now allowing parents to have their newborns murdered because he/she has disabilities. That's not much of a stretch given that some people already find the killing of babies to be perfectly acceptable so long as they haven't been born yet.
In any case, I can't see any good reason why someone would need a doctor to kill them. There are many many ways that they can accomplish it on their own. It's as easy as over dosing on pills or sitting in the garage with the car engine running.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E. Graham 25 16
Euthanasia for humans:
Yes.
When I found my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, I found myself hoping that he would take his own life, by driving his favorite car into a tree. He loved his cars so much, and the thought of him losing his licence to drive, had me grieving. I still wish he had taken his own life that way. He suffered incredibly at his loss of independence, and the ability to enjoy to the limit, the pleasure of driving. It was brutal for a man in his late 80's. Where was the quality of life for him?
My husband and I had to make the decision to put a loved little dog to sleep based on quality: simple quality and the amount of pain he was in.
I wish we could stop trying to prolong life for the sake of guilty consciences, and look very hard at what quality of life is, in the 21st Century. Guilt should have no place in decisions about life and death. People are dying every day based on survival: they're starving and dying of disease. What right do we have in the so called civilized world to use valuable resources to prolong lives that have no quality, when the resources could go to help others who could have quality in life: if we would only stop taking from the environment for our own selfish desires.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Garry in NS 28 18
This is a very slippery slope. Once we become accustomed to killing those who are serverly ill, what is next? The path between killing someone because they are suffering and killing someone who is mentally ill or severly disabled is far shorter than we think.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike W visiting PEI 1 2
Euthanasia is already performed in Canada. Just ask a health professional who works in intensive care.
We need to get out of the nudge-nudge-wink-wink mentality and let people have responsibility over their own bodies. I would welcome the Dignitas group to Canada. The idea of our elderly and sick being forced to live through pain and suffering because of some ridiculous "moral" law angers me.
Keep the government out of the decisions, let the medical professionals provide counseling.
I would rather have a goodbye party with friends while able, then exit gracefully with a lungful of nitrogen over rotting away in bed from cancer and being an anchor of sadness for family and friends.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
reidjr 1 1
Garry in NS
Should someone who is ill be forced to live and take massive amount of pills etc.Or should they have the right to take there life.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professor Kowalski 1 1
There will be no debate on this issue. Someone will euthanize their patient and be charged. It will be taken to the Supreme Court and the activist, politically appointed, unaccountable, judges will rule the current law is unconstitutional and the spineless government of the day will use that to wash their hands of the issue. They will say they are the party of the Charter.
Think of the last time there was a national debate on like issues. It doesn't happen. Polygamy will be first. Euthanasia next. These to go along with all the other morally bankrupt decisions the SCofC has made. No debate. No democracy. That's todays Canada.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
Doctors' euthanasia proposal raises questions
Updated Fri. Jul. 17 2009 9:10 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
The Quebec College of Physicians has suggested that euthanasia could be an acceptable form of treatment for some terminally ill patients with no hope of recovery, a proposal that raises questions about the role that doctors should play in their patients' lives.
The college has said that in cases where patients are in severe pain, it is possible that such patients may die from the painkillers that are prescribed to them. It's a scenario that could be viewed as a form of euthanasia.
Medical ethicist Margaret Somerville said she disagreed that what was being proposed in Quebec was strictly euthanasia, and that it was more of a tactical move designed to promote the legalization of euthanasia, which along with assisted suicide, is currently illegal under Canadian law.
"Giving what is necessary to relieve pain is never euthanasia and everybody agrees about that," she told CTV's Canada AM on Friday morning during an interview from Montreal.
"I think it's extremely important for Canadians to know that I believe they have a legal right to all necessary pain relief treatment, including if the only way you can relieve the pain is what we call palliative sedation -- so you put the person to sleep so they don't suffer any pain."
For such a law to be approved, Somerville said a lengthy debate needs to take place to determine how such a change would affect Canadian society, both today and in the future.
"To put it bluntly, legalizing euthanasia means that our law will be changed to approve of one person killing another person, and also that person will be a doctor, one of our carers and curers," she said.
"As well, we have to think about not just how would such a law be used now, but I ask people to think about how would their great-great-grandchildren die if we legalized euthanasia."
As an example, Somerville pointed to the Netherlands, where euthanasia has been legal for 30 years.
"We've seen continued expansion of what's allowed. I mean now, parents are allowed to have euthanasia for their newborn disabled babies. That was never allowed at the beginning," she said.
A full version of the proposal from the Quebec College of Physicians is expected in the fall.
Earlier this week, famed British conductor Edward Downes and his wife, Joan, died at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland.
The couple became one of more than 100 Britons to die in Switzerland, at clinic run by the Dignitas group.
Because of Switzerland's liberal laws on assisted suicide, some 100 foreigners come to the country each year in order to die. It is the only country in the world where foreigners are legally allowed to come and kill themselves.
In some countries, including in the Netherlands and Belgium, the terminally ill are able to receive a doctor's assistance to die.
With files from The Associated Press
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please Add Comments( 17 )
meerkat 23 7
this is a tough one. it will require a full drawn out debate. i think the safest ways for politicians to handle this issue is full disclosure to the public about the debate and then let the population decide in a plebescite.
the example set out in the netherlands is troubling to me however. a line has to be drawn somewhere.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger T 36 21
If we truly believe that we live in a democracy society than it is up to the person of age to consent to his or her rights to be euthanized without any interference as long as it is NOT harmful to others.
It is the rights of an individual age of consent to make the appropriate decisions, by making it a law prohibiting that decsion is an enfrigement on Human Rights.
I personally wouldn't want the law to tell me how to die if I had a servere illness which could cause me more pain and suffering than to live.
Til than blame global warming for all our problems!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Astounded 58 24
Why are animals treated more humanely than people?
I am honestly astounded that people find it acceptable to euthanize animals to end their suffering, but it is taboo to do the same for people.
If someone is suffering from some sort of condition that was untreatable and caused excruciating pain, we should be kind and humane enough to end their suffering should they choose to have it done.
The Canadian gov't should really look again at our euthanasia policies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WSS 42 17
I watched my sister in law suffer extreme pain for 11 days before dying from cancer and the painkiller drugs. This was 11 days of unnecessary excruciating pain.
It was not a peaceful death.
Yes we do need euthanasia.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sam 21 21
I can understand a person who is terminally ill and facing severe pain having the right to choose when to die but I do not agree that a parent should have the right to take the life of their child. It is an infringment on that childs right to life.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
chrisshea 10 19
hmmm for certain case i could understand if patient is awake and wants to die then i dont see why not but if patient is in coma or something nobody should be allowed to decide
and if this became legal how long til doctor start cleaning out the long term treatment wings
need some beds
clear em out
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anne 24 10
I fail to understand why human beings are not given the same compassionate treatment as animals (they are not permitted to suffer extreme pain). That we are doomed to accept horrific circumstance because of divine will, for a greater purpose. Which is obscene. If someone is in vicious pain, give them the drugs they need to stop it, including putting them into a deep sleep where they simply fade away. Not to mention we still won't use heroin, which apparently dissolves the pain while leaving the person aware and functioning. Such stupidity and ignorance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rick in NB Life is a dance 14 36
When i was young i was taught that we have to live life to the very last breath. We were sent here to live a full life, and a full life is what we owe. If we decide to end our life one minute before it's time than we have wasted that life. I fear that i may suffer in my twilight but i know that i will finish the journey. It fulfills me to know i will complete the one task i was given.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
island girl 26 11
Thin edge of the wedge.
I've been in a position where doctors gave up on me (26 yrs ago) proclaimed me terminal and left me to die.
Thank God I mustered strength and survived. However, what if they had followed their incorrect prognosis with some drugs "since I was going to die anyway..." Never underestimate the body's power to heal and survive.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
david sawkiw[saskatchewan farmer] 6 19
All this talk about laws in different countries is confusing me..
Which country are we talking about,Canada or Quebec??
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jay 9 9
I find it odd people don't mind seeing people suffer.Yet these same people are aginst people who want to die because there is pain.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Webster 16 19
What Ms. Sommerville is saying is absolutely correct. This is a terribly slippery slope. One has only to look at the way things have gone in the Netherlands to see that. As she pointed out, they have gone from allowing a terminally ill person to (allegedly) "die with dignity" to now allowing parents to have their newborns murdered because he/she has disabilities. That's not much of a stretch given that some people already find the killing of babies to be perfectly acceptable so long as they haven't been born yet.
In any case, I can't see any good reason why someone would need a doctor to kill them. There are many many ways that they can accomplish it on their own. It's as easy as over dosing on pills or sitting in the garage with the car engine running.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E. Graham 25 16
Euthanasia for humans:
Yes.
When I found my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, I found myself hoping that he would take his own life, by driving his favorite car into a tree. He loved his cars so much, and the thought of him losing his licence to drive, had me grieving. I still wish he had taken his own life that way. He suffered incredibly at his loss of independence, and the ability to enjoy to the limit, the pleasure of driving. It was brutal for a man in his late 80's. Where was the quality of life for him?
My husband and I had to make the decision to put a loved little dog to sleep based on quality: simple quality and the amount of pain he was in.
I wish we could stop trying to prolong life for the sake of guilty consciences, and look very hard at what quality of life is, in the 21st Century. Guilt should have no place in decisions about life and death. People are dying every day based on survival: they're starving and dying of disease. What right do we have in the so called civilized world to use valuable resources to prolong lives that have no quality, when the resources could go to help others who could have quality in life: if we would only stop taking from the environment for our own selfish desires.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Garry in NS 28 18
This is a very slippery slope. Once we become accustomed to killing those who are serverly ill, what is next? The path between killing someone because they are suffering and killing someone who is mentally ill or severly disabled is far shorter than we think.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike W visiting PEI 1 2
Euthanasia is already performed in Canada. Just ask a health professional who works in intensive care.
We need to get out of the nudge-nudge-wink-wink mentality and let people have responsibility over their own bodies. I would welcome the Dignitas group to Canada. The idea of our elderly and sick being forced to live through pain and suffering because of some ridiculous "moral" law angers me.
Keep the government out of the decisions, let the medical professionals provide counseling.
I would rather have a goodbye party with friends while able, then exit gracefully with a lungful of nitrogen over rotting away in bed from cancer and being an anchor of sadness for family and friends.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
reidjr 1 1
Garry in NS
Should someone who is ill be forced to live and take massive amount of pills etc.Or should they have the right to take there life.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professor Kowalski 1 1
There will be no debate on this issue. Someone will euthanize their patient and be charged. It will be taken to the Supreme Court and the activist, politically appointed, unaccountable, judges will rule the current law is unconstitutional and the spineless government of the day will use that to wash their hands of the issue. They will say they are the party of the Charter.
Think of the last time there was a national debate on like issues. It doesn't happen. Polygamy will be first. Euthanasia next. These to go along with all the other morally bankrupt decisions the SCofC has made. No debate. No democracy. That's todays Canada.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net