Physician Assisted Suicide



Posted: Saturday, January 24, 2009

by
firstcenturychristian

Dr. Irene Weitzman had a column in the Daily News Sun paper defending mercy killing. Below is my response.

The doctor argues for the right of the terminally ill to have the assistance of a licensed physician to end their lives. As one former Army field surgeon said, "We are all terminal." It is just a matter of time until our end will come. Why must those who wish to die involve a physician in ending their lives? In any home there are ways and means of ending ones life. Doctors have devoted themselves to healing and alleviating suffering. They are pledged to do no harm. Who would want to trust his medical well-being to one whose practice includes administering death, directly or indirectly? In Western Civilization doctors and nurses who are found administering death are prosecuted as villains! Have we forgotten Dr. Jack Korvorkian, the notorious doctor of death?

Like other proponents of death, Dr. Weitzman seeks to redefine the words used to describe what she wishes to accomplish. Pro-abortionists prefer to be called pro-choice advocates. Rather than aborting a baby, they remove fetal tissue. Dr. Weitzman assures us that if Mr. Smith asks for and receives a suicide pill, it is not suicide on his part nor assisted suicide on the part of the participating doctor. She also insists it is not euthanasia, which connotes the voluntary or involuntary putting to death of people with suffering or great disabilities. How would she describe the act of providing a prescription, or the drugs, or the injection that a person would use to end his or her life? She chooses to call it "death with dignity". What dignity does the physician bear whose record includes helping folks destroy themselves? What dignity do we ascribe to those who for various reasons, shoot, hang, cut or poison themselves to escape suffering, shame, or punishment? Why are families crushed with grief when a loved one chooses to end his/her life? Where is the dignity? To call a skunk a kitten does not change the ugly odor of the creature. Redefining the act of assisted suicide does not change the moral defect of the deed.

Dr. Weitzman assures us "No death with dignity law will force a physician to assist if the physician is morally opposed..." Don't believe this bit of propaganda. The advocates of legal abortion, first said no doctor or nurse would be coerced into participating in abortion. After pro-abortionists gained political and legal power, pro-life hospitals, doctors and delivery room nurses have indeed been pressured to provide abortion services or lose their jobs! They will face the same dilemma should the advocates of assisted suicide ever gain sufficient power.

If as the secularists say, man is only a highly-evolved animal, then as the farmer kills the seriously injured or old horse, we could kill the aged or suffering human being. But man is not just another animal. He is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26). God give him life and only God has the right to take it away. The One who made us in His image and gives us life says plainly, "Thou shalt not kill" (Rom. 13:9). Rather than campaigning for the right to help kill the aged, the suffering or the disabled, let us devote ourselves to relieving their pain, assisting them with their lives and helping them bear their burdens. If we thus serve humanity, our descendants will not be ashamed of us. If we chose to offer our suffering neighbor a push into the grave we will bear our shame.

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