The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Gillard's conflict on euthanasia more than justified > Comments

Gillard's conflict on euthanasia more than justified : Comments

By Jim Wallace, published 1/10/2010

No matter how you intellectualise euthanasia it will never be right.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. Page 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. ...
  9. 16
  10. 17
  11. 18
  12. All
"What are the ISSUES ? ... And ultimately here, the issue is: do we choose life or death?"

No, the issue is: do I have the right to force my choice on somebody else? Do't like gay marriages? OK, don't have one. Don't like women priests? OK, don't become one. Don't want to die painlessly and with dignity when your time comes? OK, don't. But what makes you or anyone else think they have the right to elevate their personal choice to the status of an absolute rule for everyone? Why, religion, of course: because preventing other people from doing what they want to do is how religious people get their kicks.

As long as we have to pretend that irrational views deserve respect and consideration, then people are going to have to go on suffering for the sake of others' sense of self-righteousness.
Posted by Jon J, Friday, 1 October 2010 1:24:45 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
King Hazza, "Here Wally (can I call you Wally?)"

As an internet warrior you can get away with calling Jim Wallace AM what you like.

http://dontworrysir.ytmnd.com/

From his very respectable service record it isn't something you might be inclined to do face to fact though:

"Jim Wallace AM ... was a career soldier for 32 years and a commander of Australia’s elite Special Forces. In 1984 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his services in developing Australia’s counter terrorist capability."

Few things destroy credibility as quickly as childish name calling and insults, especially where they are directed at a man with an exemplary record of service to his country.

I support euthanasia in principle, however like many others I struggle with the likely ethical implications for it in a country where discrimination against the aged is very active and widespread, the aged care system is broken and economics rules the political debate. The author is right to be concerned about depression in the elderly and ill and it is incredible that the Greens could constantly propose euthanasia while demonstrating no regard whatsoever for discrimination against the elderly.

http://www.ciap.health.nsw.gov.au/hospolic/stvincents/1993/a06.html

http://www.healthyplace.com/depression/elderly/depression-in-elderly/menu-id-68/
Posted by Cornflower, Friday, 1 October 2010 1:47:05 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Cornflower is no doubt representative of a large portion of the community who feel conflicted about the euthanasia debate - I know I do. "Informed consent" is not an easy thing to objectively confirm, least of all when death is on the line. In our community there are many very well intentioned souls (Doctors and Nurses usually) who help accelerate the inevitable for the sick and infirm, usually in the guise of pain relief as part of palliative care. They have no 100% objective measure of "the right time", but I'm sure many families know what is going on and acquiesce - most likely out of love for the dying rather than naked avarice. Legislating to protect Doctors and Nurses in the above scenario would not be as simple as some might assume. And this is but one example of the grey zone that must be assessed and understood prior to making any rush to legislate. More debate is required so we don't create a truly flawed system.
Posted by bitey, Friday, 1 October 2010 2:53:59 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11043#184778

Clownfish, excellent point, but lost on the Radical, Extreme, Loony, Lefties from the Red/green/getup/labour Communist Coalition.

These "People" would be first in line to condemn Adolf Hitler for "Euthanizing" the "Useless Eaters" in the mid 1930's. A policy to free up public hospital beds or make health care more efficient, less expensive.

The last one of these debates was an article from one of the Red/greens who later commented on the article to that exact effect, namely saving taxpayers money on nursing homes for "redistribution" to some other allegedly more worthy cause like 3 world poverty or "Red/green Loans", which we know from decades of experience is totally wasted.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11043#184798

Dear Joe Lane, Loadmouth, you can sometimes be surprisingly sensible for a Communist.

BTW, getting back to one of our earlier discussions that i never got around to finishing.

I would "defend to the death" your right to be an active member of http://www.socialist-alliance.org/ , run as one of their candidates, etc. I would also like to see the senate elected via pure proportional representation so that they could win some seats according to their % of the total national senate vote.

But 99-99% of Australia's CARS, Communist, Anarchist, Radical, Socialists did not do that. They pretended to be "Democratic Socialists" & joined the loony left ALP factions or pretended they are green & gained far more safe seats than their true popularity is worth.

Over the last 50 or so years many of these "Termites" have been destroying Australia from within. Exporting opportunities for Australia's children to China, or other Asian countries.

They have been engaging as 5th columnists in Cultural & Economic Terrorism & Treason. Like selling QR National to Foreign Multi Nationals.

I believe whatever political system one believes in you should be patriotic to your own country. Not try to arrange for other countries to take us over as the Red/green/getup/labour Communist coalition has been doing progressively for at least 50 years now.
Posted by Formersnag, Friday, 1 October 2010 3:20:33 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
The title references PM Gillard, but the bulk of the article is a tirade against medical graduates Dr Phillip Nitschke and Dr Bob Brown, and the Greens.

The euthanasia debate is about more than Phillip Nitschke's views, comments, actions or agenda.

It is about a small percentage of cases from a number of scenarios not catered for by optimal palliative care or other optimal medical therapy.
Posted by McReal, Friday, 1 October 2010 5:09:45 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
I'm so sorry Cornflower, being formerly part of the army separates someone from society and free speech standards to make fun of them, even if they make articles filled with blatant misinformation and slander against people who don't appreciate his authoritarian theological views, and also gives him permission to try to violate my rights through undemocratic lobbying so I conform to his superstitions?

Spare me the guilt trip, because I quite frankly owe Wally NOTHING. The reason is because he clearly would NOT have been fighting to uphold my freedoms because he has spent the past few years of his life lobbying for quite the opposite.

Well?

On another note, can we casually ignore the trolls who keep trying to build a Eugenics strawman? Or for that matter, pretend that it's not equally easy to fix an 'accidental' death of an elderly relative anyway?
Or for that matter, ignores hypothetical legislation that simply demands patient REQUEST?

What kind of rocks do these people crawl out of?
Posted by King Hazza, Friday, 1 October 2010 6:07:23 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. Page 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. ...
  9. 16
  10. 17
  11. 18
  12. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy