If anything like 80% of us want euthanasia legalized, have done so for years but still don't have it, does that not indicate what a sham democracy is allowed to govern us? As the original article pointed out, it is government and politicians who are to blame. But we also need to accept some blame as voters who keep them in power.

What are you going to do about it?

Refuse to vote?
Refuse to vote for any member of a political party?
Waste your time contacting politicians?
Attend training with the Taliban or Al Quaeda?

Any little may help, and may go some way to fixing some other matters that remain wrong despite public wishes, just like euthanasia.

"If anything like 80% of us want euthanasia legalized, have done so for years but still don't have it, does that not indicate what a sham democracy is allowed to govern us?"

Yes it does Forkes.

Sadly the only way to get around this is to convince enough people to vote for the largest party that corresponds to their needs AND makes a point of legalizing euthanasia- or to vote for a party that advocates citizen initiated referenda- and there are a LOT of these parties which, quite frankly are more than capable of governing us- the actual PROBLEM is (partly thanks to compulsory voting) there are too many people that don't give a toss about politics but vote familiar parties and buy into the various myths about any other parties and leave the polling station with the same old rubbish.

So, long story short- we need to start getting the lazy people to look up some local candidates every three years, somehow.
(and yes, it IS lazy to do any less, and a massive disservice for our country).

Fragmachine wrote: "It seems to me that doctors see death as disease that needs to be treated, instead of accepting it as an inevitable part of life"

Well.. how's that for a spectacularly sweeping and inaccurate generalisation? Fragmachine, you have written the odd insightful comment in this thread, but this was not amongst them and I couldn't let it go unchallenged.

I am a doctor and I know three things to be true:

1. yeah most of the time we are trying to avoid death, as for most of the hospital inpatient population it IS avoidable and they will walk out with a good quality of life. plus premature deaths tend to invite lawsuits and irate families.

2. for some patients, pre-existing co-morbidities combined with whatever is happening right then, means that they are next to no chance of walking out with any quality of life. For these people, the focus shifts to keeping them comfortable.

3. a proportion of patients fall somewhere in between and they are the ones where it is difficult to know what to do, especially when a good plan is not in place prior to an acute deterioration

I know plenty about the inevitability of death, I see it far more often than you do, I would wager.

Over 30% of Euthanasia Cases in Belgian Region Did Not Give Consent:

" In one region of Belgium, over 30 percent of reported euthanasia cases were carried out without the consent of the patient, a study has found. At the same time, the overall number of official reported deaths by euthanasia are dramatically increasing in the country since the practice was legalized in 2002, with 40 per cent more cases reported for 2009 than the previous year.

A team of Belgian and Dutch end-of-life researchers circulated a questionnaire to physicians who signed death certificates of patients who died in the Belgian region of Flanders between June and November 2007. The study showed that of the 208 reported Flemish deaths involving the use of “life-ending drugs,” 142 were killed with “an explicit patient request,” and 66 “were without an explicit request."

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/may/10051903.html

Again, this is down to caretakers also automatically doubling as euthanisers (now my fifth time I believe I said it)- and that would be without actually investigating the motives of the doctors (except possible attempts to sell organs on the black market as implied by the article).

Also, I like how you quoted how euthanasia is 'dramatically increasing' since being legalized. I would never have guessed!

Here is a different slant on the same study referred to by "Proxy"

Despite fears to the contrary, the use of drugs to end life without patient request has not increased since euthanasia was legalised in Belgium, states an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association.

Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are controversial issues in the medical world. There are fears that the legalisation of euthanasia will result in an increase in the use of life-ending drugs without explicit patient request, especially for vulnerable people such as seniors.

Euthanasia and/or physician-assisted suicide have been decriminalised in the US states of Oregon (1997) and Washington State (2009), as well as three European countries: Belgium and the Netherlands (2002) and Luxemburg (2009). Recently, the legalisation debate has ignited in several countries, including Canada where a proposed bill was defeated by Parliament in April and the National Assembly of Quebec has launched consultations.

The CMAJ study by a team of Belgian and Dutch researchers found 208 physician-assisted deaths in their sample of death certificates in Flemish Belgium. Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide occurred in 2% of all Flemish deaths and the use of life-ending drugs without request occurred in 1.8% of deaths. Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide were performed often in patients younger than 80 years (79.6%), in cancer patients (80.2%) and in people dying at home (50.3%). The use of life-ending drugs without explicit request often involved patients over the age of 80 (53%) and deaths in hospital ( 67%).

Despite the lack of explicit patient request, the use of life-ending drugs was in most cases discussed with patients' families and health professional colleagues.

'The use of life-ending drugs without explicit patient request occurs predominantly in hospital and among elderly patients who are mostly in an irreversible coma or demented,' write Dr Kenneth Chambaere, Vrije Universiteit, Brussel, and coauthors. 'This fits the description of 'vulnerable' patient groups at risk of life-ending without request. Due attention should therefore be paid to protecting these particular patient groups from such practices. However, these patients are not proportionally more at risk than other patient groups.'

Source: http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10051856-euthanasia-the-use-end-of-life-drugs-without-explicit-reques