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The Forum > Article Comments > The choice illusion > Comments

The choice illusion : Comments

By Paul Russell, published 6/1/2012

With euthanasia there is no real choice for the patient.

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Yabby,

It is certainly tempting to blame the Christian lobby for the fact that voluntary euthanasia is illegal, and they are certainly cheerleaders for banning it, but are they really the main culprits? I see it as much like mass migration, which is continued in force despite the lack of per capita economic benefit and the pressure on the environment and on infrastructure and public services. The "humanitarian" Left are certainly cheerleading for it, but the main factors are the distributional benefits to the people at the top in corporate Australia, from bigger markets, high prices for real estate and other vital resources, and cheap labour.

Similarly, you might follow the money here. Approximately half of the the lifetime cost of your health care is likely to be incurred in the last six months of life. A great many jobs and huge industries, supplying pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, for example, depend on this flow of money. This is similar to the case of the War on Drugs in the US, which cannot be abandoned, even though it is a failure and wreaking havoc in Mexico, because so many livelihoods depend on it.

The Christian lobby has lost on virtually every other issue: property rights and votes for women, contraception and abortion, no-fault divorce, blasphemy, lessons on evolution and other challenges to fundamentalist dogma in the schools, Sunday trading, etc., etc. Why would euthanasia be different?
Posted by Divergence, Thursday, 12 January 2012 10:25:41 AM
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*Why would euthanasia be different?*

Divergence, because of the reality of realpolitik. Never forget,
it only takes a small % of votes to swing an election and parties
spend a whole heap of time and money, crunching numbers.

Whilst surveys show that something like 80% plus of the population
are for voluntary euthanasia, its not a vote changer. Unlike say
contraception or abortion, which would have people demonstrating in
the streets, if say a Tony Abbott with his Catholic values, tried
to change them. He is pragmatic enought to understand that.

When the NT introduced voluntary euthanasia, it was the Catholic
political lobby, led by Kevin Andrews, which introduced legislation
to block it, which they did.

For some of the religious lobby, its a huge issue, enough to change
their votes, politicians are aware of that so none of the big parties
have the testicles to tackle it. They have votes to lose but few to
gain, if they did.

If we look at the Swiss figures and say we introduced similar legislation
here, it might only be 750 people a year who would
take advantage of the changed law. Yet they are the weakest,
the bed ridden, the suffering, those who are hardly in a position
to fight for their rights. So its easy for politicians to gloss
over them and argue about gay marriage and other such trivia.

Politicians are seemingly much more interested in winning the next
election, then be concerned with the human rights of these people.
So they continue to suffer and we ignore them, all very sad really.

All it would take really, is a for a single politician to introduce
a private members bill, along the guidelines that Exit in Switzerland
use. That would force the debate into the open and perhaps finally
bring about change. No political party as such will tackle it.
Posted by Yabby, Thursday, 12 January 2012 11:01:16 AM
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Democratic majorities or even lack of a majority is neither here nor there as far as the natural and moral law is concerned. The right to life as well as the living out one's life is not created by legislation but exists as a reality, in-built if you will, into our very nature as human persons. The State is there to merely ratify human life. Traffic rules are on a lower level and are governed by the State. Human life is not on the same level as traffic rules.

The Catholic Church is not to be feared nor are its members because of adhering to the natural and moral laws self evident to our very natures and knowable by all.
Posted by Webby, Wednesday, 1 February 2012 8:22:48 PM
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Well there is the problem, Webby. People like yourself, who think that
your religious dogma should be above the law and above what people
want to determine about their own lives.

People have everything to fear from the Catholic Church, for no doubt
more will suffer to their last breathe, in the name of religious
dogma, when there are far more dignified and humane options.

The Taliban too think that their dogma should be above what people
think about their own lives. Sadly that puts the Catholic Church
at a similar level, the Christian Taliban. How sad.
Posted by Yabby, Thursday, 2 February 2012 8:53:16 PM
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I agree with you Yabby, all Catholics worry me with their dogma on life issues, once a Catholic always a Catholic deep down, brain washing starts from Catholic parents to children at a very early age.
Tony Abbott worries me if he became Prime Minister, like Tom Kenyon our State Parliamentarian who is also a Catholic,having recently brought up with him the subject of Voluntary Euthanasia, it is like banging your head against a brick wall, his overriding Catholic teaching forbids VE as it is taking life away, which should only be decided by his Catholic God, but war is OK by him, that is different, I do not see that, if Tony became PM he would be lead by his Catholic teaching and not what the majority of people may want. I feel very uneasy with a Catholic in control of the people.
Posted by Ojnab, Sunday, 5 February 2012 3:02:59 PM
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Dear Yabby

You are expressing prejudice against Catholics in a similar way to the anti-Catholic religious we used to see in past generations. Are you reviving that tradition?

Yabby, you assumed that religious dogma is above the law. The opposite is the case and this is not brainwashing as you imagine. Law is based upon universals which are sourced from the natural and moral law found in human hearts and in-built into our natures. Love and treat one another as we would like ot be treated is a golden rule here. Hence the right to life for everyone without downgrading to sub or non-human status the lives of unborn babies is a good start. Follow on with dignified care for the elederly and those suffering from disease and illness. Palliative care is not about prolonging life unnecessarily. Pain can be eased andpatients die without killing them.

The kind of changes based upon your legal positivist views are actualy desires to be above the law by abolishing existing laws in favour of your own that are not founded upon common law precedents or statutes from our earlier legal decisions founded upon natural and moral considerations. Law is not based upon your feelings to be changed when you like. It is not arbitrary or 'might/majority equals right'. That would be to make of the law an ass as the old saying goes.

To equate the apostolic Christian teachings with the Taliban is plainly ridiculous. The only Catholic or Protestant Taliban are individuals who have failed to live by the Gospel and the commandments lived out in kindness.
Posted by Webby, Sunday, 5 February 2012 3:17:27 PM
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