Dutch Euthanasia Conspiracy

This whole topic is unsavory. I have worked in elder care facilities and it's sad. Sad to see aged people who have no sense of who and where they are, cannot even feed themselves, pumped full of food, water and meds to keep them alive in order to collect a paycheck. At the same time, I believe everyone should have the right to choose euthanasia with the exception of those sentenced to die for crimes they commited. However, at what point is someone out of their mind so they can no longer make that decision and it is made for them?

Just a few weeks ago I had to have two of my dogs put down because of terminal cancer diagnosis. I delayed the inevitable until it was obvious my dogs were suffering and there was no quality of life. I stayed with each dog in succession while the vet administered the 'kill' shot. She explained it was a massive overdose of anesthesia medication and that the first few seconds, the dog would feel a complete loss of pain and then death would follow within a few more seconds. She wasn't wrong and my dogs were quickly put to sleep with me holding them. Each instance of passing from life into death lasted no more than 10-15 seconds. Their vitals were checked for confirmation. I was able to then take one home and bury it while I chose separate cremation for my very large lab mix. I paid extra for the separate cremation even though I don't know for sure the remains I received back belong solely to my dog but in my simple mind it makes me feel better, but I digress.

One of my points is, if euthanasia is a choice, why starve someone for a week and withhold water and food for the second week? Why not make it a non torturous event? The process of a long drawn out tortuous inhumane event is wrong.

My other point is, I think it's wrong to kill people unless they choose that option while of sound mind. I personally would not do it but then, I've never had to put anyone in an elder care facility either so I haven't walked in those shoes. I can say that many of the people in the facility I worked at were cognitive, funny, intelligent.

At the same time, after watching the tear jerker movie 'Million dollar baby', I thought that Clint Eastwood did the most humane action by terminating the life of his protoge' who also asked for the ending of her life. It's a terrible dilemma to be caught in though.

a reply to: StoutBroux

More often then are pumped full of med's to keep them quiet and compliant, most of the time they are fully compus mentas as you well know but you make an excellent point, it is about milking them for there money, over here in the UK Asian business (mainly of Indian extraction) men have been investing very heavily in the care market over the past decade, Cost's for elderly care have skyrocketed in part because it is a captive market whom have no or rather little choice about which care home if they wish to stay close to there children and the main culprit these day's is the cultural change which I have to say has been driven by Corporate greed and the view that no longer productive members of the Worker class should be regarded as liability's, children no longer care for there old folk's and forget that the shoe's there parent's are now in are the same they will be wearing in just a generation or so.

My sister worked for a time at an old folk's home, found the treatment of the elderly very bad indeed so after challenging the senior staff over it she walked out and pursued the correct legal avenue's, that care home then became UNDER NEW Management as you can guess with the cruel former boss being given her marching order's and council inspectors taking a far more stringent check of the site but only because my sister was so disgusted at what she encountered there and felt so responsible to those elderly that she pushed it and pushed it until something WAS done over that case.

Treating elderly with Alzheimers for instance can be almost soul destroying as you see formerly wonderful people reduced and with there dignity stolen from them, while I do not agree with any form of Euthanasia I do understand the pain and outright this causes for there family as they have first seen there loved one die by inches and then end up little more than a child in an old person's body but by that measure A child in an old person's body would we even be suggesting this if they were merely poorly children or is it simply that our view shaped by our artificial and very inhuman culture see's them as no longer worthy of existence in many cases and is that therefore not more of an indictment of this very culture, look at how the Chinese TRADITIONALLY regarded there elder's with respect, how they lived in courtyard home's (a cluster of individual home's or apartment's for family's around a central shared courtyard and all lived in by one family and it's extended members), they took care of there elderly and that lent itself to long life and often also to a more healthy old age.

It is not our elderly but our culture and way of living that has lost it's way and gone very wrong indeed.