Sanity in Hong Kong

Hong Kong's the Standard has a story that shows that there are pockets of sanity out there and where the pro-death crowd haven't quite yet twisted peoples' thinking. Its a story explaining how advance directives are very different from documents allowing euthanasia. An obvious distinction for some of us, but if you look at some advance directives, they are ambiguous enough that they could be construed as leading to euthanasia - for example, those directives that specify food and water and "medical interventions" or "medical treatments."

Euthanasia fears over plan for `living wills'

The Elderly Commission has backed a call to let people spell out what health treatment they want before they reach the stage of being unable to make a decision due to illness or incapacity.

Commission chairman Leong Che-hung insisted such advance directives - so-called living wills - do not amount to euthanasia but agreed more public education is needed to differentiate between the two concepts. more