Slippery Slope? Of Course It Is

Here’s an excellent piece about the dangers of legalizing assisted killing.

The slippery slope of assisted suicide

Proponents of physician-assisted suicide tell us that there is no danger of a slippery slope, that in Oregon the cases are "not that numerous" and are "carefully monitored." I hope that reasonable people will question these claims and reflect further on whether a law with insufficient safeguards is what we want in the commonwealth.

Slippery slope arguments involve small decisions that lead to undesirable outcomes that never would have been supported at the outset. Often, it is impossible to prove that one small step will have significant negative effects, but common sense allows reasonable people to judge the likelihood that a sequence of events that have happened in one place are likely to happen in another place in a similar way. more

Netherlands: No Slippery Slope? Think Again

Here’s a good piece on how the slippery slope goes Like it or not, that’s what we now have in the Netherlands in terms of medicalized killing.

Corbella: Good news for euthanasia advocates — deaths are up

The slippery slope just keeps on getting longer and steeper. When the debate about euthanasia began in the Netherlands decades ago, proponents insisted that it should and would only be made available to terminally ill, elderly people, who were suffering and in full control of their mental faculties. Period.

They insisted then, as they continue to insist now, that no slippery slope exists with regard to euthanasia. The people who say that are, inarguably, bald-faced liars, ill informed or delusional. There are no other options.

Earlier this week, the annual report cataloguing euthanasia deaths in Holland for 2011 was released. And it’s rollicking good news for euthanasia pushers — deaths are way up! Last year, 3,695 Dutch citizens opted to end their lives early with the help and the blessing of a physician and the state. That’s an 18 per cent increase over 2010 and more than a doubling since 2006. If that were a company’s bottom line, its CEO would be on the cover of every business magazine in the world. more

Legalizing The Duty To Die?

Here’s a good piece explaining how allowing assisted suicide and euthanasia to be legalized will eventually become a duty to die.

Finding a tidy end to our lives

The year is 2029. After discussing schedules, I've picked early afternoon April 28 as my day. That works for most of us. My wife will have returned from her conference. My sisters can fly in after their dance recital. My brother rescheduled his interviews.

Cousins can drive in from the coast. Some nieces and nephews can't make it, but that's all right. They're busy. Dr. Landis assured us it would be brief. I'll just take the pill the good doc gives me and fall quickly asleep, peacefully, forever. No pain. I'm doing what's right. It is better for all of us.

As we face dying's three dreads — pain, abandonment, helplessness — what is the practical allure of physician-assisted suicide?

How about efficiency and convenience? It is quick and painless. more

Center for Bioethics and Cultural Network Explains The Slippery Slope

Here’s a brief, but eloquent riposte to the current assisted suicide/euthanasia madness from the Center for Bioethics and Cultural Network.

Why the CBC opposes assisted suicide and euthanasia

The drive to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia presents a profound challenge to the integrity of medical ethics and the sanctity/equality of human life. As a consequence, the CBC believes that legalizing mercy killing and suicide assistance by doctors (or anyone else) would corrupt medicine, undermine the viability of suicide prevention efforts by sending a mixed societal message, and threaten the lives and equal societal status of the weakest and most vulnerable among us. more

Yes, There Is A Slippery Slope Toward Pro-Death Nihilism

As this piece points out, there is, indeed, a slippery slope hurtling toward medicalized killing at any time, anywhere, for any reason.

Is the slippery slope at work in Belgium?

The “slippery slope” is often derided as a logical fallacy. But when one of the leading advocacy groups for euthanasia in Belgium posts an article entitled “Euthanasie: tijd voor de volgende stap, Euthanasia, time for the next step”, it’s hard not to think that it may not be so illogical after all. more

If You Still Don't believe In The Slippery Slope, Read This

Just in case you still think there’s no such thing as a slippery slope (see post below), read this. Holland has gone from legalizing euthanasia for a very few to this - mobile assisted suicide killing clinics.

Death on wheels: Dutch to send mobile clinics to euthanise people in their own homes

The Dutch government is considering plans to use mobile medical teams which would administer euthanasia to people in their homes.

The units, dubbed 'grim reapers on wheels' by critics, will be called in to kill patients when their own GPs refuse to administer lethal drugs.

The mobile teams of doctors and nurses would be sent out from a clinic following a referral from the patient’s doctor. more

Yes, there Really Is A Slippery Slope

Here's an excellent piece on the legitimacy of the slippery slope argument.

Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal

Vol. 21, No. 4, 379–404 © 2011 by The Johns Hopkins University Press

David Albert Jones

Is There a Logical Slippery Slope from Voluntary to Nonvoluntary Euthanasia?

ABSTRACT. John Keown has constructed a logical slippery slope argument from voluntary euthanasia (VAE) to nonvoluntary euthanasia (NVAE). VAE if justified implies that death can be of overall benefit, in which case it should also be facilitated in those who cannot consent (NVAE). Hallvard Lillehammer asserts that Keown’s arguments rests on a fallacy. However, pace Lillehammer, it can be restated to escape this fallacy. Its validity is confirmed by applying  to VAE some well-established general principles of medical decision making. Thus, either VAE and NVAE must be accepted together or, if NVAE is regarded as unacceptable, VAE should also be rejected. more

Media Spin: Those Life-Loving Dutchmen

Here's a piece in the tank for those life-loving Dutch who keep on killing more groups of people. The stats quoted are only a partial, biased glimpse of what is really happening in the Netherlands. There’s no mention of the infants and children with disabilities killed under the Groningen Protocol, for instance. It's a good lesson - read with care and know who the enemy is.

The Dutch are on the euthanasia slippery slope, right? Wrong

With the release of an important new report, and the launch of another Charter challenge, the debate about euthanasia is flaring up again. It will be passionate. You will hear emotional claims from both sides. Many people will listen to nothing else. But for those who want to be rational, those who want to learn as much as they can and draw a conclusion based on evidence, there is one essential fact to bear in mind.

The Dutch are more honest than we are. Remember that. more

Assisted Suicide: Just One More Slippery Slope

Here's a short but interesting piece about how assisted sucide is just one in a long line of slippery slopes.

Chris Lancelot: Assisted suicide law must include an opt-out

Who could fail to be moved by the plight of Sir Terry Pratchett, now facing early onset Alzheimer's disease?

Or those people with motor neurone disease, MS or terminal cancer? Yet at a time when politicians are emphasising the importance of choice in healthcare, the law still prevents patients from exercising the ultimate choice, to kill themselves if living becomes intolerable.

That may change. But by the same token, one person's freedom to end their life must never impinge on another's not to become involved. Any law allowing assisted suicide would have to contain cast-iron opt-out clauses for medical, nursing, pharmacy and administrative staff - as well as relatives. more

Oregon Is, Indeed, A Slippery Pro-Death Slope

Here’s a piece that makes very clear what many of us have been saying for years: If you legalize assisted killing, it soon gets out of hand. Of course it's a slippery slope - don’t let anyone try to change your mind.

Oregon on the euthanasia slippery slope

Americans love conversation and public disputation about contested moral and ethical issues. Given the Australian Greens' continuing fascination with euthanasia, I decided to visit Oregon which has had a physician assisted suicide law in place since 1997.

In 2010, 96 Oregonians asked their doctors to prescribe a deadly barbiturate which they could ingest causing their own deaths; 65 of them went ahead and did so. This mode of dying accounts for just 0.2 per cent of deaths in Oregon. In the Netherlands, euthanasia accounts for ten times that percentage of deaths, and almost a third of them occur without the patient's explicit request. more

Cardinal Rightly Identifies The Slippery Slope Of Euthanasia

Here's a clear stance against assisted killing and euthanasia, one that should be heard more often.

Euthanasia legislation a slippery slope: Cardinal Pell

Cardinal George Pell has issued a letter against euthanasia, warning that it is a slippery slope, reports BioEdge.org.

"One important part of the Catholic task today, which we share with clear- headed humanists and humanitarians, is to explain that just as winter follows autumn, legislation to allow voluntary euthanasia or mercy killing would lead to widespread involuntary euthanasia, with many, perhaps a majority of those euthanised being subject to the procedure without their consent and often against their will," he writes, in the letter available on the SydneyCatholic.org website. more

Assisted Suicide's Slippery Slope

I don't often pass along letters to the editor, but this one lays out the many pitfalls of how assisted works (or rather, how it doesn’t work - there's all kinds of opportunities for abuse).

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The slippery slope of assisted suicide

"Assisted-suicide advocate dies" (Nation, Monday) reports, "Right-to-die groups hope the passing of Jack Kevorkian, who assisted in about 130 suicides in the 1990s, will shine the spotlight on the practice they call 'aid in dying.' " So do assisted suicide and euthanasia opponents - because the more evidence is revealed, the more people recognize the injustice and danger of this terrible practice. more