Re: bourgeois medicine

[Adam Levenstein <cleon42@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

--- Marta Russell <ap888@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> The New York Times, as usual, got the story
> embarrassingly wrong,
> calling the
> new law "aided suicide": "The new law insists adult
> patients must have
> made a
> voluntary, well-considered and lasting request to
> die." The law explicitly
> allows patients to give a physician the right to
> kill them when in the
> doctor's opinion they are too physically or mentally
> ill to decide for
> themselves, provided he can get a second doctor to
> agree.

Actually....The New York Times got it right. Had the
author taken the time out of her schedule to actually
read the bill, or at least a summary of it, the author
would find this:

"The due care requirements mentioned in Criminal Code
Article 293, paragraph two, stipulate that the
physician:

a. must be convinced that the patient has made a
voluntary and well-considered request to die
b. must be convinced that the patient?s is facing
interminable and unendurable suffering;
c. has informed the patient about his situation and
his prospects
d. together with the patient, must be convinced that
there is no other reasonable solution;"

(further requirements, including consultation of a
second doctor)

So it seems to me that yes, the doctor really DOES
have to consult the patient, unlike what the author
alleges. It is, in fact, an assisted suicide law; not
a "doctors, kill 'em if you want to" law.

> Unlike my native state, Oregon, which sadly became
> the first in our country
> to authorize suicide under restricted circumstances,
> the victims of
> the Dutch
> Death need not have a fatal illness

I refer the author to (D) above.

> and they need
> not administer the death
> blow themselves. Two doctors backing each other up

With the patient.

I won't go through the rest of the article
step-by-step; needless to say, it's merely a repition
of the above innaccuracies, complete with a "whoa is
the Dutch" who are apparently facing a horde of
doctors who are just itching to kill people off.

I encourage other people to actually read the law,
which is online at
http://www.minjust.nl:8080/a_beleid/fact/suicide.htm.

Adam

=====
Adam Levenstein                          cleon42@xxxxxxxxx
ICQ: 17125158

AK-47: $350. Ammunition: $60. Camoflauge outfit: $55.

The looks on your co-workers' faces: Priceless.
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