Getting killed in the hospital

On Being Frank, Kereopa points out that while we are all distracted with same-sex marriage, a hidden debate over the ability of the State to kill people if they want to die (he doesn't quite put in like that, but that's what it amounts to) is "bubbling away without much attention."

I agree with Kereopa when he says that euthanasia is abhorrent. It's the continuation of the ever present slide into the pits of hell that so few in New Zealand seem to be fighting, and even worse are shrouding the arguments in layers of supposed compassion.

There is nothing compassionate about making hospitals places where you wonder if you enter, if a doctor or your family will decide for you that your life is not worth continuing and there actively hasten your death.

Unfortunately, death hastening is already occurring in some (or is it all?) New Zealand hospitals through dehydration. A friend of mine just this year had her 79 year old father in hospital, and because he was unlikely to die quickly by himself and suffered from demetia, and heaven forbid might even recover!, the hospital through a sister that was a doctor, recommended that they withdraw all fluids so that he save everyone the trouble! They got the family to agree and so it was done, and the next morning he died.

I know I'm going to get the naysayers coming onto the comments and say that it was better that this man die sooner rather than suffering for months, but seriously, how do you know? The man was never consulted. What if he was quite happy being alive?

Do we want to be like the Netherlands where old people are afraid to go to hospital, because there is a high chance someone will decide their life is not worthy and therefore they won't come out alive?

That's what legalising Euthanasia will do, make the abuses more prevalent and less likely to be prosecuted. If old people are already being dehydrated to death in NZ hospitals now, how much worse will it become?

Related link: The Hidden Debate ~ Being Frank