Dutch Sex Abuse Victim Euthanized

[Cordelia]

I'm just not grokking this. This is like the early days last century of euthanizing the disabled and other perceived "defectives". Also, people who are heavily medicated, institutionalized can end up agreeing to anything. I don't doubt many of these people were feeling hopeless but I wonder how much being "socially isolated" influenced their chances of being euthanized? If there are no significant others or family to say hold up, you want to do what? then you are basically property of the state. Which I guess even in a social democratic country with a high standard of living and life satisfaction can be pretty fucking tragic.

grokking-- that's one I had to look up. I agree, that people who are heavily medicated, institutionalized can end up agreeing to anything.
Because that's exactly what is happening, not 'only' to the mentally ill, but to increasing numbers of elderly, chronically ill, suddenly disabled due to an accident, stroke, etc....... And the vulnerable (eventually everyone) really do become, basically, the property of the institution, instead of, or in addition to the State. It is fucking tragic. It's among the reasons why suicides, along with murder-suicides, are increasing among an aging population. And suicide leaves a hell of a lot of suffering for surviving relatives and friends. If there are no significant others or family to say hold up, you want to do what?, then that person really is socially isolated and lonely. Which can then lead to suicide, a very lonely death. As is being in an institution or nursing home and not being ones own agent in deciding on a choice between continued suffering vs. a 'good' death. Left in the hands of the State/institution, individuals at the end-of-life become property before dying as a statistic; no surprise there.

[brekin]

I'm just not grokking this. This is like the early days last century of euthanizing the disabled and other perceived "defectives". Also, people who are heavily medicated, institutionalized can end up agreeing to anything. I don't doubt many of these people were feeling hopeless but I wonder how much being "socially isolated" influenced their chances of being euthanized? If there are no significant others or family to say hold up, you want to do what? then you are basically property of the state. Which I guess even in a social democratic country with a high standard of living and life satisfaction can be pretty fucking tragic.

grokking-- that's one I had to look up. I agree, that people who are heavily medicated, institutionalized can end up agreeing to anything.
Because that's exactly what is happening, not 'only' to the mentally ill, but to increasing numbers of elderly, chronically ill, suddenly disabled due to an accident, stroke, etc....... And the vulnerable (eventually everyone) really do become, basically, the property of the institution, instead of, or in addition to the State. It is fucking tragic. It's among the reasons why suicides, along with murder-suicides, are increasing among an aging population. And suicide leaves a hell of a lot of suffering for surviving relatives and friends. If there are no significant others or family to say hold up, you want to do what?, then that person really is socially isolated and lonely. Which can then lead to suicide, a very lonely death. As is being in an institution or nursing home and not being ones own agent in deciding on a choice between continued suffering vs. a 'good' death. Left in the hands of the State/institution, individuals at the end-of-life become property before dying as a statistic; no surprise there.

Reading your post of what I wrote italicized people who are heavily medicated, institutionalized can end up agreeing to anything and the extrapolation of nursing homes, gave me the epiphany that the general public, all of us, are increasingly being more heavily medicated and institutionalized. Who knows what we will end up agreeing to in the future.

"Sweet Jane" (Cowboy Junkies cover version)

Anyone who's ever had a heart
Wouldn't turn around and break it
and anyone who's ever played a part
Wouldn't turn around and hate it
Sweet Jane, sweet Jane
Sweet, sweet Jane

You're waiting for Jimmy down in the alley
Waiting there for him to come back home
Waiting down on the corner
and thinking of ways to get back home
Sweet Jane, sweet Jane
Sweet, sweet Jane

Anyone who's ever had a dream
Anyone who's ever played a part
Anyone who's ever been lonely
and anyone who's ever split apart
Sweet Jane, sweet Jane
Sweet, sweet Jane

Heavenly widened roses
seem to whisper to me when you smile
Heavenly widened roses
seem to whisper to me when you smile

La la la la, la la la, [etc...]

Sweet Jane
Sweet, sweet Jane

[Cordelia]

^^^
"Who knows what we will end up agreeing to in the future".........

Probably only to the adage that death is a life changing event.

[KUAN]

.

i can't quit u r.i.... X

[Iamwhomiam]

Yes, there can be slippery slopes on life's path.

We'll agree to whatever they want us to ~ dude, we are post Guantanamo.

(we can only imagine what the bots are capable of)

[Cordelia]

Four real people who were euthanized.........


Marc And Eddy Verbessem


Godelieva De Troyer


Nathan Verhelst

.....and the conflicted impact on their families. (The New Yorker article is in-depth and worth the read.)

The New Yorker Letter from Belgium June 22, 2015

The Death Treatment

"In her diary, Godelieva De Troyer classified her moods by color. She felt “dark gray” when she made a mistake while sewing or cooking. When her boyfriend talked too much, she moved between “very black” and “black!” She was afflicted with the worst kind of “black spot” when she visited her parents at their farm in northern Belgium. In their presence, she felt aggressive and dangerous. She worried that she had two selves, one “empathetic, charming, sensible” and the other cruel."
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/ ... -treatment

Euthanasia twins 'had nothing to live for'

The two deaf twins killed by legal euthanasia in Belgium were frightened of losing their independence in an institution and had "nothing to live for".

"Professor Wim Distelmans, the doctor that took the decision to euthanise the twins, defended his decision.

"'It's the first time in the world that a 'double euthanasia' has been performed on brothers," he said. "There was certainly unbearable psychological suffering for them. Though there is of course it always possible to stretch the interpretation of that. One doctor will evaluate differently than the other."

Last month, Belgium's government announced plans to amend the law to allow the euthanasia of children and Alzheimer's sufferers. If passed, the new law will allow euthanasia to be "extended to minors if they are capable of discernment or affected by an incurable illness or suffering that we cannot alleviate".

Chris Gastmans, professor of medical ethics at the Catholic University of Leuven, expressed fear over the wider implications for the welfare of disabled people after the assisted suicide.

"In a society as wealthy as ours, we must find another, caring way to deal with human frailty," he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... e-for.html


(My grandmother suffered from chronic mental illness and spent the last 18 years of her life locked in a Dickensian State mental hospital. I regret that I never met her or ever even saw photograph of her. Stories and 'family lore' about her life and her anguish were heart-breaking. I wonder what she would have wished for, had she a choice in her fate. There should have been other more caring ways........)