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Death by organ donation

6/23/2019

1 Comment

 
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Today’s culture of death keeps coming up with new ways to kill us off—whenever possible, making it sound like the noblest idea ever.
 
Here’s the latest: Euthanizing people who are very much alive by knocking them out and surgically removing whatever vital organs you have need of – hearts or livers, for instance.
 
It’s already happening in Canada. And the idea has long been discussed behind closed doors here in the U.S. But suddenly it’s being exposed to the light of day.

​USA Today recently carried an op-ed by pulmonary and critical care physician E. Wesley Ely, according to a piece in World magazine. “How should society respond to the increasingly long list of people waiting for organs on a transplant list?” he asks. “You’ve no doubt heard of ‘black market’ organs in foreign countries, but are there other options that should be off the table?”
 
Death by organ donation would certainly seem to qualify as one of those verboten options, he concludes. Yet just the opposite is happening, Dr. Ely reports. “The idea of carrying out euthanasia by placing donors under general anesthesia and then surgically removing their vital organs while they are still alive is gaining frightening traction.”
 
So what do they put on the death certificate, do you suppose? "Cause of death: Organ removal"?
 
I suppose so. As I wrote a few years ago when I first got wind of this horrifying practice, “Leave it to modern scientists to use five words when one is perfectly sufficient.”

​That word would, of course, be "murder." 
1 Comment

Should we heed Gladys Baldwin's warning?

6/11/2019

7 Comments

 
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You can learn a lot about life from nursing-home residents--even the fictional ones. Consider elderly Gladys Baldwin's warning in chapter 55 of The Song of Sadie Sparrow:  
Sadie Sparrow
Monday, May 28
​
“Here we go again,” Gladys said, sighing dramatically as she surveyed the rainbow of pills in the little plastic cup that nurse Char had given her. Then, suspiciously, “What’s the blue-and-green one for?”

Char bent close to her patient and lowered her voice, but anyone in the vicinity could hear her. “It’s for depression, Gladys. It’s the new one that your psychiatrist prescribed.”

“Well I don’t want it!” Gladys picked it out of the cup and threw it on the table, amidst her arrangement of the greenish puzzle pieces that would ultimately fit into a jungle scene packed with lizards and lemurs.  

Char retrieved the capsule and tucked it carefully into a drawer on her cart. “I’ll let him know.”

“You do that, honey. And tell him I don’t care to see him again. There’s nothing wrong with me. Who wouldn’t be depressed at my age?” Gladys scowled at Sadie. “These doctors are trying to poison us, I tell you!”

She spotted an aide passing the doorway. “Girl! Girl! Come here this instant! Take me home!”
 
Astoundingly, the young woman complied; if Sadie had been in her position, she would have feigned deafness and kept going.
 
“I’m warning you,” Gladys hissed at Sadie as she was whisked away, her chin jutting out regally. “It’s all poison!”
 
--From The Song of Sadie Sparrow, pages 327-328 ​

Was Gladys correct? Are those of us who live “too long” destined for what’s now being called EAS—Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide?
 
Now hear this from a 2011 research report published in the peer-reviewed Canadian journal Current Oncology: “Although the initial intent was to limit euthanasia and assisted suicide to a last-resort option for a very small number of terminally ill people, some jurisdictions now extend the practice to newborns, children, and people with dementia.”
 
Is this correct? If so, where, and under what circumstances? (I've emailed the authors for details but have yet to hear back.)

How about this: Is there any truth to reports of human euthanasia in the European Union? How about the whispered rumors of involuntary euthanasia—for instance
, the 2018 report on putting an elderly dementia patient to sleep in The Netherlands, while she tried in vain to fight off her attackers?
 
Then there’s this study from the Netherlands, published in late 2018. Its authors claim euthanasia is quite rare. Here's the scoop: They analyzed the medical records of 5361 patients who died over the course of four months in 2015--patients who had had “psychiatric disorders, dementia, or an accumulation of health problems.” In this select group, they said, euthanasia was given to only 6.3% of those who had requested it, whereas 4.9% of these folks were denied euthanasia.  
 
Let that sink in.
 
A total of 11.2% of the dead people studied, at least some mentally challenged and all in the care of medical professionals, asked to be murdered. And these medical professionals “only” granted the request for 6.3% of them.
 
To put it into a sound bite: 338 of the people in this limited group, all suffering from “psychiatric disorders, dementia, or an accumulation of health problems,” were euthanized in the Netherlands in late 2015.
 
Keep in mind that these deaths occurred several years ago, presumably when the European debate over euthanasia was still ongoing, if not exactly raging. Consider, too, that those analyzed represented just a slice of the deceased in Holland during that period.
 
Perhaps most disturbing, this study only looked at patients who had requested euthanasia. No word on those who didn’t ask for it.    
 
You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to find hard statistics on this practice, even in the scientific journals. But if the deafening silence on this topic is any indication, the practice of putting human beings out of their misery--willingly or unwillingly--may be gaining steam.
 
Perhaps we’d best launch the debate in the U.S. sooner rather than later. If we don’t, the application of EAS may well slip beneath the radar of Americans too distracted to notice—or too hardened by our culture of death to care.
7 Comments

Demographics tell a frightening tale

6/5/2019

2 Comments

 
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You’d have to be part ostrich to be unconcerned about America’s safety net for the very elderly. If you don’t count yourselves among that oblivious group, consider just a few of the U.S. Census Bureau’s projections.
 
This, for example: Today, roughly 15 % of Americans, about 49.2 million, are over the age of 65. By 2060, that number is expected to climb to 23%, and to describe 94.7 million Americans.
 
Imagine that. Nearly one in four citizens tapping into the Social Security “fund” they’ve been paying into their entire working lives. (Apparently there really is no fund; our politicians have been spending every cent the moment it comes in. But let’s pretend.) Nearly one in four citizens signing up for Medicare. And a big chunk of this population requiring skilled-nursing care of the sort offered today by America’s nursing homes.
 
One in four. And the under-65 crowd will have to support them. If literally everyone is working by then, that would mean three workers supporting not only their own families and futures, but also providing substantial support to every elderly person. And not every American works at a paying job. What will the ratios be by 2060? Two workers per elderly person? Or perhaps just one?
 
My primary concern is the nursing-home population—those who cannot possibly fend for themselves. This will include many of you who are now in your 40s and 50s. What will happen to you when the money runs out?
 
Young families taking granny in is largely a thing of the past. Oh, it still happens now and then. But in the first place, this assumes old folks who had children; and if declining birth rates in the western world are any indication, it seems that “living with the kids” is destined to become less and less of an option for the aging.  It also assumes children willing and able to take care of their parents at home, whatever disabilities might be involved. Good luck on that score.
 
So what’s the solution?
 
We’re already seeing some gasp-worthy possibilities unfolding in Europe.

There’s the old “send ‘em to cheaper regions” ploy. Over the last decade, ​Germany has already begun making a name for itself in this area. Eastern European destinations are not so bad, since a child could perhaps jump on a train to visit mom or dad over a long weekend. More concerning are the homes in regions like southeast Asia; visiting an institutionalized parent in a country like Thailand would require plenty of vacation time and ready cash, and it would be almost impossible for a child to monitor the quality of care being provided day in, day out.
 
And then there are those pioneers in The Netherlands. First it was assisted suicide. And now? Euthanasia, of course! The thinking seems to go something like this: We put our pets to sleep when they’re suffering, or sometimes even when they become too messy for our pristine homes. So why not the elderly?
 
And isn’t this romantic? In Holland, you can now be euthanized with your partner. As a recent report put it, “Joint suicides by elderly couples used to be considered a tragedy. In the Netherlands, doctors killing elderly couples together is considered a medical treatment.”
 
I have no idea what the solution might be to this impending eldercare crisis. It might even be too late to do anything about it. But it does seem like we should be talking about it, at least as fervently as we do the question of climate change.
 
Fortunately, nothing in this world is forever. This life is just a blink of an eye. And for those who’ve repented and trusted in Jesus Christ, there’s a joyful eternity to look forward to, with no worries, no tears, no distress of any kind.

​If you’d like to join that happy throng, I hope you’ll begin seeking your Creator today. Here’s a good place to begin. 
2 Comments

    Kitty
    Foth-Regner

    I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, a freelance copywriter, a nursing-home volunteer, and the author of books both in-process and published -- including
    Heaven Without Her.

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