Yesterday I had to put my cat to sleep. She had a fast-growing malignant cancer which could not be treated. She had three wonderful last weeks with me, and the last thing she knew was my arms around her. I am sad because I thought we would have many more years ahead of us, but it was not to be.
What bothers me about this is the number of people who have said that that is how they want to go if they were to have a terminal disease. And I understand where they are coming from. But it is one thing to ask for that for yourself. My concern--and I know I am not alone in this--if assisted suicide becomes more and more of a legal option, is how do you prevent it from being used to eliminate those whose lives are inconvenient? As I have said before, the responses I am getting don't reassure me. Maybe I am wrong but I happen to believe that that is a legitimate concern.
The other day I had a conversation with a friend who knows I am on the spectrum. He expressed the old familiar, that is how I want to go if I have a terminal disease. He mentioned a mutual friend's struggle with cancer, the agonies that he suffered before he died. We treat our animals more humanely than that, etc.
So I said, what if, instead of a cat we are talking about, we are talking about a child. Particularly a child that is severely autistic. Who, like the cat, may not understand why it is being subjected to all these treatments, even if there was hope. Because I did have an option. I could have taken her to the veterinary school at Michigan State. I chose not to. It would have been too hard on her, and it would have only delayed the inevitable, and I don't have that kind of money anyway. So, yes, I chose death as an out. But what if this had been a child?
My friend's response appalled me. He basically said that I should have the same options with a child--with an autistic child--as I do my cat. That yes, I should have the right to choose to have her put down.
Then I turn on the news this morning and I see that Issy Stapleton's mother is telling people that the reason she tried to kill herself and her daughter is that she felt that both of them would be better off in heaven because she was at her wit's end. This "loving" mother gave her daughter an extra dose of sedatives, told her that they were going on a camping trip to make s'mores, and drove off to a lonely campground to do the deed. Except that she didn't succeed. Now Issy has to live with the knowledge that her mother LIED to her in order to trick her into going along so that her mother can kill her. This is a mother who describes her life with Issy in a blog entitled "The Daily Woe." I just wonder, if the euthanasia option had been available to Kelli Stapleton, would she have embraced it?
According to Michelle Alexander in the "New Jim Crow", there is already a large population of Americans who have lost basic civil rights that the rest of us take for granted. Don't look to the courts; they have consistently upheld that it is perfectly legal and not unconstitutional to deprive someone of their rights as long as this person is under "correctional control." The fact that the ones most affected are African-Americans, well, that's not racism at work. It's not the courts' problem if the laws are selectively enforced more often against one race rather than across the board. As long as you are not openly saying it is because of race, it's ok. This is a dangerous precedent.
Because it will be perfectly legal to do the same to other groups, just as long as you are not saying openly that you are targeting members of these groups simply because they belong to those groups. Parental euthanasia of handicapped children is coming. It will sneak in under the disguise of choice. It will sneak in under the disguise of privacy. It will sneak in under the disguise of compassion. The humane thing to do. And those of us who see what is happening and speak out will be mocked. Will be told that we don't understand. Will be told that we can't impose our religious values on others. Will be told that we lack compassion and just want to see children suffer. That we really don't care about the quality of life, only the quantity of life. Parental euthanasia of handicapped children is already here in a way. We don't see it because so far it is done prenatally. There's been attempts to sneak it in postnatally, and so far, they've failed. But eventually they will succeed. When someone who is as reasonable as my friend says, yes, that a parent should have the same right to terminate a child's life for the same reasons one terminates the life of an animal, it is coming.
What bothers me about this is the number of people who have said that that is how they want to go if they were to have a terminal disease. And I understand where they are coming from. But it is one thing to ask for that for yourself. My concern--and I know I am not alone in this--if assisted suicide becomes more and more of a legal option, is how do you prevent it from being used to eliminate those whose lives are inconvenient? As I have said before, the responses I am getting don't reassure me. Maybe I am wrong but I happen to believe that that is a legitimate concern.
The other day I had a conversation with a friend who knows I am on the spectrum. He expressed the old familiar, that is how I want to go if I have a terminal disease. He mentioned a mutual friend's struggle with cancer, the agonies that he suffered before he died. We treat our animals more humanely than that, etc.
So I said, what if, instead of a cat we are talking about, we are talking about a child. Particularly a child that is severely autistic. Who, like the cat, may not understand why it is being subjected to all these treatments, even if there was hope. Because I did have an option. I could have taken her to the veterinary school at Michigan State. I chose not to. It would have been too hard on her, and it would have only delayed the inevitable, and I don't have that kind of money anyway. So, yes, I chose death as an out. But what if this had been a child?
My friend's response appalled me. He basically said that I should have the same options with a child--with an autistic child--as I do my cat. That yes, I should have the right to choose to have her put down.
Then I turn on the news this morning and I see that Issy Stapleton's mother is telling people that the reason she tried to kill herself and her daughter is that she felt that both of them would be better off in heaven because she was at her wit's end. This "loving" mother gave her daughter an extra dose of sedatives, told her that they were going on a camping trip to make s'mores, and drove off to a lonely campground to do the deed. Except that she didn't succeed. Now Issy has to live with the knowledge that her mother LIED to her in order to trick her into going along so that her mother can kill her. This is a mother who describes her life with Issy in a blog entitled "The Daily Woe." I just wonder, if the euthanasia option had been available to Kelli Stapleton, would she have embraced it?
According to Michelle Alexander in the "New Jim Crow", there is already a large population of Americans who have lost basic civil rights that the rest of us take for granted. Don't look to the courts; they have consistently upheld that it is perfectly legal and not unconstitutional to deprive someone of their rights as long as this person is under "correctional control." The fact that the ones most affected are African-Americans, well, that's not racism at work. It's not the courts' problem if the laws are selectively enforced more often against one race rather than across the board. As long as you are not openly saying it is because of race, it's ok. This is a dangerous precedent.
Because it will be perfectly legal to do the same to other groups, just as long as you are not saying openly that you are targeting members of these groups simply because they belong to those groups. Parental euthanasia of handicapped children is coming. It will sneak in under the disguise of choice. It will sneak in under the disguise of privacy. It will sneak in under the disguise of compassion. The humane thing to do. And those of us who see what is happening and speak out will be mocked. Will be told that we don't understand. Will be told that we can't impose our religious values on others. Will be told that we lack compassion and just want to see children suffer. That we really don't care about the quality of life, only the quantity of life. Parental euthanasia of handicapped children is already here in a way. We don't see it because so far it is done prenatally. There's been attempts to sneak it in postnatally, and so far, they've failed. But eventually they will succeed. When someone who is as reasonable as my friend says, yes, that a parent should have the same right to terminate a child's life for the same reasons one terminates the life of an animal, it is coming.
