We are not alone

I picked up a flier on "Imposed Death" from Human Life Alliance the other day. There was a very brief snippet about the group Dignitas in Switzerland. It's like Whack-a-mole, just when you think the likes of "Dr." Kevorkian are fading into the background, more of these people pop up. In this case, an entire organization based in Zurich that helps people, even foreigners, perform assisted suicide. Ludwig Minelli, founder of Dignitas, says his group has been criticized because it will accept anyone who wants to commit suicide...if Minelli can find a Swiss doctor to write the lethal prescription of barbituates. The patient takes the drug at Dignitas' one-bedroom apartment in Zurich, in the company of family members, friends or a member of the Dignitas staff. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland as long as it is not done for profit or personal gain, although the patients do have to pay to cover the costs incurred by Dignitas. Ah, their charity only extends so far.

The article mentions that Dignitas recently opened a branch office in Hannover, Germany. From my understanding, it isn't helping with assisted suicides, but is there to pressure the government to change its laws regarding assisted suicide.

From an older USA Today article:

Dignitas will not offer its services in Germany but will work to change the law. Despite a national sense of trepidation and residual guilt from the exterminations of the Holocaust, 74% of Germans said they thought euthanasia for seriously ill patients should be legalized, according to a Forsa Institute survey published in October by Stern magazine. Only 20% opposed legalizing the practice; 6% were undecided.

Der Fuhrer would be so proud. Ya, das ist gut. Das ist sehr gut.

From the Assisted Suicide website:

The only four places that today openly and legally, authorize active assistance in dying of patients, are:

Oregon (since 1997, physician-assisted suicide only)
Switzerland (since 1941, physician and non-physician assisted suicide)
Belgium (since 2002, permits 'euthanasia' but does not define the method)
Netherlands (voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide lawful since April 2002, but permitted by the courts since 1984)

The website lists dozens of countries and their assisted suicide laws or more specifically, laws allowing assisted suicide, not prohibiting it. It is worth noting that Russia "has no tolerance of any form of assisted suicide, nor did it during the 60-year Soviet rule. The Russian legal system does not recognize the notion of 'mercy-killing'. Moreover, the 1993 law 'On Health Care of Russian Citizens' strictly prohibits the practice of euthanasia." Only rampant abortion is allowed there.

I was working in Oregon just before they passed the law allowing assisted suicide, when it was still being debated. It was so unbelievable to me I felt like I was in a dream. Naively, I never believed the law would pass. May God have mercy on us.

I also know some people going to Switzerland this month. I hope they make it back alive. My brother and his family live in Geneva...I hope they don't get a cold or something and have to go to the doctor...hate to think what liberties doctors may take when they have been ordained God.

"It's very difficult to avoid this debate. People are feeling: 'Who is the master of my life? It's not God. It's not the state. It's not the physician. I am the master of my life. And I'm the one to decide if I have to suffer or not'."
Jacqueline Herremans, president of the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity in Brussels.