Assisted Suicide and the California Uninsured
California euthanasia ideologues are working overtime to legalize assisted suicide in the Golden State (A.B. 654). They often point to Oregon as the model for a "good law." In other places, I have often noted, as have many others, that the Oregon law is NOT working as hyped. However, here is a little statistic that Rita Marker researched, which demonstrates how ugly assisted suicide could become in CA. There are nearly twice as many people without health insurance in CA (6.5 m.), as there are total people in Oregon (3.5 m.). Given that assisted suicide would be the cheapest possible "medical treatment" around if it ever were legalized, and noting that many assisted suicide victims in Oregon reportedly "chose" to die so they will not burden their families, the implications for the poor and uninsured if assisted suicide becomes lawful in California are obvious.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 1:31 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Mr. Smith:
I am a great admirer of your writing on National Review Online and your opposition to euthanasia.
I have been trying to find a way to get in touch with you, and so far this is it. I have my own blog on blogger, and have planned to write an article on euthanasia there. I am trying to get some of the proponents and opponents to answer questions about specific hypthetical situations, and would love to have your views as one of the good guys. Please email me at lhornbk@yahoo.com if you are interested. Thank you.
Re: Oregon as a model. Oregon is touted as a model in many arenas; among them: assisted suicide, land use planning and animal law. I have lived in Portland for the better part of the past 25 years and would argue that those who uncritically believe the state to be a "progressive leader" in any arena are missing the big picture. This place is disturbingly dark.
Historically, Oregon has been dominated by self-interested cliques(see E. Kimbark McColl's writings), and the professions have been regulated to protect these, rather than the broader public interest. In the late 1980s, a physician, the late Dr. Timothy Patrick, won a treble damages Restraint of Trade award against a cabal of competing doctors in Astoria Oregon who used established peer review processes to set him up and run him out of practice. The Oregon State Bar is no better; it just hasn't been caught: it has refused to investigate cases alleging prominent lawyers and judges stole millions using the probate and bankruptcy courts as a shield, while helping to harass whistle blowers by attempting to proceed on complaints that typographical errors and such constitute conduct involving dishonesty.OSB has been used to remove popularly elected judges and DAs from the bench and bar respectively on dubious grounds. This is a dirty little machine state. I moved here after hearing it was a "progressive leader" in land use planning and became a land use lawyer. I have come to see similarity to a land syndicate organized around light rail transportation, not unlike the one William Mulholland developed around water in Los Angeles early last century. If downtown Portland's redevelopment had really been well planned, land use impacts on natural resources would have been considered and Portland's harbor would not have been declared a Superfund site in 2000. Another myth is that we are a great leader in animal law and policy. A column in last week's Oregonian promoting a "No More Homeless Pets" conference that is to be held here this coming weekend boasts that Portland area shelters have almost stopped euthanasia as a way to control cat and dog populations. The official statistics-recently obtained by a colleague (with great difficulty) show an entirely different picture:a 50% increase in euthanasia in the past five years since a county commission appointed task force recommended that the county move in a policy direction to reduce euthanasia-in line with a public mandate. Policy has not lined up with "no-kill" standards developed by Richard Avanzino in San Francisco/Alameda over the past 30 years. In fact, the county shelter has been dominated by the National Animal Interest Alliance, an animal use group masquerading as an animal welfare group. We have discovered an NAIA associate, a biological supply house, has been buying dead cats from county shelters-for high school students to dissect, among others-and that someone has lied to the Humane Society of the United States about the state of Oregon law. People who question what is going on are being called "terrorists". So much for open debate and advocacy in this fair state. I realize we humans are the dominant species and have dominion over the others, but believe we should exercise it responsibly. I don't consider research scientists/suppliers dominating a public agency that handles people's pets and lying about what they do to be a responsible act. There is more:Oregon's racist past, its' tentative present. Secrecy tends to shroud the ugly secrets Oregon holds.
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