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Britain
UK NHS: Dementia sufferers may have a 'duty to die'
2008-09-19
Elderly people suffering from dementia should consider ending their lives because they are a burden on the NHS and their families, according to the influential medical ethics expert Baroness Warnock.
She's a kook, and certainly no expert of any medical ethics I know. Apparently she's not heard of the Hippocratic Oath.
The veteran Government adviser said pensioners in mental decline are "wasting people's lives" because of the care they require and should be allowed to opt for euthanasia even if they are not in pain.

She insisted there was "nothing wrong" with people being helped to die for the sake of their loved ones or society. The 84-year-old added that she hoped people will soon be "licensed to put others down" if they are unable to look after themselves.
So.. she wants to kill Stephen Hawking because he is obviously worthless by her criteria.
Hawking, and you, and me, when we're old and infirm. Spit.
Her comments in a magazine interview have been condemned as "immoral" and "barbaric", but also sparked fears that they may find wider support because of her influence on ethical matters.

Lady Warnock, a former headmistress who went on to become Britain's leading moral philosopher, chaired a landmark Government committee in the 1980s that established the law on fertility treatment and embryo research.

A prominent supporter of euthanasia, she has previously suggested that pensioners who do not want to become a burden on their carers should be helped to die.
Families work out the burdens on their own without government help. It's a very short step, as Europe learned, from 'voluntary' to involuntary euthanasia. Once you start killing you just can't stop.
Last year the Mental Capacity Act came into effect that gives legal force to "living wills", so patients can appoint an "attorney" to tell doctors when their hospital food and water should be removed.

But in her latest interview, given to the Church of Scotland's magazine Life and Work, Lady Warnock goes further by claiming that dementia sufferers should consider ending their lives through euthanasia because of the strain they put on their families and public services.
Or, she could just kill them ...
Britain's leading moral philosopher?
Ouch... and then she went directly to hell.
Sooner the better. Spit.
Posted by:3dc

#18  Remoteman, good son, good person, good choice
Posted by: Frank G   2008-09-19 18:57  

#17  Good story, remoteman. Life affirming.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2008-09-19 15:46  

#16  Hasn't Europe learned it's lesson when it comes to eliminating undesirables who are a burden to society? It's a very old cliche in that part of the world. It never really caught on here. I presume there will be one person who decides, with a very sharp pencil indeed, who will live and who will die?
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-09-19 15:36  

#15  Docs on this side of the pond push this stuff too. My mom had a stroke during heart valve replacement. Rough go for a while afterward. When she got a urinary tract infection about 8 weeks after the surgery her cardiologist encouraged me cut off the food and water. I moved her to a private facility, which she could fortunately afford, and she blossomed. Yes, her quality of life is not what it once was, but she still laughs, sees her kids and grandchildren and gives joy to others as she gets it herself.
Posted by: remoteman   2008-09-19 14:48  

#14  Maybe I've been playing too much WoW, but when I saw this item I thought her name would be Baroness Warlock.

Either way, I think she needs to be nerfed.
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman   2008-09-19 14:41  

#13  Is she the spawn of Dr. Hyde?
Posted by: Betty Grating2215   2008-09-19 13:36  

#12  Well, maybe they could outsource it to the Soylet Corporation.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2008-09-19 13:13  

#11  They really should change their name to the National Death System. Just charge a flat fee for an injection of whatever poison is in vogue. That way, it would limit their rate of growth of their budget to only double digits annually.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2008-09-19 12:35  

#10  As long as they include Rosie O'Donell and Lindsey Lohan among the demented, I'm all for it.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al   2008-09-19 11:24  

#9  Baroness Warnock, at 84 years, your licence to live has expired. Pull over to the side of life's highway and we'll arrange an appointment with an expiration expert. He or she will relieve NHS of the burden of your existence. It'll only take a moment of your time.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon   2008-09-19 09:58  

#8  Lady Warnock, a former headmistress who went on to become Britain's leading moral philosopher

hmmm and when was that award bestowed?
Posted by: Frank G   2008-09-19 09:54  

#7  Is is just me, or do most of the "medical ethics experts" seem to be extremely pro-death of anyone who cannot shortly go back to "productive labor" for the common good?

I don't recall hearing any of them arguing for the basic dignity of someone's life, just their arguments as for why some other poor soul's existence ITNSHO isn't worth it.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie   2008-09-19 09:19  

#6  I'm with tep. Step up to the plate Baroness and show em how it's done.
Posted by: tu3031   2008-09-19 09:13  

#5  This is just an extension of NHS policies to dementia.   For decades the refused dialysis to people over 65, which is a death sentence to people with kidney failure.    Hey, you've got to find a way to pay for all those Sharia-compliant meals somehow .....
Posted by: lotp   2008-09-19 08:58  

#4  Of course sufferers of dementia are not competent to make that decision, so it will have to be made for them.....


Posted by: Enver Shaling7557   2008-09-19 08:53  

#3  "Lady Warnock, a former headmistress"...Jeez, YJCMTSU...
Posted by: imoyaro   2008-09-19 08:13  

#2  The dame is 84, and demented. So why doesn't she put her gas pipe where her mouth is? So much for moral leadership.
Posted by: tep   2008-09-19 04:18  

#1  You know, the Catholic Church haws been warnign about the oncoming normalization of "the culture of death", via the slippery slope. And here it comes, on the back of humanism, secularism, and the sick calculus of moral relativism that forces the view that right and wrong are momentary and arbitrary.

The right to life precedes the right to liuberty and property or the pusuit of happiness, and justly so -- without life there is nobody there to claim the rights.

Life must be defended as an absolute, from conception to natural death. To not do so puts arbitrary lines, whcih, as you can see, are readily moved by politicians and powerbrokers.

Pope John Paul II was right. Pope Benedict is right. Nurturing and inculcating the culture of life into our societies is probably the only way to win against the horrors of the culture of death.

If you err, err on the side of life.

And yes, this applies to abortion and euthanasia.
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-09-19 03:45  

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