The idea of physician-assisted suicide is a direct and potentially lethal blow to the whole self-understanding of the medical profession. It all of a sudden finds itself in the position not of healing, but of killing. I think a lot of doctors who have reflected upon this philosophically recognize that it is a truly radical assault upon the very self-understanding of Western medicine.
More Quotes from Richard Neuhaus:
It's very devious and insidious to see how -- once one permits a departure from the notion of the inherent good of life and the responsibilities that are owed to life -- that then it becomes very difficult to answer the question, 'Why not kill a person' ... People don't like to have the comparison made because it rightly makes all of us very uneasy, but there are some very striking analogies to what is happening now among us here in the United States and the Third Reich, Nazi Germany.Richard Neuhaus
One example is Roe v. Wade. The lethal logic of Roe v. Wade is that nobody has rights that we are bound to respect if they cannot effectively assert those rights. They are at the mercy and the discretion of those who can effectively assert their rights. We're not talking simply about the unborn, we're talking about the aged, the radically handicapped, the deformed.
Richard Neuhaus
human nature being what it is, those who want to evade the clear statement of the instruction will have ample opportunities to seek loopholes, evasions and rationalizations.
Richard Neuhaus
In legal parlance, that is called 'the rational person test,' ... That's where somebody else says, 'Even though we have no idea what this person would want in this circumstance in which they cannot themselves tell us what they want, a 'rational' person -- meaning, myself -- in that circumstance would want to die.' So you move very quickly from so-called voluntary euthanasia to involuntary euthanasia. These legal and medical developments are not simply hypothetical They're in the courts right now.
Richard Neuhaus
On such questions, the church has clearly defined positions,
Richard Neuhaus
Readers Who Like This Quotation Also Like:
Based on Topics: Death & Dying Quotes, Medicine & Medical Quotes, Work & Career QuotesBased on Keywords: physician-assisted, self-understanding
Well, I'm using a cane, so what? So what if they shot me sitting in a wheelchair? That's life!
Dick Clark
Every unskilled illegal immigrant who enters the United States for work drives up healthcare costs for every American. And, every illegal immigrant we turn a blind eye toward weakens the rule of law our country is founded on.
Elton Gallegly
I think people have to set up little battles. They have to demonize people whom they disagree with or feel threatened by. But it's the ideological framing of the debate that scares me.
Barbara Kruger