Irony Alert: Poor Choice of Cliché
[guest post by JVW]
The weekly newspaper for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, The Tidings, carries a news item in the most recent edition discussing AB2X15, legislation currently in front of California lawmakers that would bring Oregon-style assisted suicide to the Golden State. About two-thirds of the way into reading the article, we come across this:
“It is urgent to pass the law,” said Patricia Portillo, spokeswoman for Compassion and Choices. “People are dying and they cannot wait another legislative session.”
Have you got that? People are dying, so we urgently need to pass legislation to allow them to — uh, let’s see here — end their lives prematurely.
I don’t mean this post to be an argument on the wisdom of assisted suicide (though feel free to go down that path in the comments if you wish). I instead want to point out that sometimes you shouldn’t just fall back on a shopworn old cliché as a strategy for demanding a legislative solution without running the risk of subjecting yourself to deserved derision.
[Post-publish edits made for clarity of argument.]
– JVW
if we knew which conditions were most likely to compel people to make this kind of end of life decision it might help people make a more compelling case for better treatments for these conditions or for more research in those areas
happyfeet (831175) — 9/6/2015 @ 12:12 pmThe article mentions that about 80% of Oregon’s assisted suicides are those suffering from cancer.
JVW (ba78f9) — 9/6/2015 @ 12:14 pmoh.
i wonder if it’s across the board or if there are any particular kinds of cancer what are more likely to be associated with this…
despair
happyfeet (831175) — 9/6/2015 @ 12:20 pmJVW,
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 9/6/2015 @ 12:50 pmlikely beyond your authority
DRJ has left in frustration with hf’s nonstop spewing.
Some of us would like a referendum on who we get to chat with, DRJ or hf.
If hf ever has something new to say we would be happy to entertain it,
simply trying to cover up his last pile of BS has gotten old.
“Across town, Ms. Portillo’s brother, community activist Patricio Portillo, made an impassioned plea to the Planning Commission to allow the proposed 8-acre expansion of Shady Rest Cemetery, because of increased demand for burial plots. ‘The present size of the cemetery will soon not be sufficient to meet the needs of the community’, he said. ‘Too many eople are dying to get in’.”
nk (dbc370) — 9/6/2015 @ 12:54 pmHi MD.
Yep, definitely beyond my authority. It would have to be settled by the boss. Sorry to hear that DRJ has taken leave of the blog; I’ve always liked her comments and her posts going back to the day when she was a guest-blogger here. I have actually come to appreciate happyfeet’s comments, though I do know that his style isn’t for everyone and he does tend to get under some people’s skin. I guess personality clashes are inevitable on a political blog, but I’m sorry it has come to the point where longtime readers are leaving.
JVW (ba78f9) — 9/6/2015 @ 1:05 pmMs. Portillo probably meant to say that people are suffering, but left-wing advocacy has become so hell-bent on the people are dying hysteria that she brought out that line as if on autopilot.
JVW (ba78f9) — 9/6/2015 @ 1:09 pmYes, Gene Wilder is beating on Peter Boyle’s chest and Terri Garr is screaming “Stop it, doctor, you are killing him!”
felipe (56556d) — 9/6/2015 @ 1:14 pmDoctor: (to terminal patient) I’m sorry, my Hippocratic oath prevents me from assisting you.
Terminal patient: Doc, you’re killin’me!
felipe (56556d) — 9/6/2015 @ 1:16 pmI have an idea for a T-shirt:
A large, racially ambiguous man, with “voter” in his shirt holding a gun to his own head, the gun has the alpha-numeric “AB2X-15” on its handle. The man has a confused look on his face. A politican (insert desired likeness) is standing behind the man whispering:
“You need to pull the trigger to find out what’s inside it.”
felipe (56556d) — 9/6/2015 @ 1:35 pmPlanned Retirement/euthanasia is a spinoff from Planned Parenthood/abortion.
n.n (60df76) — 9/6/2015 @ 1:39 pmA scene in HELL:
Satan is holding a syringe with “AB2X 15” written on it. Next to him is a figure on a rack with the name “insert desired deceased public figure” who stares wide-eyed at Satan and says.”
“I wish we had THAT back in the day!”
These things write themselves.
felipe (56556d) — 9/6/2015 @ 1:43 pmHome-Brewed Morphine Is Around The Corner
happyfeet (831175) — 9/6/2015 @ 1:57 pmJVW,
do you really enjoy his repetitive name calling without making any new points or using any logic other than “I said so”?
It is tedious, the rudest person in the room is the one left standing, it’s a shame.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 9/6/2015 @ 2:04 pmCan’t help thinking these same people ramming through legislation to allow the prescription of poison to kill grandma and grandpa, are the same people who rended their garments bringing lawsuits to save axe murderers, warehoused on death row for forty years, from getting the same “treatment”.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 9/6/2015 @ 2:08 pmFrom cradle to cane one thing stays consistent with the democrats – they want us dead.
The only people deserving protections from an early exit from planet Earth in their eyes are people who were convicted of making some of us dead.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 9/6/2015 @ 2:13 pmdo you really enjoy his repetitive name calling without making any new points or using any logic other than “I said so”?
Again, I know his style is not for everyone, but I have a pretty high tolerance for that sort of thing. And when I think he’s way out there I simply ignore him. (Yes, I know that is easier said than done.) But I will say that there is often a certain wit and élan in happyfeet’s comments that I can’t help but enjoy, stressing once again that I realize his style is not for everyone.
JVW (ba78f9) — 9/6/2015 @ 4:00 pmDoes it seem that the Roman Catholic Church has lost its moral compass?
askeptic (efcf22) — 9/6/2015 @ 5:24 pmHey! What about me?
@JVW (OP)
Hi JVW. I think you misunderstood. The provision to allow assisted suicide was attached to a funding bill for Medi-Cal. So the sales pitch is that people are dying without this funding and passage of the bill is urgent. Of course I doubt that is true either.
-Gil
Gil (4e1585) — 9/6/2015 @ 5:55 pmWhen I was a lot younger if you were diagnosed with terminal cancer you got a second opinion. Then you went to your family doctor, told him you were in pain and he prescribed pain killers with the caution that they were dangerous and to be careful with them. Something on the order of “More than six of these might be lethal”. Then he gave you a prescription for a months supply. You waited a decent interval and took ten or twelve. Your Doctor listed cancer as the cause of death. We’re way to smart and so much more moral to do that now. Gotta figure out a way to turn death into a billion dollar industry.
f1guyus (9cbd15) — 9/6/2015 @ 6:05 pmIf it’s a choice between dying peacefully, in the company of family and friends, or dying in agony hooked up to a dozen machines in a soulless hospital room…
Rusty Bill (ad1f26) — 9/6/2015 @ 6:14 pmre hf and DRJ – I’d take hf’s nonsense any day of the week over DRJ. At least hf’s writing style makes it easy to skip when hf goes over the top. DRJ drove Sammy out, so i’m not shedding any tears over DRJ leaving.
re OT: that was great for a laugh. reminds me of people dying to get into the cemetary (Yogi Berra?)
re #13: hmm, seems that would be easier to hide than marijuana. how much morphine would it take for one to end life?
seeRpea (aa5346) — 9/6/2015 @ 8:53 pmnot a lot really in the scheme of things
that’s how most cancer patients in america die already
morphine overdose
you’re not supposed to talk about it though for fear the lilarosers will go Full Gestapo
and make you die on their terms not yours
but it’s time to talk about it i think
happyfeet (831175) — 9/6/2015 @ 9:05 pmThe f***ing hospice kept b!tching that we were not giving my mother enough morphine.
She was not in pain. She could not swallow.
We wanted her alert enough to take water and broth drop by drop.
Over hours.
Her caregiver loved her.
And was patien.
And walk around.
To avoid thrombuses.
And bed sores.
She was not getting enough food and hydration.
She was going to die.
Just not fast enough for the f#$%ing ghouls.
nk (dbc370) — 9/6/2015 @ 9:13 pm*patient*
nk (dbc370) — 9/6/2015 @ 9:14 pmthat’s why Johnson & Johnson came out with cinnamon morphine with special vital-active prolong crystals
happyfeet (831175) — 9/6/2015 @ 9:21 pmThere are many reasons why assisted suicide is bad law. In the Netherlands most of the people aren’t terminal or even months from end of life. Many are people who are depressed and with disabilities like Parkinson’s. They don’t need to be put to death, they need psychiatric help. They need our love and support.
Life is precious. I don’t want to be told that I should die because I would be a “burden” on my family or the “quality” of my life will not be as good as that of a healthier person. I still have plenty to give even though I have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, have a tremor, and occasionally my leg catches making it sometimes difficult to walk. The symptoms of a disease can be depressing. In the Netherlands Stephen Hawking and I would be put to death. I say put to death because over 50% of the people who receive “assisted suicide” in the Netherlands don’t give their permission.
In England they have “the Liverpool Care Pathway” for the elderly who are terminal. However, most are just old, not even terminal. They have to ration healthcare because care for the elderly is expensive. Many of the elderly don’t get healthcare because they are afraid of being put to death.
My grandfather though very thin and wracked by the pain of cancer during the last months of his life, still cracked jokes and had much to give.
Suggested assisted suicide law usually starts with 6 months to the end of life and signed by 2 doctors. That’s how it started in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Oregon. Now it covers many more situations, like if a person is simply depressed. These laws really do have a slippery slope.
Tanny O'Haley (c674c7) — 9/6/2015 @ 10:24 pmGreetings:
Well, last evening, in the bit of mainstream media news that I can tolerate, Grandmother Dearest Hillary, attempted to lambaste The Donald by attacking his “cherishing” of women.
Now, my dear departed mother, had an interpersonal conduct playbook that was at least of a size with those NFL ones, and I’m pretty sure that this would have gone on her “People who live in glass houses…” page not that the media was willing even to notice this dot never mind connect it to any Clinton history.
And so on it goes.
11B40 (0f96be) — 9/7/2015 @ 8:30 amHow about assisted suicide for sex offenders?
We can call it assisted seppuku.
Michael Ejercito (d74b61) — 9/7/2015 @ 8:43 amAfter searching google all night i finally got in…
Sex NK Get a Pass – http://www.sexnk.net/w/14256/
Sex NK Get a Pass (a73fd3) — 10/1/2015 @ 6:20 pm