Lying About Euthanasia
Moral sages have noted that the murder or killing of innocent
human beings is often preceded by lies. In the case
of induced abortion, the lies relate both to the nature of the
unborn baby and the alleged benefits to its mother. The
unborn baby is described variously as "a clump of cells", or
"menstrual tissue", even though often by the time the mother
realises she is pregnant, ultrasound can detect a heartbeat.
As for the "benefits" to the mother, no mention is made of
sorrow, regret, depression, breast cancer, cervical damage,
future premature births resulting in cerebral palsy, etc.It is apparently planned that lies will also be included in the proposed euthanasia/assisted suicide legislation to be tabled by the Daniel Andrews Victorian government later this year. A report in The Australian (17/5/17, page2) is headlined "Plan to 'hide' euthanasia deaths", and it is basically a plan to defraud insurance companies: "Life insurance payouts of Victorians who access euthanasia would be protected by hiding it as an official cause of death under recommendations before the independent taskforce designing the framework.
"The taskforce has been advised that voluntary assisted dying should not be considered as a 'reportable' death and excluded from being listed on death certificates. Instead the terminal illness which drove the person to access euthanasia should be listed as the cause of death, thereby protecting relatives who stand to inherit their wealth.
"Most of the 300 stakeholders the taskforce consulted said it should protect the privacy of the dead and ensure families aren't robbed of life insurance claims with suicide excluded from some claims. 'The majority of participants who discussed this matter were comfortable with the underlying condition being listed as the cause of death because the person is dying from the condition anyway, rather than listing the means of death as voluntary assisted dying' says the taskforce's consultation overview paper released in May."
Well we are all going to die anyway, some sooner than later. That does not mean our heirs are entitled to collect on our insurance six months or a year prior to our demise, nor does it justify fraud on insurance companies and the extra costs to other policy holders.
Furthermore, lying on medical certificates of death distorts
medical and scientific data and statistics. For medical
progress, accurate statistics are essential. Many of those dying
of serious illness may have taken part in trials of new drugs
and scientists need to know whether these helped at all, and
if so for how long. Making false entries on death certificates
distorts national data on life expectancy, and worst of all, it
deceives the general public on how many people are accessing
euthanasia or assisted suicide. This distortion which
would give the appearance that NO ONE is being euthanased
might give society the impresson that there is no need to
improve palliative care services, which would be a tragedy.
Truth in advertising is important but it is obligatory when
medical services and cause of death data are recorded.
