Hello Bob,   
      
    LL>> Brittany Maynard was terminally ill, given only a few   
    LL>> short months to live, and was in much pain and suffering.   
    LL>> She ended her life in Oregon, one of five states in the   
    LL>> US that allows doctors to help assist the terminally   
    LL>> ill of sound mind to do so.   
      
    LL>> Our society chooses to condem people who decide to end   
    LL>> their own lives, and forbids doctors and other health care   
    LL>> workers to help them do it.  Even though five states have   
      
    LL>> When it becomes an impossibility, or undue hardship, to   
    LL>> maintain a quality of life worth living, then an individual   
    LL>> should have an absolute right to end his/her own life.   
      
    BK> This argument has been going on a very long time. Long ago I   
    BK> read a report on it, and it said there is no such thing as pain   
    BK> that can't be controlled. They gave England as an example, where   
    BK> the question didn't even come up.   
      
   Do fish feel pain?  PETA argued that fish do in fact   
   feel pain, and gave a tutorial on how fishermen should   
   go about catching and storing their fish.  PETA has   
   also argued that Cajuns are cruel because we boil our   
   crawfish alive.  On that, Cajuns found allies from   
   lobster fishermen in Maine ...   
      
   Each individual has his/her own tolerance for pain.   
   Different thresholds, or levels, of pain.  In some cases   
   it is only a state of mind, rather than anything physical.   
   In other cases, what would be excruciating pain can be   
   mentally blocked out by some people.  All without the   
   use of drugs.   
      
   In most cases, when a person is in a significant amount   
   of pain, he/she needs medication in order to continue   
   functioning in a normal way.  And in some cases, simply   
   to continue to exist.   
      
   A cancer patient, in his/her last stages of life, might be   
   totally dependent on morphine - just to get through the   
   day.  He/she may or may not even be aware of his/her own   
   surroundings.  But without the morphine, that individual   
   would be in so much pain and suffering that it would be   
   absolute torture to endure.   
      
    BK> You see, in England they can give heroin to patients in extreme   
    BK> pain. That is a big difference.   
      
   We give morphine to those we deem in need.  And we justify   
   it on the same grounds as do those in England who give heroin   
   to patients.   
      
    BK> I don't know if it's true that there is no such thing as pain   
    BK> that can't be alleviated, but I do know there is pain that can   
    BK> be alleviated, but the drugs that do it are either illegal, or   
    BK> so controlled you can't give them enough.   
      
   A few decades ago we had a problem in America with heroin   
   addicts.  Nobody cared about them, as they were junkies who   
   lived in our ghettoes.  The nation's poor.  The trash of   
   society.   
      
   Flash forward to a few short years ago.  Painkillers, such   
   as oxy-contin, were prescribed by doctors nationwide, patients   
   being told those drugs were not addictive.  Less than one percent   
   of those who took those drugs would get hooked on them, is what   
   people were told by doctors.  And what happened?  Three to six   
   months later, those patients were asking their doctors where   
   they could get some more of those pills.  Well, the doctor   
   had done his job, and the prescription had run out, so folks   
   had to find another source.  So who did they turn do?   
      
   The Pusher Man.   
      
   And now today's addicts are the middle class.  The boy   
   next door.  The man across the street.  The secretary at   
   your office.  All once hooked on painkillers prescribed   
   by their doctors, now hooked on heroin.  Only today's   
   heroin is far more deadly than yesterday's stash.   
      
    BK> Then there's the fear of making terminal patients drug addicts.   
      
   It is not just terminal patients who are drug addicts.   
   Rush Limbaugh was addicted to painkillers he got legally.   
   How he got so many of them is beyond me.  But then, maybe   
   he was in a great deal of pain and being as big as he is   
   well he probably needed them.   
      
    BK> The other fear is, the drugs will shorten the patient's life.   
      
   Yeah.  That's like saying pot will stunt your growth.   
   Nobody on painkillers/heroin is going to believe that.   
      
    BK> Chose, 6 weeks of extreme pain, or 4 weeks free from pain. Not hard by my   
    BK> thinking.   
      
   Hit me, man!  Hit me!  I wanna feel good hoo ha!   
      
    LL>> What about a baby born without a brain?  Would it be okay   
    LL>> for a doctor or a nurse to off the baby?  I mean, the baby   
      
    BK> An anacelephic baby doesn't live long and doesn't suffer.   
      
   Scientists have successfully cloned frogs without a brain.   
   In theory, the same could be done with humans.  Would cloning   
   humans for body parts be ethical?  I doubt it.  Which is why   
   we should clone neandertals instead.   
      
   --Lee   
      
   --- MesNews/1.08.05.00-gb   
    * Origin: news://felten.yi.org (2:203/2)