The Bottom Line
By Wesley J. Smith; 291 pages. Subtitle: The Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder
Those advocating euthanasia promote it as a way to help someone who no longer wishes to live find release -- but does that help ever come in the form of a push? Wesley Smith presents disturbing evidence that what may start out as a humanitarian impulse can quickly turn into survival of the fittest.
- Provides an argument against euthanasia that does not rely on religious principles.
- Offers specific evidence of euthanasia abuses.
- Author has a strong point of view, and documents it well.
- Gives plentiful reasons why parents of children with special needs should be concerned.
- Those who are inclined not to trust doctors or hospitals will have their fears confirmed.
- It's more likely to appeal to those who agree with its arguments than convince those who don't.
- Comparisons to Nazi Germany may seem offensive to some, extreme to others.
- Some facts and stories are open to interpretation.
- Some may feel the worst-case scenarios are overreaction.
- This is not a happy, fun read. Prepare to be upset.
Description
- Chapter 1: Death Fundamentalism
- Chapter 2: Creating a Caste of Disposable People
- Chapter 3: Everything Old Is New Again
- Chapter 4: Dutch Treat
- Chapter 5: Inventing the Right to Die
- Chapter 6: Euthanasia's Betrayal of Medicine
- Chapter 7: Euthanasia as a Form of Oppression
- Chapter 8: Commonly Heard Arguments for Euthanasia
- Chapter 9: Hospice or Hemlock: The Choice Is Ours
- Resources; Notes; Index
Guide Review - Book Review: Forced Exit
Putting an end to suffering. Death with dignity. Stopping medical care that prolongs life long past the point at which it has any value. Those sound like good things, reasonable and merciful courses for society to pursue. But as Wesley Smith illustrates in this relentless argument against euthanasia, words like “suffering,” “dignity,” and “value” are not absolute and may vary in meaning from one person, one situation to the next. And once you empower certain people -- doctors, insurance executives, spouses, medical ethicists -- to make those decisions for others, you run the very real risk of ending life for reasons having to do with none of those things.
This is an issue that should be of particular concern to parents of children with special needs, who may have to make decisions regarding life-prolonging treatments for their children -- or have those decisions taken away from them by hospital administrators. As Smith describes, parents have been accused of child abuse for insisting on medical procedures doctors consider to be futile. And the issue doesn’t stop with terminal illness -- Dutch doctors have admitted to killing newborns with spina bifida to save them from a life of suffering.
However you feel about euthanasia, it’s worth considering whether a society that seeks the avoidance of suffering at all costs and cannot imagine living in a compromised way is the healthiest sort of society for any child with special needs to grow up in.
