Back to Top

Category Archives: Senate

euthanasia for children motivated by compassion and protection WTF LIBS

Coming to an Obamacare program near you. Should children have the right to ask for their own deaths?  This is what the Liberals have been up to while you weren’t looking. I seam to recall that Hitler started out like this “kill the infirm” for “compassion” to “Kill the Jews” for the “country”. From the Unborn to the Born from the Infirm to Me and You the Liberal Nazis will KILL anyone that is an inconvenience to them.

site_baby

reet-TheObamaPlan8 

 

 

 

 

 

Associated Press,

In Belgium, where euthanasia is now legal for people over the age of 18, the government is considering extending it to children — something that no other country has done. The same bill would offer the right to die to adults with early dementia.

Advocates argue that euthanasia for children, with the consent of their parents, is necessary to give families an option in a desperately painful situation. But opponents have questioned whether children can reasonably decide to end their own lives.
Belgium is already a euthanasia pioneer; it legalized the practice for adults in 2002. In the last decade, the number of reported cases per year has risen from 235 deaths in 2003 to 1,432 in 2012, the last year for which statistics are available. Doctors typically give patients a powerful sedative before injecting another drug to stop their heart.

Only a few countries have legalized euthanasia or anything approaching it. In the Netherlands, euthanasia is legal under specific circumstances and for children over the age of 12 with parental consent (there is an understanding that infants, too, can be euthanized, and that doctors will not be prosecuted if they act appropriately). Elsewhere in Europe, euthanasia is only legal in Luxembourg. Assisted suicide, where doctors help a patient to die but do not actively kill them, is allowed in Switzerland.

In the U.S., the state of Oregon also grants assisted suicide requests for residents aged 18 or over with a terminal illness.

In Belgium, the ruling Socialist party has proposed the bill expanding the right of euthanasia. The Christian Democratic Flemish party vowed to oppose the legislation and to challenge it in the European Court of Human Rights if it passes. A final decision must be approved by Parliament and could take months.

In the meantime, the Senate has heard testimony on both sides of the issue.

“It is strange that minors are considered legally incompetent in key areas, such as getting married, but might (be able) to decide to die,” Catholic Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard testified.

Leonard said alternatives like palliative sedation make euthanasia unnecessary — and relieves doctors of the burden of having to kill patients. In palliative sedation, patients are sedated and life-sustaining support is withdrawn so they starve to death; the process can take days.

But the debate has extended to medical ethicists and professionals far from Belgium. Charles Foster, who teaches medical law and ethics at Oxford University, believes children couldn’t possibly have the capacity to make an informed decision about euthanasia since even adults struggle with the concept.

“It often happens that when people get into the circumstances they had so feared earlier, they manage to cling on all the more,” he said. “Children, like everyone else, may not be able to anticipate how much they will value their lives if they were not killed.”

There are others, though, who argue that because Belgium has already approved euthanasia for adults, it is unjust to deny it to children.

 

“The principle of euthanasia for children sounds shocking at first, but it’s motivated by compassion and protection,” said John Harris, a professor of bioethics at the University of Manchester. “It’s unfair to provide euthanasia differentially to some citizens and not to others (children) if the need is equal.”

And Dr. Gerlant van Berlaer, a pediatric oncologist at the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussels hospital, says the changes would legalize what is already happening informally. He said cases of euthanasia in children are rare and estimates about 10 to 100 cases in Belgium every year might qualify.

“Children have different ways of asking for things but they face the same questions as adults when they’re terminally sick,” van Berlaer said. “Sometimes it’s a sister who tells us her brother doesn’t want to go back to the hospital and is asking for a solution,” he said. “Today if these families find themselves (in that situation), we’re not able to help them, except in dark and questionable ways.”

The change in the law regarding people with dementia is also controversial.

People now can make a written declaration they wish to be euthanized if their health deteriorates, but the request is only valid for five years and they must be in an irreversible coma. The new proposal would abolish the time limit and the requirement the patient be in a coma, making it possible for someone who is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s to be put to death years later in the future.

In the Netherlands, guidelines allow doctors to euthanize dementia patients on this basis if they believe the person is experiencing “unbearable suffering,” but few are done in practice.

Dr. Patrick Cras, a neurologist at the University of Antwerp, said people with dementia often change their minds about wanting to die.

“They may turn into different people and may not have the same feelings about wanting to die as when they were fully competent,” he said. “I don’t see myself killing another person if he or she isn’t really aware of exactly what’s happening simply on the basis of a previous written request (to have euthanasia). I haven’t fully made up my mind but I think this is going too far.”

Penney Lewis, a professor and medical law expert at King’s College London, agreed that carrying out euthanasia requests on people with dementia once they start to worsen could be legally questionable.

“But if you don’t let people make decisions that will be respected in the future, including euthanasia, what you do is encourage people to take their own life while they have the capacity or to seek euthanasia much earlier,” she said.

In the past year, several cases of Belgians who weren’t terminally ill but were euthanized — including a pair of 43-year-old deaf twins who were going blind and a patient in a botched sex change operation — have raised concerns the country is becoming too willing to euthanize its citizens. The newest proposals have raised eyebrows even further.

“People elsewhere in Europe are focused on assisted dying for the terminally ill and they are running away from what’s happening in Belgium,” Lewis said. “If the Belgian statutes go ahead, this will be a key boundary that is crossed.”

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Thank You Wendy you gave YOUR child the chance at life

OOPS ONE GOT AWAY, don’t worry #TeamWendy will get them next time.

729_SG_Wendy-20130503204659230653-620x349

 

Before she donned her hot pink sneakers and became a voice for abortion supporters across the nation, Wendy Davis was a single mother at age 19.

Being a single mother raised by a single mother, the odds were stacked against her.

However, she worked hard to provide for her child, attended college and eventually graduated from Harvard Law School.

Today Wendy is a proven, successful lawmaker in the Texas State Senate.

Wendy’s life serves as an example to women across the country facing an unplanned pregnancy and the possibility of single motherhood. Through her story we are reminded that, even in times of uncertainty and challenge, women can raise children and be wonderful examples of success.

Join thousands of prolife Americans in thanking Wendy Davis for not only choosing life for her child, but for overcoming difficult challenges to be a successful woman and mother.

This letter of support will be made available to Senator Davis for her consideration and encouragement.

Please add your name!

Dear Senator Davis,

As an American who believes that all life is valuable and should be protected, I thank you for having the courage to bear and raise your own child when social pressure and personal circumstances were against you.

Your actions thirty years ago remind us that courage, hard work, and grace can overcome challenges, for both mother and child.

Today, I commit myself to helping the thousands of women across this nation who face unplanned pregnancies. Through the work of life-affirming pregnancy centers, community organizations and local churches, I will support these women in their time of need.

I will encourage women in crisis pregnancies to follow the example you set when you gave your child the chance at life.

Thank you, Senator, for demonstrating true courage and strength.

Sincerely,

via Thank Wendy Davis | Thank You Wendy.

Senator Cruz returns to Texas welcome after shutdown battle

By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement, returned home to a rousing welcome in Texas on Saturday after his attempt to derail Obamacare with a shutdown of the federal government led to sharp criticism of his tactics as reckless and futile.

“After two months in Washington, it’s great to be back in America,” Cruz joked in speaking to a crowd of about 750 people in a packed downtown San Antonio hotel ballroom.

Cruz was greeted with an eight-minute standing ovation in an appearance organized by the Texas Federation of Republican Women. People in attendance, many of them wearing red to show their support for keeping Texas a conservative-leaning state, lined up to greet him.

The speech and another talk earlier in the day at a panel in Austin marked Cruz’s first public appearance in his home state of Texas since his part in the showdown in Washington over the rollout of Obamacare that resulted in a 16-day shutdown of the federal government that ended on Thursday.

A related stalemate over the debt limit threatened to lead to a default on U.S. government debt until the Senate on Wednesday voted 81-18 to end the crisis and the House of Representatives followed with a vote of 285-144 to approve the plan, allowing government to open without defunding Obamacare.

Cruz in his speech in San Antonio blasted Senate Republican leaders for “failing to stand with House Republicans against the train wreck that is Obamacare.”

He declined to criticize any Republicans by name.

While he said the agreement to end the shutdown and extend the debt ceiling was a “lousy deal for the American people,” Cruz said the battle he and other Republicans waged will end up helping his party.

Cruz became a lightning rod for criticism from Democrats and even from key Republicans when he staged a 21-hour filibuster-style talk on the floor of the Senate last month, as part of his attempt to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The Texas senator, who has been in office for 10 months since his election last year, received scathing criticism from Democrats, the White House and even some of his fellow Republicans in the Senate during the shutdown and the debate leading up to it.

Senator John McCain from Arizona, a former presidential candidate, and Representative Peter King from New York have been two of the most vocal Republican opponents of Cruz’s tactics, with McCain calling Cruz and his allies “wacko birds.”

Cruz also took a hit in the polls. A Gallup poll released on October 10 found he had gained significant name recognition, but the percentage of Americans with an unfavorable view of him has jumped to 36 percent from 18 percent in June.

But the welcome Cruz received in Texas demonstrated his popularity among many Republican activists has grown.

In an interview with Reuters after his speech, Cruz said there is “a lot to be encouraged about” after the battle in Washington.

“We saw what can happen when the American people unite, when the American people stand up,” he said. “What the American people want is economic growth and job creation. They are crying out for something that fixes all the enormous damage that Obamacare is causing.”

(Additional reporting by Kevin Murphy in Kansas City, Missouri; Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Eric Walsh)

October 19th we will stand under weight or arms and declare ‘THIS IS OUR LINE IN THE SAND!”

http://www.dontcomply.com/

Push back is growing to a planned ‘open carry’ gun rights rally which is set for Saturday on Alamo Plaza, 1200 WOAI news reports.

 

Several groups and prominent individuals, including State Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who wrote the state’s concealed handgun law while he was a member of the Texas Senate, plan to gather at the Alamo carrying loaded rifles, including some weapons which are categorized as ‘assault rifles.’

 

“We cannot stand by any longer in silence,” says a statement by a group called ‘Don’tComply.com,’ which is one of the organizers.  “They (police agencies) have been left unchecked too long.  October 19th we will stand under weight or arms and declare ‘THIS IS OUR LINE IN THE SAND!”  We will stand as free men and women!”

 

Even though a concealed handgun license, which required a training course and a background check, are required to carry a handgun in a concealed holster, Texas law allows rifles and other long guns to be carried openly, without any training or permitting required.

 

Michelle Green, who heads the Texas chapter of a group called ‘Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America’ says that law, which dates to the 19th Century, was passed to make sure people could hunt game in rural areas unmolested, and it was never intended to allow people to carry AR-15s in the downtown areas of big cities.

 

“The thought of walking around a Wal-Mart or a Starbucks with a loaded long rifle is alarming, and it is completely disproportional to what anybody needs,” Green said.

 

Gun rights advocates say it is not up to the government to decide what level of weapon they ‘need,’ and say the Second Amendment is clear that no laws can infringe on the right to bear arms.

 

Several people organizing the rally say they are concerned that police departments around the state are targeting law abiding gun owners.  A man is on trial in Belton after he was arrested while carrying a long rifle down a country road while hiking with his son.  DontComply.com says San Antonio Police Chief William McManus has authorized ‘a policy of harassing law abiding citizens and gun owners.’

 

Green says most members of her group own guns and all support the Second Amendment.  But they say carrying a loaded rifle to a downtown rally goes over the line for them.

 

“I think most of us understand the need for hunters to be able to carry their guns when they are hunting out the country,” she said.  But she called the Saturday rally ‘alarming and sickening’ and said the ‘Come and Take it, Line in the Sand’ organizers are a ‘fringe group.’

 

Adding to the controversy is the fact that the Alamo is generally off limits to political rallies, and permission for dozens of political rallies were rejected by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas when they operated the Alamo.  But the Alamo is now under the control of Patterson’s General Land Office.

 

Patterson, by the way, is a candidate for Lieutenant Governor.

 

Read more: http://www.woai.com/articles/woai-local-news-119078/pushback-growing-to-planned-alamo-gun-11745786/#ixzz2hzoRfCX5

%d bloggers like this: