I’ll post this piece because I was so struck by it. I guess suicide advocacy is on the rise though it still sounds like a marginal idea to me. But what was marginal 50 years ago is not so much now. Wesley Smith does an excellent job explaining the ideas.
Family-Supported Suicide Harms Society
by Wesley J. Smith March 21, 2015 | National Review – The Corner
There was once a time when friends, family, and society worked to prevent suicides. Now, if the suicidal person is ill or disabled, there is support for self-killing, with friends and family members even attending the deed.
That–and what it may portend–is the subject of my biweekly First Things. From, “Family-Support Suicide and the Duty to Die:”
Is it right or wrong to support a loved one’s suicide? This seems to be one of those issues, increasingly prevalent in our society, about which debate is not possible: The answer depends on one’s overarching worldview.
Some will believe that their duty is to support their family member’s choice, come what may. Others, including this writer, believe that supporting suicide is an abandonment that validates loved ones’ worst fears about themselves—that they are a burden, unworthy of love, or truly better off dead.
What might this phenomenon portend?
Family backing for suicide furthers the normalization of hastened death as a proper response to human suffering. Such normalization, over time, will put increasing pressure on those coping with the infirmities of age and with the debilitations of serious illnesses and disabilities to view their suicides as not only a suitable approach, but perhaps even as an obligation to those they love.
This is known in bioethics as the “duty to die,” which has been debated for years in professional discourse.
I quote some advocacy material for a duty to die:
A duty to die becomes greater as you grow older. . . . To have reached the age of, say, seventy-five or eighty years without being ready to die is itself a moral failing, the sign of a life out of touch with life’s basic realities.
This isn’t a fringe idea. Books have been written on the topic. I conclude:
No, a day won’t come when the euthanasia police kick down doors and force unwanted lethal injections upon the sick and elderly. But legal compulsion isn’t the only way to push people out of the lifeboat. The more public support families and friends give their ill or debilitated loved ones’ suicides, the greater the prospect that a moral duty to die will become culturally legitimate.
Again, I don’t see how we debate this. Either we want such a society, or we don’t.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/415774/family-supported-suicide-harms-society-wesley-j-smith
(Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism and a consultant to the Patient’s Rights Council.)
Also see First Things article
He has a followup post “$200,000 per Year to Push Assisted Suicide”
Seems to be two issues here, what they are doing — or is it we — and the industry it has become. Neither of which bodes well for society.
Right Ring 
Bull, good to see you posted this article. I read the other link you put up and Oh, gee, what a surprise about Soros. Isn’t his time to go then? He’s over 75.
Of course I side with the original article that it harms society. I don’t like this idea at all. I don’t believe anyone has the right to decide when someone is older about when they “should” die. To me it’s taking God out of our society once again if this is going to become a “rule” of thumb. Not a good way to put it but I’m barely awake.
Just because someone is 75 doesn’t mean that person has become expendable. Many people that age are still doing quite well. And who gave someone this right to tell another that’s it their “duty to die”?
Actually the whole thing sickens me.
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Pepp, yea its a scary subject. Glad when I see someone like this writing about it. I was thinking the same thing about Soros, really “move on” now! (LOL 🙂 )
I think the author hits the point that it might not be as simple as them knocking on your door telling you its time, but more subtle.(and sinister) Better yet have others make the case to you. Just like that clause in Obamacare to tell you what your options are. I’ve been too close to this subject like you and I’ve seen it in action. They have their ways of influencing you. Of course the Libs will come out and say “what’s the matter with it, no one is making anyone do anything?” Right, they probably never had any experience.
I know what you mean, who is anyone to make that decision? That’s the whole point, correct, they want other people to make that decision. (its easy for them to decide) The whole thing does sicken me. Looks like one good author is writing a lot about it. But nothing like experience, is there?
Bad enough we don’t like to see someone taking these actions, or hurting themselves. But to be an advocate for it, are they kidding me? I wish they were. Doctors getting paid lucratively to push it?
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Bull, yeah why doesn’t Soros follow his own medicine and move on like you said.
I’m concerned about that too that doctors are supposed to get paid to tell you your options. But what if it’s made mandatory that the doctor put you down when the gov thinks you need to go? Sinister yes. Maybe I’m being too paranoid but I don’t put anything past this administration and the liberals godless ideology.
Yes we both know being too close to this subject. I can’t ever believe in advocating this for anyone no matter what age they are. It’s just not right. This is God’s decision when He calls you home. Not some dumb liberal or president who is nuts.
I used your link and posted it on Twitter to get this around there hopefully. Sometimes articles get overlooked on there.
And yes they (doctors) have their way influencing your decision. I don’t like it at all.
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Pepp, Oh, there is a list on the left that, if they’re talking euthanasia, could practice what they preach. But then I’m not pushing it, just saying maybe start closer to home. lol
Yea, they do want to shovel it on doctors, so they can shovel it on us. So they make it a profitable thing. Like you, I see it as sinister. You would think talking about them or pointing it out would chase them back in their agenda holes, but it doesn’t seem to. In fact, I think they are proud of their ideas, like some enlightenment. Then, like everything else hoisted on us, they act like if you don’t accept their ideas then you are the problem.
Thanks for that. The subject does get under my skin. If we can’t be outraged at this, and the Peter Singer types, what will it take a needle?
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Bull, I agree if libs like this idea so much I can think of many who ought to practice what the are preaching. But they’ll consider themselves exonerated from it because they believe they are so much more intelligent than those of us on the right.
Talking about it and pointing it out does no good since we who don’t agree are considered nothing to them. Their ideas (According to them) are so much more sophisticated than we are. Sickening.
It’s no different than them accusing those on the right as being extreme because we want the Constitution to be re-instated and we are terrorists via them.
The subject gets under my skin too. Just who do these people think they are?
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Pepp, you know what is just as bad? We hear about postings on the internet where people have egged on the suicidal person. It’s a little different than this but not that much. Or if someone made a video, lots of people watch it. All are symptoms of a sickness in society. But in this case it may be more the normalization of this practice that is disturbing.
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