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Friday, May 15. 2015

Bioethics

Princeton ethicist: it's 'reasonable' to kill disabled newborn babies


What does 'reasonable' have to do with ethics?


From Bioethics is a Farce:



In the materialist world of today, the utopians always fall on the side of trying to perfect life on earth. That means anything that can be done should be done. Eugenics, after all, was about “fixing” the mistakes of nature by eliminating from the breeding stock those people deemed unfit. This lack of a limiting principle means anything goes. The only check is the long hangover from the Christian era.


That’s what makes the very idea of bioethics laughable to me. From what authority do these people derive their authority? They can’t point to science as their authority for obvious reasons. God is dead so he has nothing to say on these matters. Ultimately, bioethics is just the opinion of men and the loudest voices will prevail.


Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Medical at 14:57 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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If a bioethicist incites infanticide, is it reasonable to kill him? How imminent does the proposed infanticide have to be before the common law principle of self- and other defence kicks in? If a third party kills the infant under the influence of the bioethicist, is the bioethicist guiltly of premeditated murder?

Singer is German. He teaches in America because in Germany he is regarded to be an archae-Nazi of the "Life Unworthy of Life" ilk, and he could not get an academic job in Germany.

It can be argued that Singer is a mentally defective, the morals portion of his brain is missing, and so he himself might fall under his own strictures.
#1 bob sykes on 2015-05-15 16:07 (Reply)
I assume you are referring to Peter Singer. He was born and raised in Australia. Educated there and in England. I've never heard the bit about being German or being rejected by the academic institutions there.
#1.1 Old Buzzard on 2015-05-16 00:15 (Reply)
Why stop at sick infants?

Some countries kill them when they are simply unwanted.
Why stop at infants?
Some countries allow and medicals actually assist in suicide due to disability. Recently there were a blind set of twin brothers who offed themselves. So it's a choice, but this is the slippery slope that devalues the gift of life. When does choice turn into
suggestion, then coercion?

Who defines "disabled" and "burden" on society ?
What about people who become disabled later in life?

I know a guy injured in a truck accident, paralyzed for the past 40 yrs, defied all the odds and though he had to recently have his legs removed, still does the book-keeping/taxes and regulatory paperwork for a few other truckers.

It amazes me the efforts that some will go through to aid a sick animal for it's quality of life - but humans are regarded as worthless pieces of garbage.
#2 fjord on 2015-05-15 16:19 (Reply)
I'm all for giving people who want to end their lives the option, especially if they're suffering from chronic and incurable conditions like terminal cancer.
Better to let them die gracefully and in peace, without months of constant excruciating pain and suffering inflicted upon them by medical "professionals" for the further glory (and paychecks) of those "professionals".

Where I draw the line is applying force or coercion to get people to kill themselves (or to outright kill them without their consent).
Which is exactly what they tried to do to my mother when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She was scheduled for a consult with an "end of life councilor" without her consent, a title that hints at being a mental health worker specialising in preparing people mentally for their death but in fact is a doctor specialising in administering lethal cocktails of drugs in order to kill patients who've become unprofitable for the hospital to keep under treatment... Something we found out when doing a google search of the person's name which was unknown to us, after which we canceled the appointment.
#2.1 J.T. Wenting on 2015-05-15 16:38 (Reply)
Unfortunately, your experience will become much more common. Offing a patient - especially when you can do it under the guise of "dying with dignity" - is so much more cost-efficient that actually walking with a patient to the end.

I am so glad that we were able to walk with my aunt and my mother to their ends. There was a cost - which is still being paid - but there are no regrets that we were able to accompany these two women to their journey's end.
#2.1.1 Frances on 2015-05-16 00:08 (Reply)
The job of ethicists is to find justification for killing people.
#3 chuck on 2015-05-15 19:45 (Reply)
"God is dead so he has nothing to say on these matters. Ultimately, bioethics is just the opinion of men and the loudest voices will prevail."

I assume you're referring to the God who in the books Joshua and Numbers is alleged to have had his people kill of entire nations, men, women, children and even animals. I don't see much virtue there.

Currently the number of Christian variants is in the thousands, with the same book being interpreted in different ways by different men. So there still is a serious subjectivity problem.
#4 jay on 2015-05-15 22:47 (Reply)
Those are easily answered, if you only cared or did some reading. They are the simpler question that the church re-answers every century.

You clearly want to not believe. Own it, and start the introspective process why that might be. There are honorable routes to unbelief or neutrality. Yours isn't one of them.
#4.1 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2015-05-15 23:49 (Reply)
Dr. B no doubt means that God does not exist for those who enact policy and make laws and regulations, for those in power.
For them the only thing that matters is that power, the power to control people, which ultimately comes down to having power over life and death of their subjects. And thus the power to decide that people should die who're no longer profitable for the government to keep alive...
#4.2 J.T. Wenting on 2015-05-16 00:44 (Reply)
One of our offsprings was born prematurely and with complications. After the initial problems, all seemed well until wee were advised a late scan showed a "bleed" - Dr Singer's "brain hemorrhages". We were devastated. But the nurses at the local NICU were extremely encouraging: they pointed out that said offspring was very alert and sufficiently strong to flip head to watch what was going on when had been carefully positioned to watch the wall and sleep. Our prayers, we were advised, should rather be for the little guy in the next bassinet, who was really non-responsive.

Fast forward: said offspring is a university graduate, has the equivalent of the CPA. True, there are some issues arising. However, here is a kid who is contributing and will contribute to society. And, remember, we were given a "late" scan. Who can tell what the prognosis would have been had the machine been working a week earlier?
#5 Frances on 2015-05-16 00:22 (Reply)
Exactly. Doctors are wrong. Alot.
I believe things happen for a reason.
#5.1 fjord on 2015-05-16 05:57 (Reply)
"Ethicist"? What the hell is that anyway?

I had two real, full-time, unpaid ethicists when I was growing up:

Mum and Dad.
#6 JJM on 2015-05-16 10:35 (Reply)

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