04 October 2007

Slippery slope argument: rug pulled

I doubt that this will be the last we hear of the matter, but for the time being at least, this is a significant development in the debate about euthanasia> "a University of Utah-led study found that legalizing physician-assisted suicide in Oregon and the Netherlands did not result in a disproportionate number of deaths among the elderly, poor, women, minorities, uninsured, minors, chronically ill, less educated or psychiatric patients."
I guess there will be questions about the methodology and whether there has been a sufficient time-lapse. However, the anecdotal evidence had been that in Holland, the vunerable were being oh-so-gently pressured into an early exit. However, the aggregated figures appear to tell against that.

I do have to say that it seems to me that Christians may be straining at gnats and swallowing camels in this debate, or at least non-pacifist Christians. It seems to me that the conditions talked about in these euthanasia killings are far more stringent than those applied in theory and definitely in practice in prosecution of warfare. That's not to say I'm taking a position, but simply to say I think there is a degree of inconsistency at this point in the positions of many Christians. Perhaps I'm being harsh, or missing something major, but I'm looking to provoke looking at the matter a bit outside the normal box.
ScienceDaily: Doctor-aided Suicide: No Slippery Slope, Study Finds:

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