As the men quoted in these articles say, as long as euthanasia and the killing of disabled babies is encouraged in policy and law, the devaluation of human life will continue and allow for problems like this to occur. Not only is this an indictment on the culture of death, but also on socialized medicine.
UK Medical Staff Declare Disabled Man Not Worth Saving From Heart Attack
In an incident that pro-life advocates say is the slippery slope that results from legalizing assisted suicide or euthanasia, two medical staffers in England have been arrested for reportedly deciding that the life of a disabled man was not worth saving after he had a heart attack. ...
When the unnamed medics arrived at Baker's home, they found him collapsed on the floor and the phone line was still open and recording their conversations. Baker died after the incident.
A police source told the London Times that the medics were heard discussing how they didn't want to revive Baker saying “words to the effect that he was not worth saving."
They were also heard discussing what to say to authorities and decided to give a story saying Baker had died prior to their arrival at his home.
..."The next time you are tempted to scoff at folk with disabilities who worry that they many people think their lives are not worth living, remember this story," he said. ...
"Friends and colleagues who have disabilities report similar stories of disdain occurring here when seeking medical care, for example, of people on ventilators being pressured to sign DNRs by hospital personnel even though they were not undergoing usually life-threatening procedures," he explains.
"Human exceptionalism demands that each of us be deemed to be of equal objective moral worth. It is an ideal we have never achieved, admittedly. But unless bigotry against people with disabilities is especially shocking when it impacts care in the medical context," Smith added.
British Hospital Allows Down Syndrome Patient to Starve to Death Over 26 Days
In a scandal that is causing a massive outcry, a British hospital has allowed a Down syndrome patient to starve to death over a 26 day period. Martin Ryan, who could not swallow after a stroke, was allowed to lie in a bed and starve to death without receiving any medical care.
...The query found that doctors thought staff nurses were feeding him with a feeding tube in his nose, but by the time anyone realized that had not happened for weeks, Ryan was took weak for a surgery to insert a gastronomy tube in his stomach.
...A report by the Mencap charity following the incident found the British governmental health service has also failed other people with mental difficulties, citing a young woman denied cancer treatment and a young man who died during treatment for a broken leg.
Anthony Ozimic, the political secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, a British pro-life group, told LifeNews.com the British government must be held accountable for what is becoming routine discrimination against the mentally disabled.
"Mencap has identified institutional discrimination within Britain's healthcare services against people with learning disabilities," he said. "Yet lethal institutional discrimination against the disabled and vulnerable is enshrined in law and policy, particularly in the pro-euthanasia Mental Capacity Act which Mencap supported."
"Disabled adults will continue to die because of discriminatory attitudes whilst the Mental Capacity Act and the killing of disabled unborn children, which manifest those attitudes, remain law," Ozimic added.
Related post:
What the culture of abortion on demand has wrought
