Reflections of a stormy petrel

And if you believe any of that, I've got a couple of nice bridges to sell you. Forgetting for a minute that you have done nothing but confirm that the whole filthy business is about saving money (the babyboom generation is coming into the realm of geriatrics and with that comes an increased workload for the generations that came later. In 15 years most of the babyboomers will be over 70, meaning the shit will hit the fan sometime soon - that is, dearie dearie me, we will have to find some MONEY to look after our elders! Can't have that!), I have to tell you to your face that we are by now used to this kind of rubbish: euthanasia isnt something you just hand out when people get to a certain cut-off age. It's a way to end extreme suffering and it'll be hard to find a situation in the Netherlands, where euthanasia was applied, in which this wasn't the case. When someone has a long future of agonizing, debilitating pain ahead of him/her and all possible forms of palliative care have been applied in the disease progress it is a justifiable choice is familiar to all of us. It is the way they justified abortion - there will be the need of two doctors agreeing, and it will only be legal if the mother's health is at risk - then, of course, you interpret "mother's health" any way you wish, and bingo, you've got abortion on demand. I do not believe in guarantees: they are the last refuge of a scoundrel. I only believe in solid prohibition and suitable time in jail for those who decide that an old person is too expensive to go on living. Or perhaps, since prisoners cost a lot more than OAPs, we ought to follow your logic and just hang them. That would certainly relieve society of a great number of useless persons (defining useless as the kind of person who defines any other person as useless).

Finally, I have nothing against doctors. I do have everything against the corruption of medicine into butchery.