Sigh. The UK is in the midst of a renewed effort to legalize assisted suicide. Toward this end, one of the pro assisted suicide groups has published a poll showing that 2/3 of UK doctors have provided strong pain control knowing it could hasten death.
Well good for them. That is like saying that 3/4 of doctors had performed surgery on patients knowing that the surgery could hasten their deaths. This is because any medical procedure may cause death as an unintended side effect.
The euthanasia ideologues claim that their poll shows that there is no difference between euthanasia and pain control treatment. Bunk. Euthanasia kills. Pain control palliates. Euthanasia results in death almost every time, and it is considered shocking if the poisoned patient does not die. Pain control usually does not result in death, and indeed, may even lengthen life because a dying patient does not have to expend energy experiencing severe pain.
But count on the media to swallow this bilge whole. Unfortunately, it seems that critical thinking is not a strong suit of most contemporary journalists.
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