The modern obsession with death continues unabated.

Zitat

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A hard-fought measure to allow physician-assisted suicide in California passed the state Assembly on Wednesday despite opposition from religious groups and advocates for the disabled, moving to the state Senate where it is widely expected to pass.

The measure, which would allow doctors to prescribe medication to some terminally ill patients to end their lives if taken, passed 43-34 after weeks of hearings and passionate debate.

"Imagine that it's one of your constituents, suffering in agonizing pain - their pain medication no longer works," said Assembly member Luis Alejo, a Democrat from Watsonville who supported the bill. "Then imagine that it's your father or your mother or your grandparents or your daughter."

Under the bill, which was pulled for lack of support in July but reintroduced last month as part of a special legislative session to deal with healthcare issues, two doctors would have to attest that a patient had only six months to live before the medication could be prescribed.

The bill makes it a felony to coerce or trick someone into taking the medication, or to force it on someone. Patients who are not mentally competent would not be allowed to receive a prescription.

Assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, Washington state, Montana and Vermont, although supporters have tried numerous times to legalize it in California without success.

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http://news.yahoo.com/assisted-suicide-b...-201517734.html

Human suffering is a sad, sometimes terrible, thing to contemplate or witness, but there are ways it can be alleviated without killing. In addition, given today's moral climate it is only a matter of time until we emulate The Netherlands and assisted suicide becomes abused and goes beyond mere "assistance". The Nazis began their murderous career not by killing Jews, but by their "mercy" killings of the physically and mentally handicapped in Germany. Not only, argued the Nazis, would their deaths end their suffering, but they were also "useless eaters" whose deaths would end their consumption of limited resources which was good for society, too.