Prisoner of conscience or public enemy?

 

The other prisoner of conscience? II

 

The other prisoner of conscience?

 

The civil war rages on?

 

In Norway the future is now re: net zero?

 

How the sausage gets made.

 

On shadow wars and shadow warriors

 

Doing extremely well by doing a bit of good?

 

Feng Shan Ho : a brief history.

 

More on the death of privacy.

 

Conflict for sale?

 

The fall of Rome II?

 

How india entered the nuclear club.

 

A sleeping giant?

 

But who will save them from their friends?

 Dead Pets: PETA’s Astonishing Kill Rate

Wesley J Smith

PETA (or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) believes that animals and humans have equal moral value, yet it has long killed animals at a rate far higher in its Norfolk, Virginia, animal shelter than have other similar facilities. (This apparently includes adoptable animals, as I discussed here in 2009.)

Apparently, things have not improved in the intervening years. PETA’s kill rate in 2023 was an astonishing 76 percent for dogs, 81 percent for cats, and 78 percent for all animals in its care. In comparison, all Virginia public agencies euthanized 9 percent of dogs, 11 percent of cats, and 10 percent of all animals.

Why might that be? PETA says its animals are mostly not adoptable. But I suspect it has more to do with its absolutist animal-rights ideology that perceives human ownership of domesticated animals as akin to slavery and, hence, a cause of suffering. As a consequence, PETA’s leadership may believe that some animals are better off dead than adopted by households that are non-vegan or don’t espouse the group’s animal-rights beliefs.

It's the cure that will kill us not the disease?

 

Malthus was right?

 

(As tends to be the case) The slippery slope gets the last laugh.

 Now Doctors to Help Younger People Commit Suicide by Self-Starvation

Wesley Smith

The euthanasia movement not only promotes lethal injection and assisted suicide but what is known in the death crowd’s parlance as VSED, which stands for “voluntary stop eating and drinking.” Because starving and dehydrating oneself produces agony, VSED usually requires a doctor’s palliative assistance to ameliorate what would be otherwise unbearable suffering that would lead the despairing person to give up the attempt.

VSED is pushed here for the elderly by groups like Compassion & Choices. Now, in the Netherlands, younger people are to be granted help in starving themselves to death. From the Dutch News story:

Doctors’ federation KNMG has scrapped the age limit for care for people who have chosen to end their lives by refusing to eat and drink.

Some 700 people a year die by this method in the Netherlands. Under the new guideline, meant for doctors and other caregivers, people younger than 60 can now also apply for end of life care, for instance from a hospice.

Hospice, properly understood, provides palliative and other medical and social services to people who are terminally ill. But now, apparently Dutch hospices will do that for people who would not be dying but for starving and dehydrating themselves.

The Theory of Harm Reduction

In the usual Dutch manner, experts opine that rather than seek to prevent awful occurrences, it must be accommodated — the theory of harm reduction:

De Graeff, who works as a doctor at the Demeter hospice, said space must be made for younger people wishing to die by refusing food and drink. “If a patient has made the considered choice to do this, we can all think what we like,” he said. “But if that is what they want then it is better to do it in an environment where they can be supported than on their own.”

NO. Doctors and hospices can — and should — refuse to participate in any patient’s suicide. That doesn’t mean refusing to help the suicidal person. Of course, prevention efforts should be engaged. But it does mean refusing to be complicit.

Of course, we in the U.S. have our own such issues, even beyond pernicious VSED advocacy. After all, Terri Schiavo — who would not otherwise have been dying but for the medically unnecessary removal of her feeding tube — spent her last years in a hospice. And her agony wasn’t even palliated. Due to the demands of her husband, her family wasn’t even allowed to soothe her drying and cracking lips with ice chips. What a vile travesty.

It’s almost like the West has developed a death cult. Or maybe, not “almost.”

My brothers are victors not victims

 

The Russian orthodox church continues to be a tool of the military industrial complex..