Forced Exit: The Slippery Slope from Assisted
Suicide to Legalized Murder
By Wesley J. Smith
Spence Publishing
PB, 336 pg. US$17.95
ISBN: 1-8906-2648-1
The most important book you will read this year
By Linda A. Prussen-Razzano
web posted June 30, 2003
When
I received the preview of Welsey Smith's revised version of Forced
Exit: The Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder, to be released this month by Spence Publishing, I was not overly
enthusiastic about reading it. Forced Exit deals with the controversial
issue of euthanasia, otherwise described as "mercy killing." Typically,
I can breeze through over 100 pages an hour with complete retention.
This work was so compelling, so chillingly thorough, and so horrifyingly complete in its review of the issue, it took me several hours to read and absorb it. Where before I had viewed the subject with a rather detached mindset, I am now prepared to make several necessary changes to my legal documents to ensure my future survival. I now accept fervently that there is no "mercy" to these "mercy killings," that the agenda behind the "pro-death" movement holds the same debasing mentality as those supporting the abortion industry, and that changes must take place to prevent this from ever becoming socially acceptable in America.
Wesley plumbs the depths of the pro-death culture promoting euthanasia as an efficient means of eliminating end-of-life care. With a strong, fluid, and decisive writing style, Wesley decimates the arguments used by pro-death proponents to promote their agenda. Using studies from the Netherlands, where euthanasia has been practiced for years, Wesley dryly points out that approximately 50 per cent of the people that die by euthanasia do so at the doctor's request, not their own, even if it is against their expressed wishes.
Don't fool yourselves into believing that it can't happen here. It is already happening here. Wesley details numerous instances were premature babies, infirmed elderly, and conscious but cognitively impaired people are denied life-saving treatment at the behest of the hospitals and doctors, against the wishes of the patients, the family members, or the agents authorized to act for the patients. In one instance, parents fighting to save their premature newborn had their parental rights revoked because they didn't want their baby to die. The hospital sued to have the rights revoked and the child subsequently died.
Euthanasia, or doctor assisted suicide, is not as painless and easy as the proponents portray it, either. Some may not object to shutting of a ventilator for a person who is brain-dead with no hope of recovery, but a good many people should be horrified to discover that conscious, alert, and functioning individuals, who may be cognitively impaired but are working towards independence, can have their feeding tubes removed and are allowed to slowly starve to death if the hospital determines that their "quality of life" is not worth living.
Do you know how long it takes people to starve to death? Days. Days of agony, with people moving around you, knowing you are dying and not doing a thing to help you. Instead of working to improve your condition, recognizing your accomplishments, they shuffle you off to a corner and patiently wait while your body slowly feeds on itself until you expire in a gruesome and painful manner.
That's compassion? On what planet, exactly?
Don't fool yourselves into believing it can't happen to you. Wesley also details cases where patients, who were not experiencing a life threatening illness or near the end of their life, were denied necessary medical treatment because the hospitals or HMOs viewed it as excessive. Further, more and more hospitals now employ bioethicists who embrace the pro-death culture, which presumes you have a right to die but not a right to live, and direct care in that manner.
There is so much more to Forced Exit that it would take several reviews to list it all. This is a must have for anyone who cares about their loved ones, their liberty, their civil rights, and the condition of society. It will horrify you, anger you, and enlighten you.
But above all, it will educate you. 
Linda Prussen-Razzano is frequent contributor to Enter Stage Right and a number of other online magazines.
Buy Forced Exit: The Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized
Murder at Amazon.com for
only $12.57 (30% off)
 Printer friendly version |
|