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Forced Exit: the Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder by Wesley J. Smith
theangrylawngnome's review
4.0
The author makes about as strong a case as can be made that there is indeed a "slippery slope," as stated in the title. What is especially disturbing is the description of how what was advertised as one thing in the Netherlands turned into quite another, with physicians offering "encouragement" for not necessarily terminal patients to end their lives, and then perjuring themselves by filing false death certificates, listing the cause of death as natural. And then there are the Grade-A kooks like Kevorkian, Singer and Lamm, where Smith simply has to get out of the way and quote their exact and extremely repulsive words.
His points about palliative care are well-taken, though I believe the hospice movement now has a higher profile than it did at the time of the book's publication. Unfortunately, my limited understanding is that his criticisms regarding the prescribing of pain medication are as valid today as they were then. Both as to the attitude of regulatory bodies and of most physicians.
My personal problem, of course, is that I have no desire to live a life as some of the cases Smith considers heroic, and which it appears he would force me to do (see p. 235). Hiding behind silly language of "forests" and "trees" is, stripped to its basics, no less a use of the iron fist of state power in the proverbial velvet glove than anything Kevorkian or his fellow dwellers in cloud-cuckoo land might burble on about. Indeed, I personally believe several things that I suppose go beyond Kevorkian et al, with the important exception that the taking of ones own life should be a personal decision, not a legislated one.
It is a box I personally see no easy way out of, and overall Smith does an excellent job of presenting a rational case for his position. And I say this even regards to specific areas where I do not find his arguments persuasive.
His points about palliative care are well-taken, though I believe the hospice movement now has a higher profile than it did at the time of the book's publication. Unfortunately, my limited understanding is that his criticisms regarding the prescribing of pain medication are as valid today as they were then. Both as to the attitude of regulatory bodies and of most physicians.
My personal problem, of course, is that I have no desire to live a life as some of the cases Smith considers heroic, and which it appears he would force me to do (see p. 235). Hiding behind silly language of "forests" and "trees" is, stripped to its basics, no less a use of the iron fist of state power in the proverbial velvet glove than anything Kevorkian or his fellow dwellers in cloud-cuckoo land might burble on about. Indeed, I personally believe several things that I suppose go beyond Kevorkian et al, with the important exception that the taking of ones own life should be a personal decision, not a legislated one.
It is a box I personally see no easy way out of, and overall Smith does an excellent job of presenting a rational case for his position. And I say this even regards to specific areas where I do not find his arguments persuasive.
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