By Paul Schratz
Rom Houben would certainly have made an excellent "hard case," one of those difficult but few exceptions that make it next to impossible for the ordinary person to say no to euthanasia.
For 23 years the Belgian man lay in a coma. Five times he was taken to the U.S. for re-examination. Each time he was determined to be in a vegetative state.
How he survived that long without being helped to "die with dignity" is remarkable in itself.
Now, decades later, Houben is not only communicating and considering writing a book, but it turns out he was awake the entire time, aware of everything going on around him.
Houben, 46, has been using a computer keyboard to tell doctors about his ordeal, screaming inside his body, but silent outside.
Even more troubling, the doctor who discovered Houben was actually alert and lucid has started looking at other coma patients and determined that they are misdiagnosed "on a disturbingly regular basis." He examined 44 patients thought to be in a vegetative state and found that 18 of them were actually able to communicate.
Surprisingly, media accounts of the story have been quiet about the people who must have been pushing to have Houben put down over the past 23 years. Will these recent findings open the debate over ending the lives of people like Houben and Terry Schiavo?
It should, but don't count on it. Most of the extremists ardently pushing for euthanasia want one thing: to open the door a crack, just as they got a foot in the door on abortion to eventually turn the practice into a revolving door.
The legalization of abuses like euthanasia and abortion always starts with the hard cases. With abortion it began with instances of women's lives supposedly in danger. Then exceptions for mental health came along, then rape and incest, and now we're at the point where a Canadian MP was labelled an "extremist" in Parliament this week for supporting time limitations on abortion.
In a recent column in The Province, Cristina Alarcon, a Catholic pharmacist in West Vancouver, wrote in opposition to Bill C-384, the private member's bill on euthanasia now expected to be dealt with in February.
"I'm in the business of health and wellness; longevity concoctions, my specialty. I believe it is more lucrative to keep my oldies alive and kicking longer; eliminating them is against my mission statement, and it would surely kill my business too.
Alarcon wonders whether euthanasia, introduced for the tough cases, will eventually broaden to compel her to assist with killing the rich senior citizen being pushed out by inheritance-ravenous offspring?
Then what? she asks. The woman with severe arthritis? The child with MS? The severely depressed teenager?
Don't scoff. We're assured by the promoters of death that there will be safeguards. Except the safeguards don't work. In the Netherlands, euthanasia is said to be "out of control."
In Oregon, a recent study found inadequately treated pain cases are on the rise, very few of the euthanized receive counselling before they're killed, state health officials say they have no idea how many euthanasia cases doctors don't report, pro-death lobby groups are directly involved in most of the euthanasia deaths, and the state has been offering euthanasia in place of costly medical treatments.
I predict Rom Houben will write his book, and that it will testify to the fact that we're not wise enough to make decisions about who should live and die. We never will be.
|