Once, we told a story about how we rescued a woman in distress.
Now we give them a prescription for assisted suicide.
Two young Dutch women, Yolanda Phan and Zoraya ter Beek, recently gave interviews to the media and explained their decisions to seek euthanasia despite being physically healthy.
Hwang had planned to end his life on his 34th birthday late last month.h, I’ve been battling depression for years. “Most of the time I just feel really bad –” she said told the Times, in an interview published in a British newspaper on April 14th. People don’t see that because that’s the mask I wear and that’s what I learn in life. ”
Euthanasia has been legal in the Netherlands since 2002 (the bill was passed in 2001 and came into force the following year). Hwang started exploring the possibility of euthanasia two years ago after his counselor mentioned it. For fans with parents, siblings, and boyfriends, death seemed like a better reality than continuing to live.
“My mom and dad are sick, and my parents are fighting to survive. I want to get out of life,” she told the Times. “That’s kind of weird. But even when I was seven years old, I asked her mother if she would die if she jumped off a viaduct. I’ve struggled with this my whole life. ”
Meanwhile, Ter Beek, 28 years old, told the free press She plans to die by assisted suicide this month. Ter Beek, who is autistic and suffers from depression, has a loving boyfriend and they share a house and a cat. Her psychiatrist told her:it’s never [going to] Please get better,” Ta Beek told the Free Press, adding that those words were the catalyst for her decision to end her life.
Zoraya ter Beek is one of a growing number of people in Western countries who choose to end their lives rather than live in pain. Pain that is often treatable.
In 2022, euthanasia accounted for 5% of deaths in the Netherlands.read @rupasubramanyaInvestigation of:… pic.twitter.com/YHh2Sk6DbN
— Free Press (@TheFP) April 2, 2024
Ter Beek and Hwang are not alone in making decisions. (So far, neither death has been confirmed by the media.) According to a Spanish newspaper, 138 Dutch people chose to end their lives in 2023 due to mental distress. . el paisIn the Netherlands, only two people died by assisted suicide for mental health reasons in 2010, compared to 68 in 2019, according to The Times.
In general, euthanasia has become increasingly popular in the Netherlands over the past two decades. El País newspaper points out that more than 9,000 Dutch people will choose euthanasia in 2023, and that euthanasia accounted for more than 5% of all deaths in the Netherlands last year.
Canada, which first legalized assisted suicide for terminally ill patients in 2016 and then legalized assisted suicide for people with “serious and irreversible medical conditions,” is seeing a similar increase.that’s all 13,000 Canadians The number of people who died by assisted suicide in 2022 increased by 31% from 2021 figures. In 2017, assisted suicide became legal year-round for the first time in Canada, with 2,838 people choosing assisted suicide.
Canada was scheduled to follow the Netherlands in allowing assisted suicide for mental health reasons this year, but postponed the move until March 17, 2027 over concerns about strained medical systems.
If you value life, you should worry.
Already in 10 states and the District of Columbia Allow assisted suicide Under certain circumstances. If mental health continues to deteriorate in the United States, as unfortunately seems likely, we may well be faced with a defense of condoning the suicide of mentally ill people.
Of course, mental illness is a “real” illness, and the suffering can be severe.
But there’s a reason why we work so hard to fight suicide and provide support, encouragement, and medical assistance to Americans struggling with depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses.
Not only do we love them and want them to remain in our lives, but we also know that as long as someone is alive, there is hope, that they will be fully or partially cured of their mental illness. , I also know that there is hope that recovery may be possible. To reduce the burden of greedy negative emotions and live life more happily. It’s hard to maintain that belief when you’re battling depression, which makes it even more important for non-depressed people in society to speak up and advocate for the value of life.
?? Jolanda is fun. I examine daily psychology to maintain the spirit of euthanasia, to maintain a highly safe body, and to appeal in the appellate court.
?? Prepare your invitations… pic.twitter.com/PQlrazygjd
— Kocovich Insight (@kocovich) April 26, 2024
Additionally, many people who have suffered from depression or other mental illnesses, as their health improves, become grateful that they did not die by suicide. Olympic medalist Michael Phelps: “I’m so grateful I didn’t lose my life” Said In 2018, he spoke about his history with depression.
In the Washington Post in 2023 essayBilly Rezra described a planned suicide attempt.
“I had been drinking a mix of whiskey and flat coke all afternoon to give myself the energy to jump in front of a train, but I was so drunk that I felt my plan was within reach.” I was 23 years old,” Rezra wrote.
“Two months ago, my mother tried to end her life, but I thwarted her attempt. This experience, combined with years of depression and addiction, left me wanting to stop feeling. Actually, I didn’t want to die, I didn’t want to live.”
But then “a wiry-looking woman with pink hair and a titanium lip ring” asked Rezra to take a photo. By the time this photo was taken, the train was gone, but Lezra is still alive, seven years later.
Lezra can’t remember the pink-haired woman’s face, but “what remains in my heart is a sharp and deep sense of gratitude.”
Statistics back up Rezra’s experience.Approximately 90% of suicide survivors will not ultimately commit suicide die by suicide, according to Harvard University’s TH Chan School of Public Health. This suggests that many depressed patients actually recover, at least to some degree.
And what does it say about us as a culture that we condone and publicly support people taking their own lives?
As Western civilization moves further and further away from its Christian roots, it is perhaps not surprising that there is a resurgence of interest in suicide. The belief that God gives us life, but we cannot take it away, is not widely held. In modern thinking, where individuals are encouraged to become free agents and pursue their own truth and happiness, following the timing of the Creator is considered obsolete, especially when such obedience involves chronic suffering. It becomes a virtue.
“In the absence of Christianity, suicide and euthanasia would perhaps be the ultimate and extreme (if false) demonstration of human choice and human dignity. My life is mine. I can end it when I want. In this way, individual freedom is reduced to a kind of death cult,” writes John Daniel Davidson.pagan america”
It’s so dark.
In modern times, in addition to embracing individualism, we always talk about kindness, but it is often a feeble kindness that is never manifested in difficult times. Sometimes true kindness is fighting for someone else when you can no longer fight for yourself.
Laws often shape culture rather than reflect it. If the Netherlands had not legalized assisted suicide, perhaps both Mr. Phan and Mr. Ter Beek would have tried new doctors, new treatments, and other methods to alleviate their real suffering.
Rather, government laws are telling them that their life may not be worth living.
