GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: BioEdge: Portugal: Communists firmly oppose euthanasia

domingo, 3 de junio de 2018

BioEdge: Portugal: Communists firmly oppose euthanasia

BioEdge: Portugal: Communists firmly oppose euthanasia

Bioedge

Portugal: Communists firmly oppose euthanasia

by Michael Cook | 2 Jun 2018 | 2 comments

A demonstration opposing euthanasia in Portugal / Morning Star

A footnote to last week’s story about the narrow defeat of euthanasia in Portugal’s parliament. The vote was 115-110 and failed because the Communist Party opposes euthanasia. Communist MP Antonio Filipe explained why in the Morning Star, a British socialist newspaper (once known as the Daily Worker):

[Euthanasia is] “not as a sign of progress but a step towards civilisational retrogression with profound social, behavioural and ethical implications.
“In a context in which the value of human life is frequently made conditional on criteria of social utility, economic interest, family responsibilities and burdens or public spending, legalisation of early death would add a new dimension of problems.
“First of all accelerating the deaths of those to whom society refuses to respond and support in situations of fragility and need. Faced with human suffering, the solution is not to divest society of responsibility by promoting early death but to ensure conditions for a dignified life.”

Saturday, June 2, 2018

Some years ago, I received an unexpected phone call from a Melbourne magazine which described itself as the voice of the Australian Left. One of the editors wanted me to write an article about euthanasia activist Philip Nitschke. “He’s ****ing the proletariat over, comrade,” was his interpretation of Dr Nitschke’s mission. I obliged and was later rewarded with an invitation to the magazine’s Christmas party. I had an interesting chat there with an enthusiastic fan of Stalin’s philosophical works (“much misunderstood”), thus dispelling any misgivings I might have had about the magazine’s left-wing credentials.

Nowadays, “left-wing” almost certainly indicates support for euthanasia. That’s why I was gratified to read that the defeat of a euthanasia bill in Portugal last week was due to the opposition of the Communist Party. Its leader, João Oliveira, told the Portuguese parliament that:

“Faced with the problems of human suffering, illness, disability or incapacity, the solution is not to remove responsibility from society by promoting the early death of people in these circumstances, but to promote social progress in order to ensure conditions for a decent life.”

That’s what I thought left-wing politics was all about: protecting the disadvantaged. Have left-wingers in the Anglosphere lost their way?