Mrs.Lucysnow
Valued Senior Member
Suicide profiling at US border
A Canadian woman named Ellen Richardson was to fly into the US where she planned to catch a Carribean cruise. At the airport Ms. Richardson was pulled by a border agent and confronted with questions concerning a past suicide attempt. Because of this past attempt she would be unable to cross the border into the US until a doctor approved by US Homeland Security gave her clearance and she would have to hand over her entire medical history. It turns out that under Section 212 of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act suicide is a security risk as she might expose people or property to risk through some random act of self-inflicted mayhem. Now I'm not talking about that 'Allah Akbar' type of suicidal person but that lonely figure behind closed doors; Richardson had taken an overdose of pills some years ago. Needless to say Ms. Richardson wasn't able to take her cruise but she isn't the only one who's been profiled because of a past suicide attempt. Lois Kamenitz, also Canadian, was also stopped and asked to hand over all her past medical records because she too had tried to top herself at one time in her life. Kamenitz however wasn't going to take it lying down and sued the Canadian government for being so stupid as to give a foreign government such personal information, she won the suit for an undisclosed amount of money. http://globalnews.ca/news/1147336/suicide-profiling-at-us-border-investigated/
It looks as if the American government's police state is doing more than just sifting through Yahoo accounts and looking for terrorists they're also screening out the despondent and miserable. What cheek! I wonder if that means they also ban their own suicidal nationals from boarding an airline or driving over the boarder?
Meanwhile...
The Belgian government passed a law that allows children who are of speaking age to request euthanasia if they are terminally ill. Belgium’s Chamber of Representatives voted on February 13 to pass a bill allowing children under 18 to request euthanasia with parental consent. The vote was 86 in favor, 44 opposed, and 12 abstaining. Quite progressive indeed though I don't know how anyone can tell whether a child of six even understands the meaning of their own death enough to request it, they can understand the end of pain not the end of life. There's also the question of whether it can lead to coercion and manipulation by parents as children might state they want to die because their parents can no longer stand to watch them linger on in suffering.
So while the Belgians welcome a dignified death with open arms the Australians treat it with disdain. An Aussie Doctor named Nitschke has been disbarred because he advocates for Euthanasia and assisted suicide rights. He's no Kevorkian helping people meet their maker, instead he just gives them the information on how they can do it themselves. His big mistake seems to be giving the information to a man of 45 who was neither old or terminally ill. He knew this man was thinking of killing himself (duh! Why else seek out such a doctor?) and the charge seems to be that Dr. Nitschke didn't try to dissuade him. I guess they wanted him to talk nice and hand him over to a psychiatrist. Instead Dr. Nitschke gave him the information and the man successfully used it. Its obvious that whatever information this man obtained from Dr. Nitschke could have been available to him anyway if he searched long enough but it seems the Australian government is gunning for this doctor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzwjOvjr5zE&list=PL8Y08TuPAnL5TSIBNLIiSSOnbaC0CGQZO&index=5
As US border officials bar suicides from entering the country other Western nations are extending it as a human right, still others label it as a "mental health issue" which needs strict intervention.
I find it amusing that someone who is dying can ask for death to relieve their suffering as long as they're not depressed, as if you can be happy and want to die because of enormous pain, but a depressed person cannot ease their pain & suffering through suicide. However if you try to commit suicide, fail and then tell yourself "hell why not go on living, think I'll take a cruise", you're treated as a criminal for having had a go at it.
A Canadian woman named Ellen Richardson was to fly into the US where she planned to catch a Carribean cruise. At the airport Ms. Richardson was pulled by a border agent and confronted with questions concerning a past suicide attempt. Because of this past attempt she would be unable to cross the border into the US until a doctor approved by US Homeland Security gave her clearance and she would have to hand over her entire medical history. It turns out that under Section 212 of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act suicide is a security risk as she might expose people or property to risk through some random act of self-inflicted mayhem. Now I'm not talking about that 'Allah Akbar' type of suicidal person but that lonely figure behind closed doors; Richardson had taken an overdose of pills some years ago. Needless to say Ms. Richardson wasn't able to take her cruise but she isn't the only one who's been profiled because of a past suicide attempt. Lois Kamenitz, also Canadian, was also stopped and asked to hand over all her past medical records because she too had tried to top herself at one time in her life. Kamenitz however wasn't going to take it lying down and sued the Canadian government for being so stupid as to give a foreign government such personal information, she won the suit for an undisclosed amount of money. http://globalnews.ca/news/1147336/suicide-profiling-at-us-border-investigated/
It looks as if the American government's police state is doing more than just sifting through Yahoo accounts and looking for terrorists they're also screening out the despondent and miserable. What cheek! I wonder if that means they also ban their own suicidal nationals from boarding an airline or driving over the boarder?
Meanwhile...
The Belgian government passed a law that allows children who are of speaking age to request euthanasia if they are terminally ill. Belgium’s Chamber of Representatives voted on February 13 to pass a bill allowing children under 18 to request euthanasia with parental consent. The vote was 86 in favor, 44 opposed, and 12 abstaining. Quite progressive indeed though I don't know how anyone can tell whether a child of six even understands the meaning of their own death enough to request it, they can understand the end of pain not the end of life. There's also the question of whether it can lead to coercion and manipulation by parents as children might state they want to die because their parents can no longer stand to watch them linger on in suffering.
So while the Belgians welcome a dignified death with open arms the Australians treat it with disdain. An Aussie Doctor named Nitschke has been disbarred because he advocates for Euthanasia and assisted suicide rights. He's no Kevorkian helping people meet their maker, instead he just gives them the information on how they can do it themselves. His big mistake seems to be giving the information to a man of 45 who was neither old or terminally ill. He knew this man was thinking of killing himself (duh! Why else seek out such a doctor?) and the charge seems to be that Dr. Nitschke didn't try to dissuade him. I guess they wanted him to talk nice and hand him over to a psychiatrist. Instead Dr. Nitschke gave him the information and the man successfully used it. Its obvious that whatever information this man obtained from Dr. Nitschke could have been available to him anyway if he searched long enough but it seems the Australian government is gunning for this doctor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzwjOvjr5zE&list=PL8Y08TuPAnL5TSIBNLIiSSOnbaC0CGQZO&index=5
As US border officials bar suicides from entering the country other Western nations are extending it as a human right, still others label it as a "mental health issue" which needs strict intervention.
I find it amusing that someone who is dying can ask for death to relieve their suffering as long as they're not depressed, as if you can be happy and want to die because of enormous pain, but a depressed person cannot ease their pain & suffering through suicide. However if you try to commit suicide, fail and then tell yourself "hell why not go on living, think I'll take a cruise", you're treated as a criminal for having had a go at it.