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Posted By Joshua Keating
Monday, March 12, 2012 - 2:08 PM
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A few weeks ago, a video circulated online of Rick Santorum claiming that 1 in 20 deaths in the Netherlands are caused by involuntary euthanasia. According to Santorum, elderly Dutch wear bracelets that say "do not euthanize me" and "don't go to the hospital, they go to another country, because they're afraid because of budget purposes that they will not come out of that hospital if they go into it with sickness."
The remark was met with some bafflement in the Netherlands, and a Dutch television reporter recently cornered a Santorum spokesperson to ask about it:
"It's a matter of what's in his heart. He's a strong pro-life person," press secretary Alice Stewart replies.
After all, like the origin of the universe or the existence of a supreme being, Dutch medical statistics are ultimately unknowable -- just another of the unresolvable mysteries that have confronted us since the dawn of mankind. Who are we? Why are we here? What are the laws in the Netherlands concerning doctor-assisted suicide? We all have our own beliefs.
Santorum knows in his heart that elderly Dutch people are routinely euthanized against their will by doctors. He believes this to be true, no matter what the elite media tries to tell him.
It's the same way I know that one in four Laotians are born with an extra finger and that the most common name in Chad is Chad. It's just what I believe.
words fail me
the lack of knowledge or any form of reason - neither has any role in the lives of born again, evangelicals - used to be one, as I was brainwashed as a kid and thru wheaton college . finally started to think and use my head . rick shoudl be in the modern version of 'one flew over the cucco's nest" a well meaning fool, aut as dangerous as the fat man, who knows what he's doing they deserve each other
Rick Santorum: Strongly pro-life, strongly anti-truth.
In my heart, I’m actually pretty sure that Rick Santorum is actually a virulent anti-Catholic bigot who is a sleeper agent for a group of radical atheists. His secret mission is to make Catholics and other religious people look like a bunch of loons.
In my heart I am certain that Alice Stewart is also a sleeper agent for that same group of radical atheists and she’s only masquerading as an unbelievably incompetent press spokeswoman.
What does it say about this country that an idiot like Santorum is running neck-and-neck in the race for the Republican nomination?
It's funny, because I was thinking the exact same thing...
A Manchurian candidate for Catholicism sent by atheists... brilliant!
And I thought he was the comic relief for the GOP (Gods Own Party )
The thing is, Santorum is mostly correct. See, e.g., http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/21/santorum-more-right-than-wrong-about-dutch-euthanasia/. If you want to take him down, at least take down his statements that are actually false, instead of spreading misinformation.
I am dutch. I lost a number of elder family members recently, to diseases. In the Netherlands when your life expectancy is less then 3 months you can be taken into a kind of foster home called a "hospice". It competely specialises in care for the dying. I visited a number of those, to visit the family members, and spoke to a lot of other people there (These are homes, not hospitals: People live there). Never I saw a bracelet with "don't euthanize me" nor did I ever hear anything about it. I spoke with Catholics opposed to euthanasia as well as with doctors who were in favor of it. Never did i hear anything about it.
Rick Sanatorium is a liar. He can't not know it is all a big bunch of nonsense he speaks. Therefore he commits a sin, the sin of lying. I gather he has some serious confessing to do if he wants to save his soul. Presidential material he isn't.
Mind you, i gather he is a democrat secret weapon.
You have provided a link to an article written by a quack who works for "The Discovery Institute" which is the cabal of religious charlatans famous for giving us the term "Intelligent Design." Try citing actual facts or someone credible.
You know...the commentary you are referencing to "prove" santorum is correct is flawed and biased as well. I am Catholic, pro-life all the way, and am an American with family in the Netherlands. As such, I have spent a lot of time there, and I am always struck at how misrepresented Holland and the Dutch are. The thing about statistics is this: you can manipulate and interpret them in a million different ways. As soon as you start "however, if we include X and Z", you are
It is true: Dutch law permits euthenasia. There are stringent rules, however, and - although I am personally pro-life and anti-abortion - there has to be be leeway for mercy. What Mr. Santorum and his spokespeople carefully avoided mentioning is any kind of critical analysis of the circumstances under which it is allowed: cases where the quality of someone's quality of life has deteriorated to such a great degree that they deserve to be shown mercy, and spared undue suffering
As much as "life is sacred" is a fundamental keystone to catholicism and christianity, so is Mercy.
To say that Mr. Santorum is basically correct in his comments is on par with saying that Republicans (and YES, I actually AM a registered Republican voter) are cruel bigots: isn't it a fact that more white voters vote for them than african american voters, and that the republicans want to cut spending? Cruel! Bigots!
See what I mean? We Republicans are no more cruel or bigoted than the Dutch are killing off their elderly, and Mr. Santorum and his political machine don't need to lie or make up statistics. Run on your own merits, not scare tactics...the field is weak, and you could actually pull off a win without this kind of gibberish!
... it's on THE INTERNET.... then it must be true.
Actually, Republicans are either cruel bigots
Or else the dupes of cruel bigots. You remember Lee Atwater: former strategist for George H.W. Bush and chairman of the Republican National Committee. Here's what he said about the modern Republican party and its strategy of emphasizing benign-sounding "tax cuts" and "budget cuts" that "just happen" to benefit rich white people disproportionately:
You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say "nigger" — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger."
"Mostly correct" being a euphemism for not correct at all
Saying a half-truth is still considered lying. At best, misrepresenting things in a way to deceive. At worst, you are omitting key facts which are the most important elements of it.
Its like saying that Winston Churchill said "democracy is the worst form of government" and omitting the punchline, "except all the others that have been tried."
and "in your heart, you know he's right" -- for which Bill Moyers' glorious response on behalf of LBJ was "in your guts, you know he's nuts."
You have to wonder if he's sane or just sneaky. You decide...
The sad thing is, I really don't expect any better anymore. A candidate so stupid he made a statement so obviously incorrect that it could only be made by someone who couldn't even control himself. A press secretary who presumably realized that there was no possible way that she could ever make this sound good and so talked without actually saying anything.
I realize that all things are relative. I realize that many candidates over the past two centuries have said things just as stupid. However, for this man to be one of the two leading candidates for the presidency convinces me that I should not under any circumstances trust the Republican party with national power. George H. W. Bush*, McCain, Huntsman, even Romney I could grudgingly accept as president. But Santorum? If Santorum is currently the other major candidate for the Republican nomination then I simply cannot trust the Republican party. People like Santorum and Palin are endangering my love of democracy. Where are the realpolitik establishment Republicans?
*Also known to me as Bush the Greater in the manner of Ajax the Greater (with George W. Bush being Bush the Lesser in the manner of Ajax the Lesser).
Santorum is a Conservative, all they know how to do is LIE.
Forced euthanazia in Holland is predicted in the Bible!
Santorum may be correct about the practice/wrong on the extent
“In his heart, Rick Santorum knows that Dutch people are forcibly euthanized”
This actually may be true, depending upon whether you believe that “ending of life without explicit request by the patient” constitutes “forcible” euthanasia.
According to a 2007 New England Journal of Medicine article, 0.4% of all deaths in the Netherlands involved the “Ending of life without explicit request by the patient”; this is 1 in 250 deaths rather than 1 in 20, so Santorum misrepresented the magnitude of involuntary euthanasia (by an order of magnitude), but the main point, that involuntary euthanasia occurs with regularity in the Netherlands, seems to be true.
Incidentally, in those case where death is deliberately induced (categorized in the study as “Euthanasia”-1.7%; “Assisted suicide”-0.1%, “Ending of life without explicit request by the patient”-0.4%), 18.1% (0.4/2.2) are done without explicit request. That's nearly one in five.
In regards to the magnitude issue, Santorum likely made the mistake of relying on anti-euthanasia activist groups for his figures. Ironically, the writer of this post, Joshua Keating, appears to have made a similar mistake: his lone source for Santorum's comments is the left-wing group rightwingwatch.org.
Joshua, the link below leads to the PRIMARY source I used for my comments above; it took all of ten minutes to find it using Google Scholar. Try to use more of these types of sources in the future, while relying a little less on advocacy groups.
________________________________________
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmsa071143#t=articleTop
when a mechanic (such as myself) works on a car I might welcome some other good mechanics to talk to about the repair I'm doing, to use for support of what I not 100% sure about but believe is correct. If I take a child (my 5 year old grandson) and put him under my wifes car hood and tell him to replace the plugs, he 1st doesnt have a clue where they are, 2nd wouldn't know a wrench from a hair dryer, and 3rd would probably cost me my bed for a while!.
"Is rio orange war always sans engagement inevitable ?"
MaximB
Yeah no shit. My phone never rings because their asses couldn't afford me, I told them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. They can come here and feed off the scraps like the rest of you or hit me with an expense account and a porsche 959. Sorry fellas I got some pride..
"Is rio orange war always forfait sosh inevitable ?"
MaximB
Traditionally Democrats are the ones that start wars. WW1, WW2, korea, Vietnam, it wasn't until the Bush's that republicans started going to war..
"Is rio orange war always forfait mobile inevitable ?"
MaximB
Dutch law permits euthenasia. There are stringent rules, however, and - although I am personally pro-life and anti-abortion - there has to be be leeway for mercy. What Mr. Santorum and his spokespeople carefully avoided mentioning is any kind of critical analysis of the circumstances womenboots under which it is allowed: cases where the quality of someone's quality of life has deteriorated to such a great degree that they deserve to be shown mercy, and spared undue suffering.
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