{"id":212935,"date":"2019-10-24T10:26:08","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T15:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=212935"},"modified":"2019-10-24T00:14:19","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T05:14:19","slug":"patrick-stewart-assisted-suicide-misguided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/patrick-stewart-assisted-suicide-misguided\/","title":{"rendered":"Misguided compassion: &#8216;Star Trek&#8217; actor Patrick Stewart advocates for assisted suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Sir Patrick Stewart is probably best known for his role as Captain Picard in &#8220;Star Trek: The Next Generation.&#8221; But unfortunately, the much-beloved actor has also become known for his role in advocating for assisted suicide.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the British actor appeared on ITV\u2019s This Morning to discuss his role as patron of the British pro-euthanasia group Dignity in Dying. As part of the interview, he described his interest in the matter, which began with his own health issues several years ago, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/sir-patrick-stewart-emergency-heart-op-made-me-realise-i-am-not-immortal-122828054.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to Yahoo<\/a>. \u201cI was diagnosed very unexpectedly during my annual physical by my cardiologist, who said \u2018What are you doing this afternoon?\u2019&#8221; he recalled. &#8220;To which I said \u2018Well actually, I\u2019m going for lunch.\u2019 And he said, \u2018I\u2019d rather you didn\u2019t.\u2019 And in five minutes I was on a gurney giving details of my next of kin and so it was rather dramatic. \u2026 But yes, it was a wake up call &#8211; Patrick, you are not immune.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AdhbPn2OhBw\" width=\"640\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Stewart also discussed the tragic example of his friend whose terminally ill wife took her own life, which her husband traumatically discovered. For Stewart, the issue is about controlling the circumstances under which death happens. During the interview, he talked about the threshold for euthanasia: \u201cterminally ill mentally competent adults with six months or less to live,\u201d as long as \u201ctwo independent doctors and a high court judge\u201d determine the person meets the criteria, and that the decision is \u201cfree of coercion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet the evidence tells us that assisted suicide leads to a dangerous slippery slope, in which <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/documentary-assisted-suicide-laws\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">society\u2019s most vulnerable suffer<\/a>, and are pressured to kill themselves. <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/learned-two-decades-euthanasia-netherlands\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Two decades<\/a> of these kinds of euthanasia laws in the Netherlands has shown that, even when a society accepts assisted suicide under supposedly strict conditions similar to those outlined by Stewart, victims eventually include people suffering from dementia, people with autism, children with development disorders, those with depression &#8212; all in the name of a misguided sense of \u201ccompassion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/euthanasia-organization-elderly-bad-death-assisted-suicide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Euthanasia organization tells elderly they\u2019ll have a \u2018bad death\u2019 without assisted suicide<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the hosts of the show, Philip Schofield, hinted at problems with Stewart\u2019s position. \u201cThat six months, it sounds finite, it sounds definite, but it\u2019s not a specific and precise science,&#8221; he pointed out. &#8220;You don\u2019t know how long your six months is going to be, whether that six months may turn into a year or two years.\u201d Stewart replied that in Oregon, a terminally ill patient who meets criteria can be prescribed medication that will kill them. He then acknowledged that more than half who are given the prescription never use them. \u201cBut the comfort that resides in knowing that there is something there that can help you and help your family too, and that it is legal \u2026 is an enormous relief and comfort who are all concerned with this case,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n<p>The idea that assisted suicide offers a guaranteed painless \u201crelief\u201d to an individual\u2019s suffering is also naive. A study <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/study-assisted-suicide-painful-inhumane\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">conducted earlier this year<\/a> found that assisted suicide can be both prolonged and painful, with death taking up to 30 hours for a third of patients, and up to seven days for nearly one in 20 patients. The psychological toll taken in these cases, in which the patient can even remain conscious but unable to move, is immeasurable. And that is not even taking into consideration the <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/families-assisted-suicide-plead-end\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tragic effects<\/a> that assisted suicide can have on family members.<\/p>\n<p>Schofield again pointed out potential abuses of the law. \u201cWhat if you\u2019ve decided you want your elderly mother\u2019s money and this is a way to send her on her way?\u201d he asked. Stewart felt confident in the restrictions, though, and claimed that \u201cthere is no possibility, no likelihood that it could be misused in this way.\u201d\u00a0 However, the evidence shows that <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/netherlands-doctor-reprimanded-euthanasia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">precisely this kind of abuse<\/a> happens in a society that allows assisted suicide. And courts cannot be relied upon to rectify these abuses, given that many justices have ruled against life and proper treatment time and time again, as reflected most notoriously in the <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/remembering-charlie-gard-died-court-battle-life-support\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Charlie Gard<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/alfie-evans-europe-culture-death\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alfie Evans<\/a> cases.<\/p>\n<p>Patrick Stewart&#8217;s compassion is laudable, but when it comes to assisted suicide, it&#8217;s sadly misguided.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sir Patrick Stewart is probably best known for his role as Captain Picard in &#8220;Star Trek: The Next Generation.&#8221; But unfortunately, the much-beloved actor has also become known for his role in advocating for assisted suicide. Last week, the British actor appeared on ITV\u2019s This Morning to discuss his role as patron of the British [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":606,"featured_media":213023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Misguided compassion: &#039;Star Trek&#039; actor Patrick Stewart advocates for assisted suicide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Beloved actor Patrick Stewart has come out in support of assisted suicide. 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But while his compassion is to be admired, his argument is lacking.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/patrick-stewart-assisted-suicide-misguided\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-24T15:26:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-10-24T05:14:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/GettyImages-1177313539-patrick-stewart.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1196\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Laura Nicole\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/LauraNicoleLAN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laura Nicole\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/patrick-stewart-assisted-suicide-misguided\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/patrick-stewart-assisted-suicide-misguided\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Laura Nicole\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/559f5a34d7a649412e9356345992a870\"},\"headline\":\"Misguided compassion: &#8216;Star Trek&#8217; actor Patrick Stewart advocates for assisted suicide\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-24T15:26:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-10-24T05:14:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/patrick-stewart-assisted-suicide-misguided\/\"},\"wordCount\":731,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Issues\",\"Newsbreak\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/patrick-stewart-assisted-suicide-misguided\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/patrick-stewart-assisted-suicide-misguided\/\",\"name\":\"Misguided compassion: 'Star Trek' actor Patrick Stewart advocates for assisted suicide\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-24T15:26:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-10-24T05:14:19+00:00\",\"description\":\"Beloved actor Patrick Stewart has come out in support of assisted suicide. 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