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Ted Nugent: When my time comes, Big Brother, butt out


Sunday, July 01, 2007

I lived in Michigan when the television news channels played the videos of Dr. Jack Kevorkian assisting his terminally ill patients nonstop, day in and day out.

It was clear, as the parties involved spilled out their hearts and souls in the most dynamic of intense emotions, that the good doctor was responding sincerely, thoughtfully, professionally and with deep compassion to those seeking to end their agony.

You will find no man who more than I is dedicated to the self-evident truth that human life is sacred.

I value, respect and completely cherish the precious gift of life that God has bestowed upon each of us.

However, quality of life is pivotal to autonomy, individuality and independence.

If ever there were a part of life that government should never tread upon, it is decisions we each make about our quality of life and the choices we make about extending or ending it.

The exhaustive shopping list of checks and balances, the thorough scrutiny that the patients, families and Dr. Kevorkian went through during those instances where he assisted in terminating their suffering, could by no stretch of the imagination constitute an indicator of a "slippery slope" toward convenient suicide.

Allegations to the contrary are in overt defiance of the facts and are pure hogwash. That a bureaucrat or another person would meddle in such personal choice is unforgivable and surely un-American.

We are all going to die. Get used to it. It would be a smart move for society to take the voodoo and cloud of fear and confusion out of the facts of life and death.

As the more intelligent among us discipline ourselves and our loved ones to provide for our quality of life, surely we have the right to manage the inevitable for our quality of death.

I would love to know who thinks he or she has any right to tell family members or loved ones just how, when or if they can compassionately end their suffering and meet their maker.

Talk about "minding your own business"!

When debilitating conditions ravage the mind, body and soul beyond one's ability to tolerate them, intelligent, loving comfort is the compassionate decision.

Preparation for dying should be a priority for all families, as the curse of probate court and disconnected strangers meddling in such decisions is unforgivable.

We should all have a living will so that such personal, emotional decisions remain in qualified, loving hands of our choosing.

That is what Dr. Kevorkian went to jail for — responding with professional care at the request of families facing the most difficult, painful time and decisions of their lives. No holier-than-thou, know-it-all bureaucrats were invited.

Only Oregon allows for assisted suicide, as it has since 1997. Through last year, 292 patients had utilized such services to end their agony, compared to nearly 86,000 who died from similar ailments without the use of prescribed barbiturates.

I've watched and embraced the tears and cries of the afflicted who agonized through the decision-making ordeal with loved ones and professionals. To interfere with such a procedure is cruel, arrogant and soulless. It prolongs unnecessary suffering by all parties involved.

Every state in the nation needs a law like Oregon's to allow individuals to end their suffering with dignity.

Caring doctors shouldn't have to go to jail for acting compassionately.

Ted Nugent is a Waco-based musician and television show host.

Comments

By Kristina

Jul 15, 2007 3:46 PM | Link to this

Shame. Did anyone ever learn the phrase, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything? Everyone has their own opinions, and has that wonderful right as an American. But insults and hate make us look awful and uneducated. All I can say Ted, I am a Texan and proud you are my neighbor. ROCK ON, Dude!

By realfinn

Jul 10, 2007 7:41 PM | Link to this

Who is your ghost writer, because this does not even sound like something Ted Nugent would write. When did he become so articulate all of sudden and have all this knowledge about all these different subjects? Most of his printed articles that I have in my collection are about sex, rock and roll, and hunting. Now what college was your degree in political and social studies
granted to you and when? Is it an AA, BA or PHD, because if you don't have the degree why should I listen to you.

By Jean

Jul 7, 2007 11:37 AM | Link to this

Amen. I agree 100% with Ted. Clearly, Oregon has the right idea. Medically (not governmentally) supervised requirements, checks and balances can be made stringent enough to discourage epidemic suicides, and greed-inspired homicides. Granted, there ARE plenty of physicians who compassionately allow their terminal patients an easier way out. But at what cost? They put their own reputations, careers and more importantly, their very freedom at risk if they're found out. Decriminalization or legalization of assisted suicide would help to remove the stigma of such a final act, allowing those those with never to be improved or cured, excruciating pain and unacceptable quality of life to die with dignity on their own terms. With no outside, unwanted interference.

By it happens everyday

Jul 6, 2007 12:43 PM | Link to this

Do you people not know that this happens everyday. Doctors find away to help family end the lifes of loved ones that have been in pain for along time. Nobody should say what they would or wouldnt do. If you are a parent and you have a fatal child that has been in pain for years. You watch this child hurt day in and day out. There is no cure for the disease. You have tried every research test possible. What would you do? If you have never been in that postition YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU WOULD DO. I love reading all these comments. So many people have opinions. Thats fine. But what I dont understand is the people that truly get upset if your opinion is not what they want to hear.

By T. Wayne

Jul 5, 2007 9:15 PM | Link to this

Hey, Web-Meister...what happened to Mark T's comment?

By Beaver

Jul 5, 2007 4:46 PM | Link to this

Ted, the problem here is whether the situation coul dbe taken advantage of. I agree with your idea about people suffering and my own greatest fear is that I will end up pissing in a bedpan and having nurses wash my hind end. But the great what if is whether or not a doctor can be trusted with the ability to help someone kill themselves. Medicine is a guessing game at best, and doctors do not always make the correct decisions. What happens when a doctor guesses wrong and tells a person that they have a terminal illness and they do not? What happens when a doctor, thinking he is doing the right thing, convinces a person to kill himself and the doctor end up assisting someone who could have made a complete recovery? There are just too many if's on this one. I think I have to disagree with you on whether assisted suicide should be legal.

By Steve

Jul 5, 2007 3:40 PM | Link to this

And this is exactly what I'm talking about Ted. This is a comment from below:

"I worked for a state agency that sometimes had to usurp the decision-making process from persons of diminished capacity. It was not unusual to have a hospital or health care agency social worker call up demanding that the state assume guardianship of an individual with the sole purpose of terminating the person's life."

If a government agency declaring people to have "diminished capacity" isn't the perfect definition of oxymoronic, nothing is. Let me tell ya, when the government declares my capacity diminished so that they can kill me or one of mine, then it will be high-time to fully exercise my second amendment rights.

By Steve

Jul 5, 2007 3:21 PM | Link to this

I usually agree with you Ted, but we must part ways on this one.

Life is precious in any condition. To declare that life is not worth living, even when life is feeble, painful or uncomfortable is the realm of weak minds and hearts, imo. Would only if we all had the integrity and courage to live out our lives as our Creator intends, and allow Him the right to reclaim our lives when He sees fit.

Second, giving a doctor the legal right to kill people is not only immoral, it is also a slippery slope. In some other countries where this has become legal, Holland for example, it has now become legal for doctors to terminate the lives of children based soley on the doctor's personal judgement on the future quality of life of the child - and the parents have no say in the matter. Espaecially in this day and age where the culture of death is en Vogue, do we really want to entrust the power of death into the hands of any man? No way, Jose. Not with me or mine. If you want to off yourself, then no law will stop a bullet or a bottle of over the counter sleeping pills. But don't tell me that giving doctors the legal right to kill is "compassionate."

Man Ted... You sound like a soul-less lib.

By The Ghost of Madison Cooper, Jr.

Jul 4, 2007 7:12 PM | Link to this

I completely agree with the Sage of the Brazos, with one exception: The Right to Die must include the requirement that a handgun be used to commit the act. That way the Right to Die is but a subsidiary right of the Right to Bear Arms.

Come on, Ted, you're starting to sound like a liberal by not mentioning firearms.

By BB

Jul 4, 2007 1:46 PM | Link to this

In the good O' USA you have the right to say what you want at any time! Ted....say it load. Its your right.

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