Youth in Asia

This story, about the euthanizing of terminally ill children, has gotten a lot of folks up in arms. Those folks don't realize that this stuff (euthanasia, mercy killing, what-have-you) happens in American hospitals every day. We just don't write out policies for it. Having seen too many children, as well as adults, die in amazing, excruciating pain, I cannot find it in myself to condemn a single one of the cases of euthanasia that I've witnessed in America (the ones that I witnessed in Saudi Arabia are a whole 'nother story), all of them having been discussed at length with the patient and/or the family member the patient had appointed to make their decisions. I think that some of Jack Kevorkian's "mercy killings" were flat out wrong, but dismissing the idea of euthanasia because of your distaste for Kevorkian's brand of insanity fits the definition of "throwing the baby out with the bath water". While I'm not firmly decided, I'm inclined to believe that the current "off the books" practice of euthanasia in America generally works well in the instances that it is used. Perhaps the 'pickled-fish-eaters' are doing a good thing by forcing the discussion of the practice out into their country's mainstream. I have no doubt that the American public is not capable of handling such a discussion, unfortunately. I wish them better luck in the Netherlands (is that area properly called the 'nether region'?).