Key knows best about everything

Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, August 25th, 2012 - 26 comments
Categories: Ethics, health, john key - Tags: ,

John Key has said some pretty stupid things in his time as PM (along with the outright lies, insults to other countries, racist jokes and so on). And once Key makes a claim, no matter how stupid or how offensive, he never backs down, never admits that he was wrong, never genuinely apologises. Here he goes again:

John Key stands by euthanasia comments

Prime Minister John Key has sparked outrage among health care professionals with his comments that euthanasia effectively happens in New Zealand, despite being illegal. The Society of Palliative Medicine says the claim is ‘completely false’ and fears it may make the public less trusting of hospital care.

Palliative medicine specialist Sinead Donnelly cares for 500 dying patients each year – she says her focus is helping them live the rest of their lives as well as possible, not helping them die.

“We were appalled by the statement coming from the Prime Minister of New Zealand, which is a highly respected position that people would take seriously. That’s clearly not true,” says Mrs Donnelly, the chair of the Australia New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine. …

But Key isn’t backing down, as the heated debate continues about whether people should have the right to choose to die.

Dr Donnelly (and another palliative care specialist) were interviewed on RNZ on Friday, you can hear the audio here. She’s angry, calling Key’s claims “a slap in the face” for the medical profession.

Dr Donnelly is opposed to the legalisation of euthanasia, and there I (and most New Zealanders it seems) disagree with her. But you can’t argue with her knowledge, her experience, or her right to speak up for her profession. If she says that illegal euthanasia is not currently taking place in NZ then I believe her. But not John Key. Once he’s opened his mouth he knows that he knows best.

26 comments on “Key knows best about everything ”

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  1. ghostwhowalksnz 1
    25 August 2012 at 11:45 am

    Stands by his comments ?

    His ignorance is appalling !

    he thinks ‘turning off a switch for a machine that is keeping a person alive’ is the act that ends a persons life.

    Next he will think that womens bodies can choose not to allow a sperm from a ‘forcible rape’ to fertilise an egg

    Or that increasing GST and decreasing income tax for the rich will boost the economy.

    • David H 1.1
      25 August 2012 at 9:50 pm

      And as usual it keeps the media busy chasing phantoms of his making. Whilst the news that the Waitangi Tribunal came back with the report so awaited by all, at the stunning time of 4pm on a Friday arvo. And by that time Key had the Moronic stream media busy as usual.

  2. Dr Terry 2
    25 August 2012 at 12:11 pm

    Key is clearly the “Minister of Everything”, just as was predecessor Muldoon (only with a better looking disguise); it follows, then, that he “knows everything” (might we call it “grandiosity”?)

    • felix 2.1
      25 August 2012 at 5:40 pm

      “better looking” is highly subjective. Muldoon was 1000 kinds of bastard stuffed into one but visually his face was full of character, something the greasy little infinitely interchangeable salesman Key will never have.

    • North 2.2
      25 August 2012 at 7:00 pm

      It’s called “nouveau riche” and they get their come-uppance – usually.

  3. Kotahi Tāne Huna 3
    25 August 2012 at 12:20 pm

    Ignorance is a condition we all share – there’s no shame in it. It’s the Dunning-Kruger effect you have to watch out for.

  4. Agora 4
    25 August 2012 at 12:21 pm

    .. perhaps it a strategy of continually presenting a moving target so that he cannot be held accountable
    for carrying out the role of Prime Minister such as attending the funerals of people his government has sent into harms way, especially as another is due.

    .. a strategy of changing the topic until everyone, including his party, gives up on him in disgust.

    .. his novelty value must be wearing off a bit by now, so I cannot but wonder whom Joyce has been
    quietly sounding out.

    .. his alter ego ?

  5. weka 5
    25 August 2012 at 1:49 pm

    I’ll preface my comment with stating the obvious: Key is a dick and his comments were ignorant and extremely unhelpful.
     
    I felt uncomfortable with some of the things the two guests interviewed on RNZ said. The idea was that they are THE professionals, and they know for certain that euthanasia NEVER happens. Further, they also know that EVERY ill person who wishes for the power to end their life changes their mind when they get closer to death and comes to value life enough that they don’t want to end it sooner. I simply don’t believe that.
     
    They came across as incredibly skilled and compassionate, but also with a degree of arrogance common in the medical profession. So with all due respect, I don’t accept that they know everything. With regards to legislation change, euthanasia is not an issue that doctors get to decide about, it’s something the people of NZ will. I seriously doubt that all registered medical practitioners in NZ are against legislation change.
     
    I would guess that any doctor who has assisted or turned a blind eye to euthanasia is extremely unlikely to say anything publicly or to their colleagues, unless they want to become a campaigner. They certainly wouldn’t be talking to an anti-euthanasia organisation like one that the two interviewees belong to.

    • QoT 5.1
      25 August 2012 at 2:04 pm

      So with all due respect, I don’t accept that they know everything.

      I agree, weka. To be blunt, I think listening to a spokesperson for the Society of Palliative Medicine saying “I know that euthanasia never happens” is like Colin Craig saying “I know that all gay people choose to be gay.” They’re simultaneously biased by ideology and probably the last person anyone who has performed euthanasia/is gay would actually talk to about it.

      • Agora 5.1.1
        25 August 2012 at 2:25 pm

        I presume that he is referring to voluntary exit, or ‘death with dignity’ ? If not, he is effectively
        accusing medical professionals of what may medico-legally constitute murder.

        • QoT 5.1.1.1
          25 August 2012 at 2:27 pm

          Even if he is, it still “medico-legally” constitutes murder since we don’t have a voluntary euthanasia law in NZ. Hence why Key was commenting on it in the first place, and probably another reason why the openminded folk of Palliative Medicine don’t know when it happens.

      • NickS 5.1.2
        25 August 2012 at 4:09 pm

        This +1

        There’s multiple reports in the literature of doctors and nurses “hurrying” things along, and while it’s not common, it’s not rare either. As long as there’s people working with the dying who have empathy and want the best outcome for the patient, there’ll always be some who listen to the patient’s wishes to die quickly, instead of a long, slow, stretch of suffering. No matter how much the anti-euthanasia crowd like to ignore it.

        Oh, and I think legally adults in NZ can refuse life saving medical treatment, which serves as a very limited form of euthanasia, albeit one more commonly attempted by religious twits with dodgy theological arguments about blood transfusions or modern medical care.

    • Morrissey 5.2
      25 August 2012 at 2:53 pm

      Weka, could you please explain exactly what you mean by “euthanasia”? Do you think to refuse to participate in artificially and cruelly prolonging a patient’s life by hooking him/her up to a machine is the same as injecting a patient to kill him or her?

      • Pascal's bookie 5.2.1
        25 August 2012 at 3:04 pm

        They are not the same thing.

        In one case you are ‘letting nature take its course”, ie, you are not intervening to effect change. In the other case, you are intervening to effect change.

        Some people have had themselves tattooed to tell emergency staff that they do not desire life support in the case of brain damage, that is not the same thing as asking to be killed.

      • weka 5.2.2
        25 August 2012 at 3:07 pm

        No I don’t think that. I use the term euthanasia in its generally accepted meaning of assisted suicide. Key confused the two things, although interestingly one of the women on the RNZ interview said people were still free to commit suicide, so I take it that she is objecting to suicide assisted by medical people (which is discriminatory – people with the physical ability to suicide can, those without can’t. Which is one reason why we probably need euthanasia legislation). 
         

  6. bad12 6
    25 August 2012 at 2:30 pm

    Slippery makes Himself a easy target doesn’t He, pity we have such a slack media as it appears no-one is in any hurry to ask the little Shyster to provide some proof for His latest piece of stupidity…

    • Richard Christie 6.1
      25 August 2012 at 3:33 pm

      I don’t like John Key and what he represents any more than many others commenting.

      I’ve worked in hospitals, I’ve worked in operating theatres. I’ve many friends in the nursing profession.

      If Key is alluding to the assisted acceleration, and ease of the process, of dying for terminally ill then there is some truth in his statement.

      My opinion based solely on my experience and reinforced by reports from friends described above. My observation is not intended to support nor discourage debate on euthanasia.

  7. Morrissey 7
    25 August 2012 at 2:49 pm

    Palliative medicine specialist Sinead Donnelly. . .

    Father Felix’s love child?

  8. captain hook 8
    25 August 2012 at 2:51 pm

    +1 bad 12.

  9. captain hook 9
    25 August 2012 at 3:09 pm

    dont be A CREEP.

  10. prism 10
    25 August 2012 at 5:29 pm

    Jokeyhen knows the best thing to do is never back down. And not to get too excited, the punters like his calm. cheerful, vacuous persona.

  11. chris73 11
    26 August 2012 at 8:24 am

    Anything to score points…

  12. muzza 12
    26 August 2012 at 11:11 am

    In case anyone didn’t know just what is at the head of our government!

    Look at the eyes, and listen to the words.

    Yes, its a video, yes you may have seen it before!