Johnny Cash - I Hung My Head

Americans have a pretty blandly friendly view of The Netherlands: boring landscape, friendly people.  We mostly don't know the dark side of the Dutch:

A Dutch woman doctor who drugged an elderly woman and then asked her family to hold her down as she fought desperately not to be killed did not break the law, according to medical experts citing the country's euthanasia legislation.

Euthanasia is not just legal, but seems to be enthusiastically embraced.  I posted on this once before, in a surprisingly gentle rant about a similar situation in Belgium.  This case is much worse.  It's horrifying:

The doctor secretly placed a soporific in her coffee to calm her, and then had started to give her a lethal injection. 

Yet while injecting the woman she woke up, and fought the doctor. The paperwork showed that the only way the doctor could complete the injection was by getting family members to help restrain her. 

It also revealed that the patient said several times 'I don't want to die' in the days before she was put to death, and that the doctor had not spoken to her about what was planned because she did not want to cause unnecessary extra distress. She also did not tell her about what was in her coffee as it was also likely to cause further disruptions to the planned euthanasia process. 

The Review Committee concluded that the doctor 'has crossed the line' by giving her the first sleeping medicine, and also should have stopped when the woman resisted.

There's simply no way to look at this as other than pre-meditated murder encouraged by the State.  A bureaucratic committee issued a bland "mistakes were made" statement, but it's clear from reading the article that nobody is really very sorry.

I don't want to die.

As I wrote in my gentle rant:

The mentally ill are terribly, terribly vulnerable.  That illness is a scourge on them, and on their families.  I can understand why some would be willing to take drastic measures to put an end to that scourge, even desperate measures.  But there's only one word that describes a State that would not just stand by and let that happen, but which would officially sanction it.

Evil.

On this side of The Pond, I like to think that people would still have a sense of shame.  Johnny Cash sings of this, a man who regrets an impulsive murder that had consequences in a society that still had a sense of justice.



I Hung My Head (Songwriter: Gordon Sumner, aka Sting):

Early one morning
With time to kill
I borrowed Jebb's rifle
And sat on a hill
I saw a lone rider
Crossing the plain
I drew a bead on him
To practice my aim 

My brother's rifle
Went off in my hand
A shot rang out
Across the land
The horse, he kept running
The rider was dead
I hung my head
I hung my head 

I set off running
To wake from the dream
My brother's rifle
Went into the sheen
I kept on running
Into the south lands
That's where they found me
My head in my hands 

The sheriff he asked me
Why had I run
And then it come to me
Just what I had done
And all for no reason
Just one piece of lead
I hung my head
I hung my head 

Here in the court house
The whole town was there
I see the judge
High up in the chair
Explain to the court room
What went through your mind
And we'll ask the jury
What verdict they find 

I felt the power
Of death over life
I orphaned his children
I widowed his wife
I begged their forgiveness
I wish I was dead
I hung my head
I hung my head 

I hung my head
I hung my head 

Early one morning
With time to kill
I see the gallows
Up on a hill
And out in the distance
A trick of the brain
I see a lone rider
Crossing the plain 

And he'd come to fetch me
To see what they'd done
And we'll ride together
To kingdom come
I prayed for God's mercy
'Cause soon I'd be dead
I hung my head
I hung my head 

I hung my head
I hung my head

Hat tip to American Digest for finding this whole disgraceful story.