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Elderly should hurry up and die

Nothing like a bit of directness. Japan doesn't put the same value on human life that Western countries do, due to our Christian roots, so there may not be the same aversion to speaking more directly as to how some governments may feel about keeping old, dependent people alive when they seem to have no apparent purpose. This is the euthanasia mindset for you, just more overt when coming from a non-Christian culture.

TOKYO, January 23, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The recently-elected government of Japan has made itself heard on the life issues. Finance minister Taro Aso, said on Monday that elderly and financially dependent Japanese have a duty to die quickly to take pressure off the government-funded social service system.

“Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die,” Aso said. He described elderly people in need of care as “tube people” and complained that it costs “several tens of millions of yen” a month to care for a patient in the final stages of life.

Japan doesn't have expressly legal euthanasia through legislation, but it exists in practice and was decided by two court cases.

Even then, it seems to have been just a little too much for the Japanese people.

Taso has since partially apologized for his remarks, saying they may have been "inappropriate." He said he “wasn’t commenting on how terminal medical care should be,” but rather was expressing his "personal opinion."

Related link: Elderly should ‘hurry up and die’: Japanese minister

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