Thread: Should Assisted suicide be legal?

Originally Posted by Professor Peabody

Hope anyone considering making that legal trusts their kids (or step kids), they could end up in a box way early cause the kids can't wait to cash in your stuff.

if you don't trust your kids or spouse, make a living will

Yes, it should be legal. I own my life and you own yours. Along with that ownership comes the right of destruction.

Something for the people saying that the terminally ill should take care of it themselves before they get to the point where they can't...what about quadriplegics? I know if I ever find myself in that situation I'd hope there was someone with the courage to help me out.

Originally Posted by Awryly

Yes, there is a semantic difference.

Assisted suicide is voluntary. Euthanasia need not be. The terminology needs to be precise.

Assisted suicide means the soon-to-be-dead person made the decision. Euthanasia means someone else made the decision. That's called murder.

Originally Posted by PatrickT

Assisted suicide means the soon-to-be-dead person made the decision. Euthanasia means someone else made the decision. That's called murder.

Euthanasia is simply compassionate killing. We do it to our animals routinely without their consent.

But only because we can't tell what it is they would like us to do.

The same thing sometimes happens to people who can't give their consent. But the standard should be that people express a wish to die. Unfortunately, they can't always happen.

Originally Posted by Makedde

Do you assume that someone who is weak and in pain does not have a sound mind?

I've reached that level of pain before. I got delirious, completely disconnected from what was going on around me. My entire body was on fire. Time had no meaning. Nothing that was going on made any impact. I heard noises, which I was later told was a lot of people talking. My mind couldn't process it. The only thing I wanted was for it to end, and I didn't care how.

Apparently, I got to a point where I was begging to die. Begging for something, anything, to take away the pain. I tried to break my hand, break my arm, anything. I've been at that level of pain 3 times in my life, and close another half a dozen times.

There is a limit to how much pain your body can process at any given time. Once you reach that, it doesn't matter what is going on.

I will tell you right now, I did not have a sound mind. I should not have been the one making my medical decisions. Luckily, I wasn't.

That said, with certain diseases, you are in that much pain nearly all the time. I wouldn't wish it on anybody. If that's all you have to look forward to, let them end it. Just don't pretend that the decision is being made with a sound mind. Their world is not your world. It's a world of pain.

Originally Posted by Daggdag

So you would rather leave a person to suffer?

I think in the majority of cases....its the family suffering. Much of the "agony" type descriptive words is hype used to lead people to believe that we have a real problem with people writhing in agony on their beds hoping to die quickly. That simply isn't true. But we do have many families having a hard time coping with the emotional trauma and medical expenses of dealing with sick loved ones.

I find it interesting when reading media reports on Euthanasia overseas....that the article starts with the "writhing agony" of the poor people that want to die (like the newborn babies that can't talk). And then at the end talks about the suffering of the families. It really is the expense on society and on the people who are put in responsibility to care for these people that creates the momentum for "assisted suicide".

Originally Posted by FactChecker

I've reached that level of pain before. I got delirious, completely disconnected from what was going on around me. My entire body was on fire. Time had no meaning. Nothing that was going on made any impact. I heard noises, which I was later told was a lot of people talking. My mind couldn't process it. The only thing I wanted was for it to end, and I didn't care how.

Apparently, I got to a point where I was begging to die. Begging for something, anything, to take away the pain. I tried to break my hand, break my arm, anything. I've been at that level of pain 3 times in my life, and close another half a dozen times.

There is a limit to how much pain your body can process at any given time. Once you reach that, it doesn't matter what is going on.

I will tell you right now, I did not have a sound mind. I should not have been the one making my medical decisions. Luckily, I wasn't.

That said, with certain diseases, you are in that much pain nearly all the time. I wouldn't wish it on anybody. If that's all you have to look forward to, let them end it. Just don't pretend that the decision is being made with a sound mind. Their world is not your world. It's a world of pain.

One of the arguments of those who oppose assisted suicide (the Catholic patron of the hospices I talked about earler - whose real opposition stems from silly religious belief) is that modern palliative medicine removes pain.

First of all, it doesn't (it just suits Catholics to say so); and second, if a person's quality of life is so compromised by disease that they have no will to live, pain or no pain, they should be allowed to be assisted to die.

To quote Bill Clinton on this issue: "Man, I don't know."

Originally Posted by PatrickT

Assisted suicide means the soon-to-be-dead person made the decision. Euthanasia means someone else made the decision. That's called murder.

Not if you make it legal.

Originally Posted by Bluespade

Honestly, this post is retarded.

They should have done it themselves earlier, forget spending what time they have with their families, or actually trying to fight cancer off. And for what, so it doesn't offend our sensibilities?

I'll tell you what, if you get sick and insist on suffering like a mindless animal, so be it. But, how about letting other people decide about their own lives, because it's really none of your business.

Pity I couldn't rep this post because it sure deserves one. I agree 100%. It is the individuals choice, no one elses. Well said, Bluespade.