(February 18, 2015 at 1:47 am)IanHulett Wrote: For people who are terminally ill, that have no future, and no hope for recovery, and are suffering day and night for months to years, do you think they should have the option to end their lives via euthanasia?

I have much looser standards. I support a legal option to end one's life via euthanasia for anyone who is mentally competent and wishes to end his or her own life. I suppose if there's no terminal illness you should be required to undergo some sort of therapy first.

I agree with Losty. It should be everyone's own decision, of course after establishing the person is in their normal state of mind, given help and a cooling off period. And it must be checked there is no evidence of coercion. (Adults, of course.)

I don't think anyone has the right to say "fuck you it's not that bad, put up with it".

As someone with spina bifida, which is not explicitly terminal, I support assisted euthanasia for anyone, terminal or not, who is suffering through enough pain or fatigue as to make the activities of daily living undoable. I want badly to have that choice here in California should my circumstances change. As far as coercion goes, I don't know. I think it's hard for even the most professional of us to completely divorce our hearts from our minds. Here in America, I do not feel any pressure from anybody I meet to terminate my own life, even though I walk with crutches, which violates many able-bodies' sense of what's good. The Netherlands may be different in how they see disability and suffering, but let them be. It is a sovereign, and modern, state.

Right. I mean, I am on the verge of wanting to die every day. I'm not even close to terminal though, I just have what I consider to be a low standard of life and I'm plagued by depression. I may one day get better, but there's no guarantees at all. I think that if I make the reasoned decision that I want to die, I should be allowed to, after following correct and careful procedures first. Because the alternative is me going out and throwing myself off a cliff, or some other horrible thing, leaving people to discover me and have to clean I up and investigate it. I'm not going to do that, because I have promised my wife, but if it did get to that point, I shouldn't be forced to those lengths instead.

Absolutely - yes for euthanasia. If/when I decide that it's time for me to go - anyone just try and stop me. In the worst case scenario - I'll make myself such a nuisance, that my carers will smother me with a pillow, regardless of whether euthanasia is legal, or not.

I can see the mental health community gathering their torches and pitchforks at the idea of allowing anyone to kill themselves.

I'm certainly for euthanasia, but as far as allowing people outside the terminally ill to do so, I'm torn. I know it's not my place to say who can do what with their own lives, but the people that are most susceptible to suicide are the mentally ill. The last thing they need is encouragement in the form of socially legitimizing suicide. Again, I realize that mentally ill or not someone has the right to do with their lives as they wish, but I can say with quite certainty that if suicide had been legally and socially acceptable fifteen years ago, I would not be here today. The thing is at that point I would have never dreamed that I could have the control over my depression that I do now.

I believe that people have the right to control their lives, but I'm just not sure that making it okay for anyone to kill themselves is the right message to send.

It's a really difficult thing to think about. People who are mentally ill should obviously get treatment. They should be encouraged to get all the help they can because it's their illness that's probably causing them to want death and if treated they may realize that they didn't actually want to die. I'm just not for telling people they must live even if they're just done living.

I struggle with it personally often. I don't want to die, most of the time. And when I do, I won't go through with it, because I have kids and people I love who love me and it seems wrong.
But there was a time when I lived for months existing only inside my own head. I wanted to die more than I have ever wanted anything in my life. Death seemed like the kindest thing anyone could offer me but no one did. I'm glad. I am so glad. But....somehow I still feel like that's a bit different. I wasn't stable, I was hospitalized at the time, things were really bad. These are the people that shouldn't be allowed. If you are not mentally stable then you should be required to complete medical treatment until you are declared mentally stable before you can make a decision to end your life.

(February 18, 2015 at 10:41 am)Faith No More Wrote: I can see the mental health community gathering their torches and pitchforks at the idea of allowing anyone to kill themselves.

I'm certainly for euthanasia, but as far as allowing people outside the terminally ill to do so, I'm torn. I know it's not my place to say who can do what with their own lives, but the people that are most susceptible to suicide are the mentally ill. The last thing they need is encouragement in the form of socially legitimizing suicide. Again, I realize that mentally ill or not someone has the right to do with their lives as they wish, but I can say with quite certainty that if suicide had been legally and socially acceptable fifteen years ago, I would not be here today. The thing is at that point I would have never dreamed that I could have the control over my depression that I do now.

I believe that people have the right to control their lives, but I'm just not sure that making it okay for anyone to kill themselves is the right message to send.

I can understand the aversion, but if a person with a mental illness is at that point of considering suicide as a seriously viable and attractive option, do you really think they'd go to a hospital and undergo a screening/evaluation specifically designed to determine if they're mentally ill (and therefore block them from euthanasia alltogether in my opinion at least)?

The Pope supports youth at the alter.....Oh wait....Not talking about the same thing are we?

For terminally ill people in pain, I'm 1000% behind it. It shouldn't even be an issue.