Shouldn't the right to die be a human right?

[Catholic_Lady]

Exactly.

My body, my choice. If I want to go to a clinic and end my life, I should have every right to. The government doesn't own my body. Fuck em.

But that could potentially be helping a mentally ill person act on impulse and get taken advantage of at the cost of their lives.  

That's why I said assisted suicide should be legally permissible in specific situations and settings only.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Exactly.

My body, my choice. If I want to go to a clinic and end my life, I should have every right to. The government doesn't own my body. Fuck em.

But that could potentially be helping a mentally ill person act on impulse and get taken advantage of at the cost of their lives.  

That's why I said assisted suicide should be legally permissible in specific situations and settings only.

I do agree with you that people might unnecessarily lose their life by acting on an impulse but this can easily be countered by:

1) Setting a delay in between the appointment and the assisted suicide. As in, there can be an interval of say 5 or 7 days before you are taken to a clinic to have your life ended. I'm sure smarter people can come up with even better solutions to your concern.

2) Letting the person know completely about what they getting in on and what they will potentially be missing out on.

[Catholic_Lady]

The notion of having "suicide clinics" where people can go to get themselves killed by whoever works there seems extremely contrary to our cultural values. Even without bringing God into the picture, this just seems very very wrong to me.

It's totally different from having a terminal illness and being prescribed a suicide pill (though I think that's wrong as well, but not the business of the government)

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I mean, with the suicide clinic, you're basically treating life itself as though it's just this little thing, and ending it is a casual little thing as well.

I just don't see how that sort of mentality is good for society. We should be striving to build a culture of life for humanity's own benefit.

[brewer]

Nope. It's anyone with insurance/Medicare that says I want what ever you can give me to keep me living. If it's covered, they get it. They don't care about the cost. And the medical community profits (not just Big Pharma) in the continued lingering death. The longer they keep them alive the longer they can keep billing the system. 

And if you're not covered and not rich? They will treat you into bankruptcy, then continue treating because the state/medicaid will pay. 

The longer they can keep you alive, the more money can be made.

Regardless, people should still have a say in whether they would rather spend a fortune keeping them alive or simply opt out of the whole process altogether. Nobody should have the power to force someone to live. My whole point is that our life should be our choice - not someone else's.

Agreed.

[SteelCurtain]

Yep. Think about the shift of power. If the government treats us like shit we'll just kill ourselves. This will force them to treat us better. Just think about the shift of power overnight. Governments of the world will be evaluated on its ability to keep its citizens alive and happy and if they can't keep us content they'll simply vanish into irrelevance and slowly into oblivion.

That's quite a rosy view. What would really happen is that the government and media would foster a healthy outrage and panic among the populace. I would imagine it would be big enough in America to get a Constitutional Amendment on the books.

I can't imagine it going much differently in Britain.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Yep. Think about the shift of power. If the government treats us like shit we'll just kill ourselves. This will force them to treat us better. Just think about the shift of power overnight. Governments of the world will be evaluated on its ability to keep its citizens alive and happy and if they can't keep us content they'll simply vanish into irrelevance and slowly into oblivion.

That's quite a rosy view. What would really happen is that the government and media would foster a healthy outrage and panic among the populace. I would imagine it would be big enough in America to get a Constitutional Amendment on the books.

I can't imagine it going much differently in Britain.

It would depend almost entirely on how we frame it. Obviously, it can't be done so bluntly. First step would be to include the right to die as a human right, this demand can be easily reasoned. Then legalize assisted suicide(because the right to die is a human right) and within a few years we have assisted suicide clinics and finally have power over our government.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Especially in America, with its majority-religious population, that first step is going to be tough sledding.

[Catholic_Lady]

Do ya'll actually support the notion of suicide clinics? I mean, I know Pool does... but the rest?

[FatAndFaithless]

I don't. I just think that hospitals should include considerations/methods respecting a patient's right to die. There doesn't need to be any dedicated 'death parlors' or anything.

Incidentally, that made me think of:

[Catholic_Lady]

I don't.  I just think that hospitals should include considerations/methods respecting a patient's right to die.  There doesn't need to be any dedicated 'death parlors' or anything.

Do you think this should be restricted only to those who are terminally ill? Or at least permanently debilitated enough to where their quality of life is greatly diminished?

Or should it be open to whoever wishes to die?