Thoughts on euthanasia

[Rhondazvous]

I had to disagree.

It’s difficult to watch a loved one suffer, especially when there’s no hope that they will ever experience anything else. I speak from experience because I was there when my grandmother was dying of cancer in a nursing home. She tried to pull the tape off her iv. I held her hand to keep her from doing that. She looked at me so piteously that I really didn’t know if I was doing the right things.

Emotionally charged scenarios aside, at the end of the day, will human rights be at issue when the decision for euthanasia is made? Nine times out of ten, the decision will be based on the financial concerns of those who are not suffering.

If someone is coerced into confessing to a murder he didn’t commit, he can tell the jury “Hey they beat me over the head with a phone book to make me confess.” But, once dead, the patient will not be able to tell how the doctors and his great niece made suicide sound so reasonable until he thought about it some more, but then it was too late.

[Pyrrho]

I had to disagree.

It’s difficult to watch a loved one suffer, especially when there’s no hope that they will ever experience anything else.  I speak from experience because I was there when my grandmother was dying of cancer in a nursing home. She tried to pull the tape off her iv. I held her hand to keep her from doing that.  She looked at me so piteously that I really didn’t know if I was doing the right things.

Emotionally charged scenarios aside, at the end of the day, will human rights be at issue when the decision for euthanasia is made? Nine times out of ten, the decision will be based on the financial concerns of those who are not suffering.

If someone is coerced into confessing to a murder he didn’t commit, he can tell the jury “Hey they beat me over the head with a phone book to make me confess.” But, once dead, the patient will not be able to tell how the doctors and his great niece made suicide sound so reasonable until he thought about it some more, but then it was too late.

When you are trying to pull the tape off of your IV, how do you want others to react to that?  Do you want them to respect your decision, or force their will on you?

[Rhondazvous]

When you are trying to pull the tape off of your IV, how do you want others to react to that?  Do you want them to respect your decision, or force their will on you?

If I really wanted to do it, I'd do it when no one was looking.

[comet]

I had to disagree.

It’s difficult to watch a loved one suffer, especially when there’s no hope that they will ever experience anything else.  I speak from experience because I was there when my grandmother was dying of cancer in a nursing home. She tried to pull the tape off her iv. I held her hand to keep her from doing that.  She looked at me so piteously that I really didn’t know if I was doing the right things.

Emotionally charged scenarios aside, at the end of the day, will human rights be at issue when the decision for euthanasia is made? Nine times out of ten, the decision will be based on the financial concerns of those who are not suffering.

If someone is coerced into confessing to a murder he didn’t commit, he can tell the jury “Hey they beat me over the head with a phone book to make me confess.” But, once dead, the patient will not be able to tell how the doctors and his great niece made suicide sound so reasonable until he thought about it some more, but then it was too late.

no one said it would be easy.  And money is a valid issue.  I wouldn't wanna suck the funds from my family to keep a broken bag of a man alive.  That's an unfair burden.   I don't want people wiping my ass and sucking the money dry to get it done.  And yes, there will be "innocent victims" but we get to choose where.  In something like this what kind of error rate would you settle for? 1%? 0.5%?  Look at homes today, the failure rate is much higher in worthless suffering.  In the end, rational people can assess the situation rationally.  well, I think anyway.

[Mr Greene]

I also have to vote against legalising euthanasia.
My line of thinking is 'what happens when the legislation is written by the BNP or UKIP?'
Will it become legal to have people euthanised for being the wrong ethnic group, sexuality, or not believing in the state religion?

[robvalue]

Well, even if they do get into power, they can't just rewrite stuff to be whatever they want. I wouldn't expect them to receive enough backing to do something as ridiculous as that.

Any legislation about anything could be fucked up if you have maniacs in charge with no leash.

I agree that if it is to be done at all, it needs to be incredibly carefully worded and implemented. Quite possibly it could/should be limited to definite terminal cases, and all reasonable steps taken to combat coercion. Sure, it wouldn't be perfect, no system is. But I don't think that concern justifies making every terminal patient suffer for months instead when they genuinely want to die, personally.

[Mudhammam]

I think I'm in total agreement with Lucius Annaeus Seneca on this, who so aptly deals with death throughout his epistles (which I'm slightly over halfway through), and who himself committed suicide when his end by the hands of Emperor Nero was beginning to appear inevitable:

"How much more cruel, then, do you suppose it really is to have lost a portion of your life, than to have lost your right to end that life?" (Epistle LVIII)

And from LXX ("On the Proper Time to Slip the Cable"):

"No general statement can be made, therefore, with regard to the question whether, when a power beyond our control threatens us with death, we should anticipate death, or await it. For there are many arguments to pull us in either direction. If one death is accompanied by torture, and the other is simple and easy, why not snatch the latter? Just as I shall select my ship when I am about to go on a voyage or my house when I propose to take a residence, so I shall choose my death when I am about to depart from life... Every man ought to make his life acceptable to others besides himself, but his death to himself alone. The best form of death is the one we like... You can find men who have gone so far as to profess wisdom and yet maintain that one should not offer violence to one's own life, and hold it accursed for a man to be the means of his own destruction; we should wait, say they, for the end decreed by nature. But one who says this does not see that he is shutting off the path to freedom. The best thing which eternal law ever ordained was that it allowed to us one entrance into life, but many exits."

[comet]

Well, even if they do get into power, they can't just rewrite stuff to be whatever they want. I wouldn't expect them to receive enough backing to do something as ridiculous as that.

Any legislation about anything could be fucked up if you have maniacs in charge with no leash.

I agree that if it is to be done at all, it needs to be incredibly carefully worded and implemented. Quite possibly it could/should be limited to definite terminal cases, and all reasonable steps taken to combat coercion. Sure, it wouldn't be perfect, no system is. But I don't think that concern justifies making every terminal patient suffer for months instead when they genuinely want to die, personally.

I agree

we are fucked at "maniacs in charge". They are definitely in charge. The word "terminally" ill would be a sticking point. But like Jefferson did with slavery, we can draw line at terminal today and move it later. I don't think this would cause a civil work.

[Rhondazvous]

I also have to vote against legalising euthanasia.
My line of thinking is 'what happens when the legislation is written by the BNP or UKIP?'
Will it become legal to have people euthanised for being the wrong ethnic group, sexuality, or not believing in the state religion?

Thank you.

And what about people like me? Should we give doctors divine power to decide whose life is or isn't worth living?
"Oh she's blind and deaf. Let me put her out of her misery."
"This operation will be so expensive. It will drain the family/Medicare/whatever. Why not justt kill her and be done with it?"

People say they should have a choice, but you know the individual's choice will not be at issue and like I said above, once dead the patient can neither confirm nor deny that he wanted the doctor to kill him.

[Longhorn]

It shouldn't be the doctors' right to decide who lives and who dies, but a terminally ill patient's who is able to make that decision (as in not suffering from any conditions that impair their ability to decide for themselves)