ADN

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051005/ap_ ... MlJVRPUCUl


I'm curious to find out what the pulse of this group is regarding Physician assisted suicide. My take on this topic is pretty simple....if you're terminal, uncomfortable with your living condition, and are ready to go, I say let's pull out the party hats, turn up the music, tie one on for one last time and send'em out with the sort of dignity they deserve.

Thoughts?

I'm with you there. I've been at far too many bedsides in hospitals I've worked in watching people slowly dying in considerable pain in spite of massive amounts of narcotics and sedatives. Not all of them would opt for this solution, but I'd bet that many would. If I were in that situation, would I want to spend the last couple of months of my life in excruciating pain, or would I want to cut myself short by 60 days and take the easy way out. Use your imagination.

This is the kind of issue in wich i won't have my mind made up till i'm in front of that situation.

Personally, I think you should be able to just pay a doctor for a lethal injection... you need to be eighteen, or have your parents sign a waiver. if there is no known terminal cause or diagnosis, your insurance company should have to pay for the injection and disposal, but that's about it. if you do it with full knowledge of a terminal cause approved by three medical authorities (one unpaid), your insurance should have to pay out - unless it comes to light you intentionally and materially made provision to contract or artifice a terminal cause.

the whole thing should cost less than five hundred dollars, and those on govt. assistance should recieve it even if they are unable to pay, like all other medical costs.

its just a surgical removal of the body,.. really.

vertical,
raum

QUOTE(RIMFIRE)if you're terminal, uncomfortable with your living condition, and are ready to go, I say let's pull out the party hats, turn up the music, tie one on for one last time and send'em out with the sort of dignity they deserve.

Bout sums it up for me as well...

I'm from Oregon so this really hits home for me. I don't like assisted suicide. My dad is a doctor and refuses to give any patients the pills. If they wanna kill themselves go for it but don't get the doctor involved

Well......the reason for needing the aid of a Medical professional is to aviod the shock and horror a family member may have to go through when someone "goes for it" themselves. Again, I believe these people deserve to go with dignity......telling'em it's cool to go home and blow your head off but we, the medical community, aren't going to be here to offer you a humane way, is jus' plain cruel.

We are a society that believes in euthanasia...Good ole Ralphie...He was a good dog, and even though he can't speak to me in English, I KNOW he's hurtin'...Best take him to the doctor and get put out of his misery...What did you say Aunt Edna..? Hell no we're not taking you to the doctor..! What are you, nuts..? That colon cancer is terminal, you'll be checkin' out soon enough...Here, take a couple of these suppositories, and a shot of morphine, see if that'll calm it down...

trash,

we agree about alot of things, but I still am upset at the doctor that would not release my grandfather from his pain.

He had arthritis so bad he was unable to say his own prayers to die with dignity and respect for the things he held most dear. I saw him in February, and he was fine. He told me that he would soon be passing, and I knew it was going to be bad. He was in ICU by March..and He begged for months to be able to die while he could still stand. A man who couldn't stand to be drunk forced full of needles against his will to be trapped in a failing body. He couldn't take his own life, because of insurance purposes, of all goddam things. The doctor refused to take his life. But to my grandfather, being in ICU was not being alive. It was everything he wasn't to be an invalid in ICU.. and I still deal with the feelings of failure knowing my mother's father suffered in misery and anguish, before he died in peace.

all because people have forgotten to leave with dignity is better than to stay with misery...

what is life about if not being able to make your own choices?

vertical,
raum

^Agreed.

I've actually taken part in a debate on this topic. This should be a choice issue. When people no longer want to live, they commit suicide. When people no longer are able to live, and want their life to cease.....they aren't able to? What kind of sense does it make to force people to "live" while in pain and anguish, suffering and wasting away in the last of their days.

If we can allow patients to refuse recesiatation (DNRs) why not allow them to make the decision that would stop them from ever getting to that point?

I am forever pro-choice, because, it is unfair to create a law that denies oppurtunities and choices for people...if never afflicted yourself. It's easy for me to make a comment on something that I've never been personally effected by, but it would be competely ludichours for me to suggest that whatever I say shall hold true for everyone. It's a case-by-case matter, and that is how it should be looked upon.