Assisted Suicide

#1

Assisted Suicide.

Some people believe that it's homicide. Noones life should be ended by another man's hands.
Some people believe that it's just another form of suicide and that it is ridiculous.
Some peopel believe that it's relieving someone from a longer life of constant pain or paralysis or whatever it be.

What do you think about assisted suicide? Do yoiu think it can be considered the "right thing to do" in a certain situation or do you believe even if the person has a severe cancer and has a week to live (in pain) but tey want to just end it now?

Let's get some well developed opinions.

I'm trying to participate. I swear it.

#2

I believe in assisted suicide under certain circumstances. People with terminal and painful diseases. Living in pain, connected to machines to extend your suffering is not what I consider life. In such cases I believe it is all their right to request and receive it. It is cruel to extend suffering that cannot be stopped.

#3

I'm not really sure that I understand the concept of assisted suicide...I mean, its suicide, which means its self inflicted...If I am suffering, and don't want to live...Couldn't I just...You know...Committ suicide..? Are we talking about people that aren't in their right mind..?

Cool topic, lets get some situationals going...

#4

My mom passed away a year and a half ago from terminal cancer. The last week of her life was a living hell. They couldn't give her any more narcotics than they were giving her because "it might kill her". So we watched her in her hospital bed, semi-conscious, writhing in pain that drugs couldn't touch. Some of her last words were, "Let me go, please God, let me go." We, the family had made peace with the inevitability of her death, and the doctors sympathized with us but of course had their hands tied by the law. Do I think one or more of her doctors would have "eased her way" if he'd been able? Absolutely! Her primary oncologist sat in the room with us the last hour or two and cried with us. He said he only wished he could have done more and I think he meant in easing her way from this realm to the next.

Modern medicine has progressed to the point where we can keep a dead body animated almost indefinitely if we want to spend the money and hook up enough machines. Where it hasn't progressed is in its understanding of the finality of death. We've raised a generation of doctors who think they're demi-gods (and some don't even think they're "demi", they're the whole thing). We are all going to die. That's the way it is. It's natural. It's good. What happens after is what every person has to wrestle with, but it doesn't remove the fact that at some point in time, this life in this body will cease.

If I have a terminal illness that will cause me to experience excruciating pain for the last week of my life, what good comes from forcing a person to endure that? If they choose to do so, that's great, admirable, astounding. But if they choose to go out in peace, quietly slipping from sleep into death, where's the harm? Do we not do this for our pets? We call it "humane". But we can't be "humane" with each other? I don't understand that reasoning.

When I die, I want to go peacefully, quietly in my sleep like my grandfather.

Not crying, screaming and cursing like the passengers in his car.

#5

all very good points and illustrated with a very poignant example, however, it is a very slippery slope once you start down that path. It is not long before you will run into issues like who gets to make the decisions, what qualifies as "terminally ill", what if a family member objects to the decision that a loved one has made to escape whatever suffering they are burdened with?

I remember when Dr. Kevorkian was making his rounds and shedding a lot of light on this subject. I think he could have had a much more positive impact on the whole topic if it had not been for the grease ball personal injury attorney he retained as counsel.

@AYHJA: the assisted comes into play when, for example, a patient has a physically debilitating condition like MS or Parkinsons and does not have the strength, coordination or ability to even move to carry out the act themselves. They then enlist the help of a person with the knowledge and abilities to help them end their life.

As for my personal views, in my opinion, everything we know, experience and feel is the result of a series of complex biochemical reactions. If someone wants some help facilitating the flow of extra potassium ions across a few cell membranes in order to catalyze a myocardial event, so be it...who the hell am I to tell them they can not do it?

ps nice closing thought there DD heh

#6

For some odd reason...

The passion of Christ has come into my mind...

It seems like the good ALWAYS suffer in death...Of course there are always exceptions...But, the really, really shitty people...They seem to die violently...Like gun shots, hanging...Shit like that...But the people you can't find someone to say a harsh word about...Always seem to die in excruciating pain...For me, it seems like the reward afterwards is greater...

I know I'm being a bit nieve here...But how often is it we hear about a serial killer suffering from Lou Gherig's disease, or cervical cancer..?

My vibrant, pleasant always happy, good natured grandmother spent her last days confined to a bed where she couldn't move or speak...She meant so much to me and my family...I didn't even have the courage to see her in a casket, nor did I want to go...I think her suffering will be rewarded, no matter where she goes...And in that respect, I don't like the idea of an assisted suicide...

I think that in life, we are faced with tasks that we like to say, if it doesn't kill us, it will only make us stronger...Therefore, what does kill us is homage to the strength we displayed in life...

#7

I think Physician Assisted Suicide isn't okay but keeping someone alive on machines because they're in a vegetative state is wrong.

I wouldn't consider A.S. homicide, as long as it was "reasonable" and the person living wasn't able to perform common, every-day tasks. And it wasn't done by someeone out of the public, maybe somebody that had some sort of connection threw them financianlly and/or medically.

I don't consider A.S. in what I consider acceptable situations as being another form of Suicide. It is more than reasonable for someoen who is suffering excruciating pain to want to end their life a week early.

I am going to have to agree with Ayhja. People who are dying and suffering an intolerable amount of pain are giving an obstacle near the time of their death to express compassion and selflessness, a last chance to get some more karma before the intermediate stage starts and a rebirth occurs.

Two cents.

Peace.

#8

If a person's quality of life is down to the level of a rotting vegetable- than what is the purpose of maintaining that life?
That is where the line between death and life becomes blurry- where the usually feared extreme is actually better than the other.

I suppose that assisted suicides are required when the actual suffering person does not have the physical capacity to commit suicide- ie restricted to numbness in a hospital bed. It's not like they can just go jump off a cliff!

Homicide is unconsented life termination- MURDER.

If a person is clearly rational in their mind about their decision, and also their physical state backs up their decision, then it is not homicide to terminate their life for them.

#9

I don't think assisted suicide is right. Even if you're life isnt' great or downright sucks, you shouldn't ask someone else to kill you. That's murder. If you don't feel like you should live, then take your own life, but don't drag a patient into it. My dad's a doctor and he refuses to help others take their lives. He has lost some patients because of it, but keeping your morals are better than any of that....

#10

See Trash,

We are not asking if a Doctor should be forced to go against his own convictions. I dont think anyone would dare do that. But there are doctors who ARE willing to do this, with an equally strong conviction that a human has the right to Happiness and Comfort, even when that incudes a end to an ineefable and unrelenting pain of loss of dignity. When a person is completely wracked with this pain, they are not themselves and can sometimes cause and sorrow to everyone that loves them.

I respect your father's right to NOT assist in self-determined life ending procedures, but I also command that same respect for the wishes of those seek to end their pain or retain their dignity.

I personally would rather go in a blaze of glory than a whimpering huddled mass of cold flesh.