Should Assistant Suicide Be Illegal

Introverted1293

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zephcom

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Yes. Do not commit murder. Exodus 20:13 GNT. Suicide is self murder
I've long wondered just how a government is going to punish someone for committing 'self murder'.

Religious beliefs is something that people have to self-regulate. If one has a religious belief that suicide is murder, then don't commit suicide. But making suicide illegal makes no sense whatsoever. What are you going to do to them??? Put them in jail for life? Execute them??

Sometimes society has to simply stop for a minute and make sure the laws make sense. If someone is determined to commit suicide you can either make them do it all by themselves leaving the relatives to clean up the mess afterwards, or accept their right to free will and allow them to do it in a loving and peaceful way.
 
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GodLovesCats

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Yes. Do not commit murder. Exodus 20:13 GNT. Suicide is self murder

Murder is definied as killing someone else, not yourself. The murderer would be the one actually doing it - if you even think it is murder in medically necessary cases.
 
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GodLovesCats

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I've long wondered just how a government is going to punish someone for committing 'self murder'.

Obviously the government can't punish someone who is already dead, but they can crmiinalize the person who executed it. True self-suicide - not asking anyone else to kill oneself - therefore can't be made illegal if it is successful. But if you attempted suicide on your own and failed, authorities could treat it like taking illegal drugs that would harm only yourself.
 
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MehGuy

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People can have profound mental health and physical problems. For some, their depression has no logic behind it. It is simply an unfortunate result of chemical imbalance. There are others who suffer through chronic physical pain. I've read about such people, they describe how having a few hours where the pain is somewhat numb with powerful medication feels like heaven compared to the constant pain the feel 24/7. Unfortunately there exists people who live under horrendous conditions. Not to mention the people who do try to attempt suicide and botch it up only to be inflicted with serious physical damage.
 
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gaara4158

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It's difficult to weigh the costs and benefits of legalizing euthanasia. On the one hand, there are undoubtedly some cases where a quick, humane death is the most merciful option and a bunch of red tape preventing it from happening is actually doing a disservice to someone who is suffering. On the other hand, this opens a loophole for potential murderers to get away scot-free. How can we be sure that someone opting for euthanasia isn't doing so under duress?
 
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zephcom

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It's difficult to weigh the costs and benefits of legalizing euthanasia. On the one hand, there are undoubtedly some cases where a quick, humane death is the most merciful option and a bunch of red tape preventing it from happening is actually doing a disservice to someone who is suffering. On the other hand, this opens a loophole for potential murderers to get away scot-free. How can we be sure that someone opting for euthanasia isn't doing so under duress?
Do keep in mind the OP was concerned with assisted suicide, not euthanasia.

Typically, assisted suicide requires the suffering person to get medically evaluated by more than one physician and then are prescribed a cocktail of drugs designed to result in death. But the important thing is that the person committing suicide has to prepare and take the cocktail themselves without anyone's assistance.

That pretty much takes care of the murder issue.
 
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variant

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In cases like that one, yes. I believe there is a potentially a place for assisted suicide, but that's not it. She had her whole life ahead of her.

She's also under the age of 18. We don't even let people purchase alcohol then in my state.
 
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keith99

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Murder is definied as killing someone else, not yourself. The murderer would be the one actually doing it - if you even think it is murder in medically necessary cases.

Actually it is a subset of wrongfully killing someone else.
 
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OldWiseGuy

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I've long wondered just how a government is going to punish someone for committing 'self murder'.

They can come after the next of kin who should have prevented it.

Assisted suicide should be legal under certain conditions.
 
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jayem

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According to the linked article in the OP, the cause of her death was self-starvation. The role of her physicians may have been passive, in that they did not intervene. Which is not active physician-assisted suicide. But it is an ambiguous situation.

Anorexia nervosa is a serious psychiatric illness. It's difficult to treat, and has the highest mortality of all the eating disorders. A 2016 German study found the standardized mortality ratio was 5.35 for AN. This means that deaths among AN patients were 5.35 times higher than the number of deaths that would be expected in an age and sex-matched population. It's a very bad disease.

https://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/h...creased-among-patients-with-anorexia-nervosa/
 
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Caliban

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I'm all for legality. I don't want to die wasting away with an initiator down by throat and my daughters crying over my slow death. I'd prefer the dignity of a quick death--I sure don't think anyone should be able to legislate that choice away from another.
 
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dogs4thewin

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I was actually thinking about starting this thread. It is tricky I do not know anymore if you asked me about six years ago I would say it certainly should, but that was before late 2014 early 2015 when I had to watch my father die a very painful very drawn out death after a heck of a fight with colon cancer. Yes, that is why I bring awareness to colon cancer in my signature.
 
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Caliban

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I was actually thinking about starting this thread. It is tricky I do not know anymore if you asked me about six years ago I would say it certainly should, but that was before late 2014 early 2015 when I had to watch my father die a very painful very drawn out death after a heck of a fight with colon cancer. Yes, that is why I bring awareness to colon cancer in my signature.
It is good that you are rethinking the issue. One problem however, is that people often reserve empathy until it directly impacts them. The same thing happens with many issues; how many have changed their position on gay rights only after their own child came out? Everyone has personal preferences but, we should extend every right by default unless there is a clear reason to limit that right. I don't hear a good argument for limiting right to die legislation.
 
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Newtheran

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I'm all for legality. I don't want to die wasting away with an initiator down by throat and my daughters crying over my slow death. I'd prefer the dignity of a quick death--I sure don't think anyone should be able to legislate that choice away from another.

Understand that by legalizing ASSISTED suicide, you're attempting to legalize drafting someone else (a physician for the most part) into your plot to end your own life.

As law exists today, you can refuse intubation and ventilation. You can go to the store and overdose on over the counter meds and take your own life.

Nothing in prevents you from killing yourself.

So no, assisted suicide should NOT be legalized.
 
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