Voluntary Euthanasia

[Wednesday]

Ok, I decided to break away from the avalanche of gay/abortion threads.

One of the issues I support is right for voluntary euthanasia. There are situations when terminally ill or severely injured people might want to die in dignity instead of prolonging their own suffering.

The key word here is voluntary, that means that the only person making decision is the one who is dieing. I believe that people should have that right.

There should be respect for a person's final decision.

I do believe that there should be legal requirements and certain things like lucidity of a person at the time of the request for euthanasia have to be taken into account. However overall people should have right to choose their death, I do think that many people would prefer to die painlessly and peacefully instead of slowly and tortuously


http://www.atheistfoundation.org.au/ve.htm

How about you, what do you people feel about this issue.

 

[CCGirl]

Since we are the owners of our own bodies, I too believe in voluntary euthanasia.

 

[keith99]

I would not limit the final decision to the person in question, though also not extend it other than as explicitly stated by the individual. If I can still move I would have little need for the law to support me. The need is most apt to arrive when I am no longer able to take my own live, and quite possibly when I am no longer able to communicate my wishes.

Of course never against the persons wishes, but with proper safeguards I think there can be designated people that an individual appoints for when he can no longer decide.

I trust either of my siblings, my mother (though it is very doubtful she will be arround if I have need of this service) and one friend I trust with this decision. I think Some of my neices and nephews are shaping up, but still too young foe even the burden of knowing they may someday have to decide.

Note: My Father was omitted solely because he is dead. He always had my trust for a decision like this.

 

[Caitlin.ann]

I support voluntary euthanasia as well.

 

[Mling]

My mother has worked in various nursing homes for a good chunk of her adult life. She has summed up her feelings on this thusly:

"If I'm ever like this, pull the plug. In fact, just shoot me. If you find me unconscious, don't even nudge me with your foot, lest you start my heart beating again."

I think it would be just cruel to deliberately prolong an existence she has spoken against so clearly.

 

[happydance]

I support the right for a terminally ill person to request euthanasia. In cases in which the individual lacks the ability to make such a decision, I believe the decision should be left to the closest family member (spouse, adult child, or parent). The details of a living will should take priority over the wishes of family members.

 

[r1nn]

My mother has worked in various nursing homes for a good chunk of her adult life. She has summed up her feelings on this thusly:

"If I'm ever like this, pull the plug. In fact, just shoot me. If you find me unconscious, don't even nudge me with your foot, lest you start my heart beating again."

I think it would be just cruel to deliberately prolong an existence she has spoken against so clearly.

hah. My aunt pretty much said the same thing when we went to visit my great grandma in the nursing home.

If it's mentioned in a will that they would like to have their plug pulled once they needed a lot of assistance (like, in my great grandma's case, forgetting stuff that was mentioned two minutes ago) then I would personally support it.

Some people, when they are near death/very sick, though, can just be depressed when saying they want the plug pulled. Of course they have every right to be depressed, but if there's a good reason to be able to keep the person alive while they can still take care of themselves and function right, then I don't know if the sick person's say would be that reliable.

But the example above is definitely a better case compared to when families argue whether or not someone should stay alive or not (like what happened with that one lady with a diabetes coma...I don't remember what her name was, and I can't find the name on google).

 

[GrannieAnnie]

If anything happens to me, I don't want to be revived....although I believe I was revived a few years ago, though I haven't been told specifically....I was very close to death I know that much. I don't believe in keeping people alive artificially if there is very little chance that person will make a full recovery. Give them so many pain killers they won't wake up again, take out the tubes....let nature take it's course.

 

[gwenmead]

When I watched my elderly relatives decay and die, I realized that dying is nothing dignified at all. The moment of death is neither dignified nor humiliating; it's simply a brief passage. The slow deterioration of a formerly healthy mind and body as it succumbs to sickness and age, that's humiliating.

Autonomous persons are sovereign over their own bodies. If someone does not wish to face their latter years, for whatever reason, they will receive no judgment from me. I do not object to suicide, voluntary euthanasia, DNR orders, or physician-assisted suicide, as each of them involves a conscious choice made by a person about their own life.

Favoring quality of life, I wouldn't want to live out my final days under certain circumstances, so it would hardly seem fair of me to dictate that anyone else shouldn't make the same choice.

Anyway.

 

[cantata]

There should be respect for a person's final decision.

I wholly agree with you.

Both voluntary and involuntary euthanasia are quietly carried out in most places, I think, even where it is illegal. Doctors should not have to risk their jobs to be compassionate, though.

Assisted suicide is still illegal in this country. A few years ago in the UK, a woman called Diane Pretty, who suffered from degenerative motor neurone disease, requested that her husband be exempt from assisted suicide charges if he helped her to end her life. She was unable to move her body at all, but she still had command of all her mental faculties. She had to have round-the-clock care from family members and nurses. Her appeal was refused, and she eventually died unassisted after an agonising period of wrestling with severe chest problems.

Heartbreaking.

 

[QuakerOats]

My mother has worked in various nursing homes for a good chunk of her adult life. She has summed up her feelings on this thusly:

"If I'm ever like this, pull the plug. In fact, just shoot me. If you find me unconscious, don't even nudge me with your foot, lest you start my heart beating again."

I think it would be just cruel to deliberately prolong an existence she has spoken against so clearly.

I definitely feel the same way, and thus support voluntary euthanasia. For me, personally, I feel it would be far more cruel keeping the person, or persons alive, as opposed to allowing them to move on.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Like everyone else here (wow, no 'pro-lifers'?), I support voluntary euthanasia. I believe that a person's right to their own life is the most fundamental right of any human being capable of expressing their own thoughts.

We may object to the bread-winning father-of-four committing suicide, but should we not respect his right to do so? Is it not similar to Voltaire when he said, "I may not agree with what you say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it"?

I digress. Legalising voluntary euthanasia = win.

 

[Caylin]

After watching what my mother went through in the end, if I'm ever terminally ill, I would want to die cleanly and painlessly, rather than how she went.

 

[jayem]

I work in health care and have a fair amount of personal experience with terminally ill patients.

I think there is a difference in withdrawing life-support and active euthanasia. The former is simply discontinuing a futile treatment and allowing the disease to run its natural course. The latter is giving or providing something, usually a drug, which ends the patient's life. One is passive, and one is active. Even though the intent may be the same, for most medical providers, there is a moral difference.

While I agree that there are situations where active euthanasia may be a rational choice, I am personally less comfortable with the active rather than the passive role. My point is that supporters of voluntary euthanasia should not expect that all medical profressionals will be agreeable to provide this service. I would be willing to make a referral, but some may not want to do even that, and that should be accepted. Just as I respect a patient's right to request this, I hope others will respect my right not to do something I find troubling.

 

[WatersMoon110]

While I agree that there are situations where active euthanasia may be a rational choice, I am personally less comfortable with the active rather than the passive role. My point is that supporters of voluntary euthanasia should not expect that all medical profressionals will be agreeable to provide this service. I would be willing to make a referral, but some may not want to do even that, and that should be accepted. Just as I respect a patient's right to request this, I hope others will respect my right not to do something I find troubling.

I agree. No doctor should ever have to euthanize someone who requests it, if they are uncomfortable with doing so. I do feel that they should instead refer them to someone who willing to help a terminally ill person die with dignity, because it should be the choice of the patient that matters (and if the doctor is uncomfortable making a referral, maybe they shouldn't treat terminally ill patients?).

 

[Mling]

When I watched my elderly relatives decay and die, I realized that dying is nothing dignified at all. The moment of death is neither dignified nor humiliating; it's simply a brief passage. The slow deterioration of a formerly healthy mind and body as it succumbs to sickness and age, that's humiliating.

Yes. Nearly every death I have experienced has been quick and quiet, preceded by months or years of having their bodies ravaged by cancer. I have little fear of death, and am pretty quick to say "pull the plug." It's everything that comes before it that frightens me.

I'm watching it happen to a child now (not cancer, in his case) and it is the most painful thing I have ever witnessed. He's getting to the point where I hope he will die within a year and when I cry at his funeral, it will be for his life.

 

[keith99]

I work in health care and have a fair amount of personal experience with terminally ill patients.

I think there is a difference in withdrawing life-support and active euthanasia. The former is simply discontinuing a futile treatment and allowing the disease to run its natural course. The latter is giving or providing something, usually a drug, which ends the patient's life. One is passive, and one is active. Even though the intent may be the same, for most medical providers, there is a moral difference.

While I agree that there are situations where active euthanasia may be a rational choice, I am personally less comfortable with the active rather than the passive role. My point is that supporters of voluntary euthanasia should not expect that all medical profressionals will be agreeable to provide this service. I would be willing to make a referral, but some may not want to do even that, and that should be accepted. Just as I respect a patient's right to request this, I hope others will respect my right not to do something I find troubling.

I have no trouble with your position. I don't even have a problem if ALL medical personell take that position, as long as they will not actively prevent others (including creating barriers). I have confidence that if I want to die with good reason that my brother will be willing to do that service for me.

 

[keith99]

Yes. Nearly every death I have experienced has been quick and quiet, preceded by months or years of having their bodies ravaged by cancer. I have little fear of death, and am pretty quick to say "pull the plug." It's everything that comes before it that frightens me.

I'm watching it happen to a child now (not cancer, in his case) and it is the most painful thing I have ever witnessed. He's getting to the point where I hope he will die within a year and when I cry at his funeral, it will be for his life.

I have been luckier, with one exception. My father went fairly quickly, All my grandparents except my maternal grandfather went quickly. The one exception was Alzheimers. My maternal grandfather did not know where he was, felt alone and abandonded and would ask for Ruthy, his wife and love, while she was ther holding his hand. Thankfully she was a strong woman and had support from the family and it did not destroy her.

 

[cantata]

I work in health care and have a fair amount of personal experience with terminally ill patients.

I think there is a difference in withdrawing life-support and active euthanasia. The former is simply discontinuing a futile treatment and allowing the disease to run its natural course. The latter is giving or providing something, usually a drug, which ends the patient's life. One is passive, and one is active. Even though the intent may be the same, for most medical providers, there is a moral difference.

While I agree that there are situations where active euthanasia may be a rational choice, I am personally less comfortable with the active rather than the passive role. My point is that supporters of voluntary euthanasia should not expect that all medical profressionals will be agreeable to provide this service. I would be willing to make a referral, but some may not want to do even that, and that should be accepted. Just as I respect a patient's right to request this, I hope others will respect my right not to do something I find troubling.

That's completely fair enough. If the law were changed, I hope that no doctor's hand would be forced. However, I don't think doctors should have to risk being struck off because they showed compassion for terminally ill patients.

 

[LittleNipper]

Ok, I decided to break away from the avalanche of gay/abortion threads.

One of the issues I support is right for voluntary euthanasia. There are situations when terminally ill or severely injured people might want to die in dignity instead of prolonging their own suffering.

The key word here is voluntary, that means that the only person making decision is the one who is dieing. I believe that people should have that right.

There should be respect for a person's final decision.

I do believe that there should be legal requirements and certain things like lucidity of a person at the time of the request for euthanasia have to be taken into account. However overall people should have right to choose their death, I do think that many people would prefer to die painlessly and peacefully instead of slowly and tortuously


http://www.atheistfoundation.org.au/ve.htm

How about you, what do you people feel about this issue.

I believe that a person can simply stop treatment. I have no problem with that. To end a person's life; especially, when people are so against the executions of murderers is wrong. I feel that everyone can use an opportunity to think over their eternity. And a slow death is likely how GOD may get someone's attention. A slow death is to be preferred to an etenal one in any case.