Today a News article came up about a man's assisted suicide and it made me thing about being in that situation.

The drain on a families resources, the pain and suffering and the loss of quality of life.
Personally I think we should have this right.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_...sissted_suicide_of_american_craig_ewer-1.html

What do you think ?

 

should it be an option? yes. we have right to lifers, why not have right to end lifers?

 

My father struggled to make it one more day and his quality of life went to hell. It really bothered him that he couldn't cook for himself or even walk to the bathroom without gasping for air.

He took several things so he'd lay down and go to sleep and not be able fight to stay alive and died 15 hours later. Although we hated to see him go we were happy he didn't suffer any more. I think it was his right to do so and would support a responsible initiative to allow people this dignity.

I can't see the benefit of keeping someone alive by machines where they are basically trapped in a bed and unable to move. I know I wouldn't want to be there.

 

Yup, we should have the right, or the right to be assisted. You get the people who say its not right etc, but is it right to sit and watch someone who we love lay in bed, unable to eat, go to the loo, move around lay in the same bed wasting away until they finally pass on. Their quality of life must be shit. If a pet became like that, you would have it put down, why not let humans have the pain taken away from them aswell.

I know that the day I have to have someone wipe my arse for me is the day I take an overdose.

 

I agree that we should. If people want to argue that an unborn baby has no control in the decision on weather or not to be aborted (amongst many other arguments), than a person who is alive and has a say in wether or not to abort his own life should be allowed to.

Taking this a step further, nothing can really stop a healthy person from commiting suicide, wether it's legal or not. What are they going to do? Arrest him? Why shouldnt someone who is stuck in a bed for the rest of his/her life be able to make the same decision.

I do think that it should be a decision put in the will though, because you dont want a case like Terry Schiavo where someone else has alot of money to gain out of their spouses death making the decision, because there are many situations where you don't know and can't find out what the person really wants.

And I know for a fact that if I were to be told I could never walk/ride a bike/pick up my kids/do all the things in life that I love, I would rather move on at that point to whatever is next.

 

once you're dead, of what significance is human law?

 

Quality of life is more important than Quantity of life. We have all these rights supposedly yet we can not choose when to end our lives? Ridiculous, of course suicide assisted or not should be a right.

 

I believe everyone has the right to end his or her life -- placing restrictions on that would not only be totally ineffective, but would be a gross infringement on an individual's basic freedoms.

Besides...who are you going to prosecute?

 

Anyone can take their own life, you just can't let anyone help you!!!
They can be charged with murder, and I wouldn't do that to anyone...

 

I think Pillowpants made a good point. If we are allowed to kill an unborn child who does not have the choice of life or death, then people with that choice can decide for themselves whether they want to live or die.

 

its always bugged me that we as a race will not allow a dog to suffer do to ill heath so we put it to sleep but are unable to do so for people

makes me feel that people are less then animals

 

I agree. Did you ever see the movie "Million Dollar Baby"? The same parallel was at the heart of the film.

 

thats the err clint eastwood film err the boxing one

yeah i know it humm i suppose your right

 

Would have to agree that we should be able to determine when/how we decide to end our lives...I guess the problem is a) other peoples feelings about that and b) if you have major trauma, cant move , speak etc and have never told anyone your feelings there is a problem if you cant communicate what you want and you would need help...
...that would be my worst nightmare....like slow slow drowning...a living HELL

 

And of course, at the end, the Clint Eastwood character found it necessary to assist Hillary Swank's character's suicide. My sympathies were with both of them, and I can only hope I'd have the courage and humanity to do what he did, in compliance with her fervent wishes.

 

yeah it would be difficult i think I remember seeing somthing about a rugby player in the news got paralised from neck down and he went over seas to take his own life but the parents were going to be arrested hor helping him

 

And of course you are talking about a movie, a dramatization of life, in the real world we do not have the luxury of being entertained for a couple of hours while a plot unravels.

In the real world there are villians and saints, those who would end anothers life for their personal gain or for the mercy in ending anothers misery. Who gets to decide which is which?

Should we have a court predecide each case or should be have a group of predetermined angels all cleared to do the act??

Sounds scary to me, God forbid I get an illness that renders me incapible of killing myself and my heirs are left with the power to do it.

 

Her wishes were clearly known and understood. That's what made it an open and shut case, at least in my mind. Others, though, would have been content to let her die slowly of bedsores and gangrene.

Books and movies serve a valuable purpose in case like this...to get us talking about hypothetical cases. In this case, given these circumstances, I believe assisted suicide is entirely appropriate.

 

You sidestepped the question, how do we determine the validity of the assisted death??

By a trial?? Before or after the act?? This is not a moral issue, it is an issue of legality.

 

But I'm not talking about legality, I'm talking about my own sense of right and wrong. If you want to pass a law that allows assisted suicide and sets up procedures to follow, so be it. If you want to pass a law that prohibits it, so be it.

I will tell you, though, that if I were convinced that I was acting in accordance with a loved one's wishes, and it lay within my power to end his or her suffering, I would do it, regardless of the legal consequences to myself.