Euthanasia

How easy it is for you to kill someone.
I don't think the question is how easy it is but rather how willing one is to do it. Mind over matter.

In the matter of euthanasia, if a total stranger is hopelessly suffering and I have the means to end his/her pain it will be a relatively easy decision to make. But if the sufferer is someone I know and have emotional involvement with it will be a difficult and probably painful decision.

As for suicide; I resent being told I may not end my own life if I choose to and have made all necessary arrangements and provisions to avoid burdening anyone by my action. I believe there should be a service available where those who wish to die can be accommodated re all the legal and practical matters then hooked up to an intraveinous heroin drip and allowed to slowly drift away in a state of physical ecstasy. Why should those for whom life is a daily torment be forced to endure it.

I further believe such an option should be available to long-term prison inmates. I've always felt that the emphasis on suicide prevention in prisons is a counterproductively sadistic and rather stupid policy.

A side benefit of such accommodation would be the abundance of transplantable organs.

I disagree. We don't have the right to take another being's life.

But don't we have an obligation to make the decision as easy as possible for the people and their families? Nobody wants to force Billy to stab grandma in the heart with a butcher knife, but We, The Peeps owe it to grandma to help her family honor her wishes in any way we can, even if that means counseling little Billy because grandma chose to hang on and fight to the bitter end.
 
Ultimately, euthanasia is killing another being because you don't want to see them suffer, or because you can't justify their living, or because you find them abhorrent or their decline alarming or something..but it always comes down to how it affects YOU. I find the hypocrisy of it repugnant. "I want to kill so and so because I know she wouldn't want to live like this." Well no, you don't. She's in a coma or is demented or mentally ill or dying of cancer and isn't communicating. I'd find it a lot more palatable if people would just come out and SAY "we should kill her because she' draining us financially and spiritually".

Of course, then you have to admit you want to kill someone not for their own good, but for yours...and that's the rub. It's wrong.

Not always. Not all cases are the way you describe them. Discussing issues like this before anything happens...i a very good idea.

The MOST important thing you can do is make your feelings on the subject well known to your family, friends and health care providers. Make them known in writing.

Well... that and vote for proposals and candidates who foment personal freedom to choose in the matter.

I discussed it with my family, and the only on board is my Ma, and brother.
 
How easy it is for you to kill someone.
I don't think the question is how easy it is but rather how willing one is to do it. Mind over matter.

In the matter of euthanasia, if a total stranger is hopelessly suffering and I have the means to end his/her pain it will be a relatively easy decision to make. But if the sufferer is someone I know and have emotional involvement with it will be a difficult and probably painful decision.

As for suicide; I resent being told I may not end my own life if I choose to and have made all necessary arrangements and provisions to avoid burdening anyone by my action. I believe there should be a service available where those who wish to die can be accommodated re all the legal and practical matters then hooked up to an intraveinous heroin drip and allowed to slowly drift away in a state of physical ecstasy. Why should those for whom life is a daily torment be forced to endure it.

I further believe such an option should be available to long-term prison inmates. I've always felt that the emphasis on suicide prevention in prisons is a counterproductively sadistic and rather stupid policy.

A side benefit of such accommodation would be the abundance of transplantable organs.

I disagree. We don't have the right to take another being's life.

If that other being as you put it expresses his desire to end his life and therefore his suffering we should not deny him the exercise of his rights over his own body.
 

Not always. Not all cases are the way you describe them. Discussing issues like this before anything happens...i a very good idea.

The MOST important thing you can do is make your feelings on the subject well known to your family, friends and health care providers. Make them known in writing.

Well... that and vote for proposals and candidates who foment personal freedom to choose in the matter.

I discussed it with my family, and the only on board is my Ma, and brother.

Be thankful for the two you have... even if the rest of your family doesn't want to face the inevitability of your death, just making sure they know how you feel will make all the difference if they're ever faced with that kind of no win decision to make for you.
 
I was with my father when we removed him from life support. It was a gut wrenching decision but we had no choice. It took an hour and a half for him to eventually die

I have also been with several pets that we have had to put down. The process takes a few seconds and they just pass away

I think we are more humane with our pets than with those we love
 
I don't think the question is how easy it is but rather how willing one is to do it. Mind over matter.

In the matter of euthanasia, if a total stranger is hopelessly suffering and I have the means to end his/her pain it will be a relatively easy decision to make. But if the sufferer is someone I know and have emotional involvement with it will be a difficult and probably painful decision.

As for suicide; I resent being told I may not end my own life if I choose to and have made all necessary arrangements and provisions to avoid burdening anyone by my action. I believe there should be a service available where those who wish to die can be accommodated re all the legal and practical matters then hooked up to an intraveinous heroin drip and allowed to slowly drift away in a state of physical ecstasy. Why should those for whom life is a daily torment be forced to endure it.

I further believe such an option should be available to long-term prison inmates. I've always felt that the emphasis on suicide prevention in prisons is a counterproductively sadistic and rather stupid policy.

A side benefit of such accommodation would be the abundance of transplantable organs.

I disagree. We don't have the right to take another being's life.

If that other being as you put it expresses his desire to end his life and therefore his suffering we should not deny him the exercise of his rights over his own body.

THAT is the key for me... The exercise of personal choices over my own destiny.

"Are we a free people or not?" :dunno:
 
I was with my father when we removed him from life support. It was a gut wrenching decision but we had no choice. It took an hour and a half for him to eventually die

I have also been with several pets that we have had to put down. The process takes a few seconds and they just pass away

I think we are more humane with our pets than with those we love

Removing someone from life support isn't really euthanasia, in my eyes. People have that option regardless of whether or not euthanasia is legal, and always have.


I know there are cases where people have fought over whether or not do remove life support, and it has turned into a euthanasia issue, because one party is just hardline "let them die!!" and the other party wants to maintain them...but euthanasia is the legalized killing of patients based upon the perception by doctors and family that their life is worthless.
 
I disagree. We don't have the right to take another being's life.

If that other being as you put it expresses his desire to end his life and therefore his suffering we should not deny him the exercise of his rights over his own body.

THAT is the key for me... The exercise of personal choices over my own destiny.

"Are we a free people or not?" :dunno:

Freedom and liberty do not extend to the freedom to kill other people. Whether at their request (very few people request euthanasia..what you're talking about is assisted suicide) or not.
 
A book by M. Scott Peck titled Denial of the Soul has become one of the most thought provoking books I have read to date. It is regarding spiritual and medical perspectives on euthanasia and mortality.

I agree with his stance that euthanasia is not being given the consideration it deserves. He says it is as though it is being lost among the myriad of other issues that have come out of the closet or been on the table for some time. The issue of euthanasia may be more critical than all the others. He further states that we may need to reach a national consensus about it before all the other issues can be more satisfactorily resolved. I sincerely and passionately agree with him.

There is a profound wisdom in the way he addresses the good and the bad of euthanasia. "He is a physician, psychiatrist, and a theologian so he is uniquely suited to address the complex issues and paradoxes that have come from medicine's technical ability to perpetuate the mechanisms of life..."

Should we prolong life? Should we war against the natural process of dying? What would you, as an individual, prefer? To be kept alive... or to be allowed to die? At what point is enough? It is a very important subject and though life can be a marvelous gift, it seems it is also a curse. Bodies rotting from the inside out while being kept alive is not the way most any one would want to pass on.

This kind of thing... it's potential very well does represent a type of heaven vs. hell. The body rotting, the mind missing... Doctors and family members need to know what an individual's desire is, and it must be written in writing to be taken seriously in most every case. To give specific detailed instructions about such one needs to be up-to-date as possible on the medical procedures. Keeping a Medical Power of Attorney even if it seems that one is perfectly healthy in the later part of life is not a bad suggestion.

In this book he even brings up (perhaps predictably) assisted suicide and such. Is there ever a point or a case in life that such is more humane than attempted treatment? All too often, I am personally reminded of what has been shown to us about how the Priests had to torture and prosecute the mentally ill, the demonic, the possessed, claiming to know best. To drive the beasts out of the psyche. Sometimes the cures are far more harsh than the illness, the disease.

So what of it? Is euthanasia not given the attention it deserves? Should we focus on better defining what death truly is? Should we have 'blanket rules and guidelines' regarding such or should we determine such on an individual basis?

I hope others will find this as provoking as I have... as I have yet to return the overdue book to the library, I plan to renew it a third time. There is so much to absorb. *hearts*

Perhaps you should practice euthanasia on yourself. Done right, you will succeed in your first attempt.
 
I was with my father when we removed him from life support. It was a gut wrenching decision but we had no choice. It took an hour and a half for him to eventually die

I have also been with several pets that we have had to put down. The process takes a few seconds and they just pass away

I think we are more humane with our pets than with those we love

Removing someone from life support isn't really euthanasia, in my eyes. People have that option regardless of whether or not euthanasia is legal, and always have.


I know there are cases where people have fought over whether or not do remove life support, and it has turned into a euthanasia issue, because one party is just hardline "let them die!!" and the other party wants to maintain them...but euthanasia is the legalized killing of patients based upon the perception by doctors and family that their life is worthless.

It makes no sense to force people to gasp for their last breath or starve to death once life support is removed. It is an inhumane way to treat a person and is simple cowardice because society does not want to make tough decisions.
Once the decision to remove life support is made, the humane path is a simple injection to end life quickly and painlessly
 
You obviously don't know what the word "force" means. Nobody is forcing them to do anything. Dying can take place at any time and in any form. The fact that it makes you uncomfortable is no excuse to murder people.
 
And this is what happens...we've removed all sense of responsibility of family from the process of death. Not only do they no longer bear the financial burden for the most part, they don't have to provide care any more, either. And the result of that is when they DO see pain, suffering, and the advent of death, they freak out..."KILL THEM OFF KILL THEM OFF OH THE HUMANITY!"

Grow up. Dying is a part of death. You don't get to hurry it along, or make the decision for other people that it's their time.
 
I was with my father when we removed him from life support. It was a gut wrenching decision but we had no choice. It took an hour and a half for him to eventually die

I have also been with several pets that we have had to put down. The process takes a few seconds and they just pass away

I think we are more humane with our pets than with those we love

This is such a good point. When we attempt to preserve life with modern technology and we fail *just enough* that the conditions of the body and/or mind does NOT improve it seems to seriously cross the line between being humane and being inhumane. Allowing individuals to continue on life support whose bodies are showing obvious signs of internal rot (not referring to digestion) is IMO sadistic and mirrors hell.
 
And taking them off life support is NOT euthanasia. Get that through your head.
 
I was with my father when we removed him from life support. It was a gut wrenching decision but we had no choice. It took an hour and a half for him to eventually die

I have also been with several pets that we have had to put down. The process takes a few seconds and they just pass away

I think we are more humane with our pets than with those we love

This is such a good point. When we attempt to preserve life with modern technology and we fail *just enough* that the conditions of the body and/or mind does NOT improve it seems to seriously cross the line between being humane and being inhumane. Allowing individuals to continue on life support whose bodies are showing obvious signs of internal rot (not referring to digestion) is IMO sadistic and mirrors hell.

The whole process is so inhuman. To force cancer patients to live from morphine dose to morphine dose as they move from drug induced coma to extreme pain for their remaining days.
Most pet owners know they do not want their beloved pet to suffer and will make the difficult choice to quickly and painlessly end their suffering
With humans, we are more callous. We force you to die under conditions that meet our moral/religious code but ignore the patients and families stated wishes
 
No, it's not. The coward's way is to give a shot to hurry dying up.
 
It's considered every bit as much euthanasia, dear child, as an outright injection would be if the informed ones clearly understand that in removing life support is in fact going to kill the patient. Accordingly, even aged and wizened doctors do not completely agree that there is a difference, so we likely will not either. Don't discredit my words as I know better to discredit yours ATM.
 
I was with my father when we removed him from life support. It was a gut wrenching decision but we had no choice. It took an hour and a half for him to eventually die

I have also been with several pets that we have had to put down. The process takes a few seconds and they just pass away

I think we are more humane with our pets than with those we love

This is such a good point. When we attempt to preserve life with modern technology and we fail *just enough* that the conditions of the body and/or mind does NOT improve it seems to seriously cross the line between being humane and being inhumane. Allowing individuals to continue on life support whose bodies are showing obvious signs of internal rot (not referring to digestion) is IMO sadistic and mirrors hell.

The whole process is so inhuman. To force cancer patients to live from morphine dose to morphine dose as they move from drug induced coma to extreme pain for their remaining days.
Most pet owners know they do not want their beloved pet to suffer and will make the difficult choice to quickly and painlessly end their suffering
With humans, we are more callous. We force you to die under conditions that meet our moral/religious code but ignore the patients and families stated wishes


THIS ^^ is exactly one reason we should indeed be paying attention to the DEMONStrations of not only our people but also the peoples within other nations and other countries through eyes that see instead of mouths busy yapping condemnation in the representation of further confusion.
 

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