Euthanasia

[Wry Catcher]

Should a person have the right, and should the medical profession have the legal authority to end a persons life under terms which the patient delineated in his Will/Trust?

Why?

 

[Katzndogz]

Maybe not. What someone says when they are in the best of health may not be the same thing when they are actually faced with the decision.

I had that very issue with my best friend. For years she said she would not want to live if she were so sick as to no longer be able to take care of herself. As the closest one to her she gave me her power of attorney for life ending decisions and make sure I knew under which circumstances she wished to die.

She got brain cancer and slowly lost the ability to care for herself. She used diapers and had to be fed by hand. She did not use a feeding tube. She lost the ability to speak and couldn't walk. She did understand what was said to her though and could communicate with great effort "yes" and "no" by moving her head up and down for yes or side to side for no. When the time came and the doctors recommended removal to hospice where she would be denied food and water until she died they came to me to exercise final instructions. I went to see her, I spoke with her and the woman who cared for her, fed her, cleaned her. I told Tracy that for years she told me that if she couldn't take care of herself she wanted to be allowed to die and the time had come. If she could answer at all, she had to tell me if this is what she truly wanted. She stared at me for more than a few minutes, then slowly moved her head back and forth. No matter how bad it was, she wanted to live. Her caretaker wasn't surprised. Tracy liked banana pudding and liked to watch television. She also liked to have music on as she fell asleep. How ever poor her quality of life had become, there was still some enjoyment left. Tracy died about two months later, peacefully in her sleep. Under the letter of what was in her written word, I could easily let her die a truly horrible and painful death by dehydration and starvation. Maybe that's why she chose me to be the executor of her end of life decisions.

 

[Katzndogz]

Suppose the Will/Trust doesn't provide for ending life, but all means including extraordinary means to keep them alive?

 

[Skull Pilot]

Your life belongs to you and no one else and is yours to do with as you wish including ending it whenever you want for whatever reason.

 

[GHook93]

Should a person have the right, and should the medical profession have the legal authority to end a persons life under terms which the patient delineated in his Will/Trust?

Why?

Yes, but not an absolute yes.

If someone is clinically ill or injured and is suffering, it should be his choice and a doc may assist.

A depressed or mentally challenged person is a tough call. Do we allow either to help kill themselves? Is there an age limit?

 

[Wry Catcher]

Suppose the Will/Trust doesn't provide for ending life, but all means including extraordinary means to keep them alive?

Most provide for a DNR, or not. That is not the same and I doubt - but don't know - if a legally executed Will or Living Trust is able to cover euthanasia since the act itself is illegal.

 

[Wry Catcher]

Should a person have the right, and should the medical profession have the legal authority to end a persons life under terms which the patient delineated in his Will/Trust?

Why?

Yes, but not an absolute yes.

If someone is clinically ill or injured and is suffering, it should be his choice and a doc may assist.

A depressed or mentally challenged person is a tough call. Do we allow either to help kill themselves? Is there an age limit?

I think a person "in sound mind" can make the decision to end their life, and many do everyday. The question however is if someone is in pain and suffering, are they of 'sound mind'?

I would think if the choice is made when one is having a Will or Trust prepared, when they are in sound mind, they would likely put a clause in the document to the effect that when no medical intervention could alleviate the pain and suffering and the quality of life would for all intents and purposes be negligible a pain free and quick death should be provided. I would also think that the document would be iron clad, once a medical professional (maybe two) agree the person holding power of attorney would have no legal right to change the patient's wishes.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Doctors should never kill.

Period.

 

[Unkotare]

Your life belongs to you and no one else and is yours to do with as you wish including ending it whenever you want for whatever reason.

So, if you went to visit your best friend and found him on a chair with a noose around his neck you'd just wish him a bon voyage and walk out?

 

[Unkotare]

Doctors should never kill.

Period.

Pos rep for excellent anti-abortion message.

 

[Wry Catcher]

Doctors should never kill.

Period.

Doctors do, everyday in America DNR's are honored; not acting to save a life when one has the ability to do so can be considered killing. Turning off equipment keeping a patient alive is too.

Would you allow a loved one to suffer for days, weeks or months with no hope for a future?

 

[Mr Natural]

There's big difference between living and being alive.

When my time comes, I sure as hell hope there's someone around with the good sense to pull the plug.

 

[Peach]

No. As successful attempts by an individual cannot BE punished, and those unsuccessful will result in mental health care, why encourage this? Too much potential for DEADLY abuse if the 'right'.

 

[Wry Catcher]

No. As successful attempts by an individual cannot BE punished, and those unsuccessful will result in mental health care, why encourage this? Too much potential for DEADLY abuse if the 'right'.

? I see you are opposed to euthanasia; I don't understand your reasoning (other than too much potential for abuse). What did you mean by your last sentence?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Doctors should never kill.

Period.

Doctors do, everyday in America DNR's are honored; not acting to save a life when one has the ability to do so can be considered killing. Turning off equipment keeping a patient alive is too.

Would you allow a loved one to suffer for days, weeks or months with no hope for a future?

Damn, you really are stupid.

Obeying a DNR is not killing, euthanasia is, you are talking about two different things.

Why ask me what I would do? Do you think that me insisting that doctors not kill would be inconsistent with me making some sort of choice I have not indicated I would make?

 

[Wry Catcher]

Doctors should never kill.

Period.

Doctors do, everyday in America DNR's are honored; not acting to save a life when one has the ability to do so can be considered killing. Turning off equipment keeping a patient alive is too.

Would you allow a loved one to suffer for days, weeks or months with no hope for a future?

Damn, you really are stupid.

Obeying a DNR is not killing, euthanasia is, you are talking about two different things.

Why ask me what I would do? Do you think that me insisting that doctors not kill would be inconsistent with me making some sort of choice I have not indicated I would make?

I'm not stupid; calling me a name does confirm my opinion that you're to 'weak' to engage in polite discourse.

Of course you didn't respond to the second scenario wherein a doctor shuts off the equipment keeping someone alive.

In the abstract you are correct, not intervening when a patient's heart stops is not 'killing', it is however allowing a person to die when one has means to potentially prevent that death. Turning off the equipment keeping someone alive is an affirmative action, do you believe a doctor engaging in such an act should be arrested, his license to practice medicine revoked, and if convicted place in prison?

As for allowing a loved one to suffer for days, weeks or months - how have you decided?

 

[Noomi]

This is my body, and I believe I should have the right to exist this life when I choose, and how I choose. That means that if I become severely ill and have no quality of life, I want a doctor, or family member, whoever, to end my life for me if I am unable to end it myself.

People should not have the right to deny other people control over their own destinies.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Doctors do, everyday in America DNR's are honored; not acting to save a life when one has the ability to do so can be considered killing. Turning off equipment keeping a patient alive is too.

Would you allow a loved one to suffer for days, weeks or months with no hope for a future?

Damn, you really are stupid.

Obeying a DNR is not killing, euthanasia is, you are talking about two different things.

Why ask me what I would do? Do you think that me insisting that doctors not kill would be inconsistent with me making some sort of choice I have not indicated I would make?

I'm not stupid; calling me a name does confirm my opinion that you're to 'weak' to engage in polite discourse.

Of course you didn't respond to the second scenario wherein a doctor shuts off the equipment keeping someone alive.

In the abstract you are correct, not intervening when a patient's heart stops is not 'killing', it is however allowing a person to die when one has means to potentially prevent that death. Turning off the equipment keeping someone alive is an affirmative action, do you believe a doctor engaging in such an act should be arrested, his license to practice medicine revoked, and if convicted place in prison?

As for allowing a loved one to suffer for days, weeks or months - how have you decided?

Excuse me, this is not a political debate, it is a debate about a subject you know nothing about. Do not resuscitate orders are not euthanasia, only a complete and total ignoramus would ever confuse the two. That makes you stupid. your inability to admit that you were wrong in confusing them makes you pathetic.

My personal decisions about a private issue are none of your business.

 

[Big Black Dog]

So, how would this issue be addressed in terms of payment of life insurance? If you commit suicide life insurance does not pay off. Even in it's most polite terms, euthanasia is a form of suicide.

 

[Katzndogz]

What happens is that people sometimes change their minds. What is reasonable when they are 30 is nonsense when they are 70. It's like the 17 year old girl who says she'd rather die than not have a date for the prom. If she doesnt' have a date, should she be put into a hospice until she's dead or given a quick and painless shot? After all, there are instructions on when she wishes her life to end and under what circumstances.

In the Netherlands someone who is very ill is assumed to not have the mental capacity to make life ending decisions. The familes of sick people are deemed too emotionally distraught to make life ending decisions. Those decisions are with an impersonal panel who make a passionless cost benefit analysis (like Cass Sunstein wants to do) and finds for life or death based on how much treatment will cost.

It's what obama did when he told a woman that rather than a pacemaker to save her mother's life, mother should just be given a pill until she died.