Do you support euthanasia?

[Wry Catcher]

Sarah Palin's recent assertion aside, do you support assisted suicide? Isn't the right to die with dignity, at the time YOU choose, and without pain a basic right?

 

[Meister]

Sarah Palin's recent assertion aside, do you support assisted suicide? Isn't the right to die with dignity, at the time YOU choose, and without pain a basic right?

I agree with your post as it is written. I must emphasize where I put the period.

 

[Liberty]

i dont see whats wrong with youth in asia. they're just kids.

 

[Immanuel]

Euthanasia (mercy killing) and assisted suicide are actually, by my understanding, two different things.

Euthanasia is someone else making the decision to put another being (whether that other being is human or animal) out of its misery. While assisted suicide is the person who is dieing makes the decision to die gracefully with the help of someone else, usually a doctor. .

Euthanasia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Euthanasia suicide mercy-killing right-to-die physician assisted suicide living wills research

http://www.internationaltaskforce.org/faq.htm

9. Wouldn't euthanasia and assisted suicide only be at a patient's request?

No. As one of their major goals, euthanasia proponents seek to have euthanasia and assisted suicide considered "medical treatment." If one accepts the notion that euthanasia or assisted suicide is a good medical treatment, then it would not only be inappropriate, but discriminatory, to deny this good treatment to a person solely because that person is too young or mentally incapacitated to request it.

You might notice in the euthanasia.com link that euthanasia AND assisted suicide are listed separately

As far as I am concerned those who deliberately attempt to tie the two together are being dishonest. Note: I am not saying that is what Wry Catcher is doing here.

I do not support euthanasia. As for assisted suicide, well, I'm a little bit quesy on that especially after going through my dad's cancer two months ago. He did not go that route, but had he chosen to, I could have understood.

Immie

 

[Wry Catcher]

I appreciate your post Immanuel and admit I did not look up defintions prior to posting. That said, my mother suffered with Alzheimers for years before dying in June, 2008. She was bedridden for the final eight years of life, and had assisted suicide been available, she would surely have taken that option.
Given the definition of euthanasia you posted, my sister, father and I would have given the authority to her doctor for euthanasia years before her actual death. I am 100% my mother would have supported such a decision.
I support a patients right to choose, and believe it is not the business of lawmakers to deny such a right. If I (or my mother) had a written document that included a DNR - which she did and I do - why are we denied to take that decision one step farther?

 

[editec]

The terminally ill certain should have the right to decide at what point their pain and sufffering should end.

They and ONLY they ought to have that right.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

Sarah Palin's recent assertion aside, do you support assisted suicide? Isn't the right to die with dignity, at the time YOU choose, and without pain a basic right?

I dont know what this has to do with sara palin but i'll throw down with my 2 cents

I dislike abortion and think it is murder and therefore wrong
I dislike the death penalty as again its murder and I think murder is wrong
I dislike assisted suicide because it is murder and I think murder is wrong

Now if someone wants to just go an kill themselves I have no problem with that, my problem comes when someone else helps kill them.....thats murder.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

The terminally ill certain should have the right to decide at what point their pain and sufffering should end.

They and ONLY they ought to have that right.

I can agree with this. See my above post for my clear position.

 

[Wry Catcher]

I've now read the documents linked by Immie.
I should add to my post above that my mother was medicated for the eight years she was bedridden, and outwordly did not speak or communicate. She did, however, grind her death, and moan, leading me to wonder if she was aware of her circumstance (I was and remain concerned that my mothers last years of life were as horrible as those described in the novel "Johnny Got His Gun").
Notwithstanding the arguments linked by Immie, I stand by my belief that a patients wishes should be honored, and asssisted suicide carried out according to the patients wishes is humane; allowing suffering on the possibility of henious behavior by family or doctors is absurd - laws can be enacted to minimize such behaviors.

 

[Immanuel]

I appreciate your post Immanuel and admit I did not look up defintions prior to posting. That said, my mother suffered with Alzheimers for years before dying in June, 2008. She was bedridden for the final eight years of life, and had assisted suicide been available, she would surely have taken that option.
Given the definition of euthanasia you posted, my sister, father and I would have given the authority to her doctor for euthanasia years before her actual death. I am 100% my mother would have supported such a decision.
I support a patients right to choose, and believe it is not the business of lawmakers to deny such a right. If I (or my mother) had a written document that included a DNR - which she did and I do - why are we denied to take that decision one step farther?

Well, as I tried to communicate, if it were you're mother's choice then I'm quesy on the answer to this. If it truly is her choice, then that is one thing. However, the problem lies with when does it cease to be your mom's choice and becomes your choice. I do not know the situation with your mom and the following statement is not related to your situation at all, but I want to use "you" as the example here because you brought it up. Again, I am not saying you would do this. Let me change that... I'm going to use me and my dad as the example

But, when does this end being dad's choice and become "my" choice because continuing to care for dad has simply become too difficult? Being there when a loved one is dieing is very difficult. Trust me, I was just recently there. We would rather they go out with our definition of dignity, but are we letting them go for their benefit or are we only taking the easy way out for ourselves.

If the patient has communicated his/her wishes as with a living will/DNR statement, then we know what those wishes are, but in many cases that is not what happens and the family is left with making those decisions on their own. It is a very tough decision and one I hope not to have to make. By the time they diagnosed my dad with cancer it was too late and eventually he was moved to hospice care (God Bless those who provide this care) and he gave up. We didn't have to make the choice because dad had relayed his wishes to all of us and the hospice care let him die in peace.

But, what if he had been on life support? What if we had to make the choice to pull the plug for him? Would it have been his choice or ours? I can't answer that and don't want to.

Immie

 

[xsited1]

Sarah Palin's recent assertion aside, do you support assisted suicide? Isn't the right to die with dignity, at the time YOU choose, and without pain a basic right?

Only if it's a rich relative of mine with me as their primary beneficiary.

 

[Wry Catcher]

So _Pilgrim, If a patient is not able to communicate their wish for suffering to end, do we allow them to suffer?
Have you read "Johnny Get Your Gun"?

 

[DavidS]

I support both assisted suicide and euthanasia. If someone is brain dead, they cannot make a decision for themselves. I do not believe God would intend for us to be bed ridden just so we can, somehow "be alive" because it's God's commandment to do so. The Bible is written and interpreted by man and is flawed -- we have no idea what Jesus or Moses said -- we can only do what we believe is the right thing to do in circumstances like this.... which is relieving the pain for a human being.

 

[RadiomanATL]

Sarah Palin's recent assertion aside, do you support assisted suicide? Isn't the right to die with dignity, at the time YOU choose, and without pain a basic right?

Only if it's a rich relative of mine with me as their primary beneficiary.

I approve.

 

[mskafka]

Sarah Palin's recent assertion aside, do you support assisted suicide? Isn't the right to die with dignity, at the time YOU choose, and without pain a basic right?

I dont know what this has to do with sara palin but i'll throw down with my 2 cents

I dislike abortion and think it is murder and therefore wrong
I dislike the death penalty as again its murder and I think murder is wrong
I dislike assisted suicide because it is murder and I think murder is wrong

Now if someone wants to just go an kill themselves I have no problem with that, my problem comes when someone else helps kill them.....thats murder.

I'm guessing that Palin was thrown in there because of her "death panel" misconceptions, and ignorance about healthcare in general.

 

[xotoxi]

If someone is brain dead...

When someone is brain dead, that are legally dead.

The only decision left for the patient's family is whether or not they want organs donated.

A decision to continue ventilator support, meds, feeding tubes, etc, is not an issue...because the patient is DEAD.

 

[manu1959]

So _Pilgrim, If a patient is not able to communicate their wish for suffering to end, do we allow them to suffer?
Have you read "Johnny Get Your Gun"?

yep....they should have written a living will with clear instructions....

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

So _Pilgrim, If a patient is not able to communicate their wish for suffering to end, do we allow them to suffer?
Have you read "Johnny Get Your Gun"?

If they can't communicate then how do we know they are suffering?

Sorry to douchenheimer you by answering your question with another question but your initial question can't be answered without me making an assumption, and i dint want to assume anything.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Sarah Palin's recent assertion aside, do you support assisted suicide? Isn't the right to die with dignity, at the time YOU choose, and without pain a basic right?

one would think so. Why if a fetus without a developed brain has rights to a potential life, why can't human beings have say over their very real lives---without government or nosy C-H-U-R-C-H people butting in?

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

So _Pilgrim, If a patient is not able to communicate their wish for suffering to end, do we allow them to suffer?
Have you read "Johnny Get Your Gun"?

If they can't communicate then how do we know they are suffering?

science.

think about Terri Schiavo. PEople have yet to apologize to Michael---the husband. Terri Schiavo case - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Examination of Schiavo’s nervous system by neuropathologist Stephen J. Nelson, M.D., revealed extensive injury. The brain itself weighed only 615 g, only half the weight expected for a female of her age, height, and weight, an effect caused by the loss of a massive amount of neurons. Microscopic examination revealed extensive damage to nearly all brain regions, including the cerebral cortex, the thalami, the basal ganglia, the hippocampus, the cerebellum, and the midbrain. The neuropathologic changes in her brain were precisely of the type seen in patients who enter a PVS following cardiac arrest. Throughout the cerebral cortex, the large pyramidal neurons that comprise some 70% of cortical cells – critical to the functioning of the cortex – were completely lost. The pattern of damage to the cortex, with injury tending to worsen from the front of the cortex to the back, is also typical. There was marked damage to important relay circuits deep in the brain (the thalami) – another common pathologic finding in cases of PVS. The damage was, in the words of Thogmartin, "irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons."[68]

The cardiac pathologist who studied Schiavo's heart found it and the coronary vessels to be healthy (which excludes the possibility that her initial collapse was the result of myocardial infarction, although there was a localized area of healed inflammation (opening to the possibility of myocarditis). Thogmartin found that "there was no proof that Terri Schiavo ever had an eating disorder such as bulimia." Regarding the possibility of strangulation or domestic violence as a cause of Schiavo's initial collapse, the report states: "No trauma was noted on any of the numerous physical exams or radiographs performed on Mrs. Schiavo on the day of, in the days after, or in the months after her initial collapse. Indeed, within an hour of her initial hospital admission, radiographic examination of her cervical spine was negative. Specifically, external signs of strangulation including cutaneous or deep neck injury, facial/conjunctival petechiae, and other blunt trauma were not observed or recorded during her initial hospital admission. Autopsy examination of her neck structures 15 years after her initial collapse did not detect any signs of remote trauma, but, with such a delay, the exam was unlikely to show any residual neck findings."[69]

Sorry to douchenheimer you by answering your question with another question but your initial question can't be answered without me making an assumption, and i dint want to assume anything.