There’s a long process before anyone is given a lethal weapon injection. Forms are filled out, counselling is given etc.
Since it IS legal, insurance companies are treating it as such. Claims ARE going through.
In Canada mental health is not covered yet but when it is, counselling is given for a certain amount of time. If counselling and drugs don’t solve the mental state, then the person is given the choice of dying with dignity.
Peoples remains go through the same way they would under natural causes whether that’s a formal burial or cremation.
It has an impact on family, just like a natural death does. Family can become involved if they want to. All of their questions can be answered.
When our beloved pets are suffering too much, we at least have the option of putting them out of their misery. Why can’t humans have the same option?
And that all sounds great, until it doesn't. It seems fanciful to me to lay out such a response, and to then assume that bad things never happen.
I think of two things - the death penalty for crime, and Freddie Mercury. It'll make sense in a moment.
The Death Penalty in the US is full of checks and balances, of forms, appeals, and so on. Yet we all know, it sometimes gets things wrong. For all the safety procedures in place, for all the signatures and considerations, innocent people have been put to death, and more than once.
Which illustrates two things: 1) For all the measures we put in place, for all the humanity and justice we inject, things can still go wrong. 2) Freddie Mercury, as you likely know, was the lead singer of Queen, a rock band. He died from complications of AIDS in 1991. At the time, there were treatments such as AZT, but of course, it was a fatal disease, he would have had little to no hope. Yet just 5 years later, a cure of sorts was found. A least, it stopped people dying from the disease for the most part. So Freddie, sadly, passed because the development of the disease was too swift.
You then mention those with mental illness. I simply cannot get on board with the idea someone suffering such a disease could opt to die. I just can't. It's bad enough when it leads to suicide. But once you give people in desperate mental anguish the opportunity to simply opt to end their life, I just don't think it's right. Sorry, it's a very complex issue.
I also have to wonder how a nation such as the US (I know you're in Canada) can lay claim to being a Christian nation when/if they're allowing people to opt to kill themselves (in effect). When we're going through issues on abortion, it seems odd to me that someone - or a nation - should care so much about the beginning of life, but not mind as much at the end of it, or at least give an option to die.
All of that said, we can all come up with extreme cases that somehow justify our view one way or another. There are certainly people for whom death is the only release. If I were in a hospital bed right now, riddled with cancer and with no hope of being saved, in pain and suffering, I'm sure I'd beg for the end like a lot of others. In fact, this very morning I was reading about a guy who had radiation poisoning, and because of the way it affected his body, no painkillers worked as his body gave up. All he could do was scream.
I know for sure, I couldn't be any part of this process myself. I couldn't sign a form saying someone can die. I couldn't provide or administer the drugs to bring about death. I couldn't counsel someone who was thinking about it.
As for insurance, nothing is simply accepted. The industry is a hateful bunch. It may appear that if the death is legal it's accepted, but you can bet it's being accounted for by exclusions in policies, higher payments, or somewhere else (such as not issuing policies for people at a certain age because of a family history etc.)
This is a very complex issue. Much is based on the sanctity of life, and the right of the individual to do as they please. However, there has to be limits.
