What's the thinking on Voluntary Euthanasia?

Jillaroo said:
I would hope that if i was in a lot of pain from a terminal illness or i am brain damaged from an accident that my family will choose to let me pass, and i have told them so, it should be up to the individual if they wish to die or the parents.
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There has always been tension, within the medical community, between those believing pain management with opioid medications should be limited to cancer pain and those who accept that writhing pain exists in the absence of cancer. I seriously doubt those who would deny effective pain management in the absence of cancer have ever experienced intractable pain.

With that in m ind, the decision triggering assisted suicide or euthanasia should not be limited to "terminal illness". Conditions featuring chronic pain are often not illness based, but injury or deformity based. The decisions made by those suffering, and not onlookers, physicians, or clergy, should be honored before all others.

Someone with severe unmanageable pain should be able to end their own suffering, regardless of the pain's source.
 

Many years ago i met a lovely man who had been in a terrible accident and he was severely disabled in all ways, he had his good days and when he had the bad days they were shocking, he used to sit in the coffee shop and i would chat to him, most people avoided him which i was shocked at, but he enjoyed my chats with him and he admitted to me that he wished he had died as his quality of life was next to zero.
He was only 23 when he was in the car accident and when i met him he was 32 and life had been so very hard for him, he struggled each day to just do the every day things that we take for granted, i often think about him and wonder if he is still alive or if he got his wish to pass over and be free of his disabilities, i hope he did.
 
I have a living will and that 's all the thinking I've done on the subject. In fact, I'm finding this discussion kind of depressing. Tell them I had a cold and had to leave.
 

It doesn't have to be depressing basefare. Death is a part of life and something that needs to be spoken about. I've had my share of death this year to the point that I'm ready for 2013 to take a hike and let's move right into 2014.
Although I'm deeply saddened by the the death of friends and family, it has opened up the subject and now we all know what we want to happen we pass away. I also have a living will but it is those left behind that don't know if you want a service, minister etc. I've made it known that I want a BBQ, beer and wine included and that is all. No person giving a sermon who didn't even know me.
I think the subject of euthanasia needs to be discussed and talked about - the Doctor in the video I posted was a very brave man in my opinion and did that just to ensure that the talking would begin in the hope that those left behind wouldn't have to go through what he did. We make choices every single day that affect our lives, why can't we make choices that affect our death?
 
That joke video about the petition for voluntary euthanasia..it was extremely disturbing and really drives home the feeling I have that we are a nation of, well this comment sums it up brilliantly!!

"ladies and gents: the reason why all the world thinks that america is a bunch of retarded idiots."

By the time most people get to the ages of us are on this forum, we have enough end of life horror stories to fill many books. All I know is when I hear about some old person who went to bed and never woke up, I think of how lucky that person was.

Reminds me of a Jack Handey quote;

When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.
 
MercyL said:
There has always been tension, within the medical community, between those believing pain management with opioid medications should be limited to cancer pain and those who accept that writhing pain exists in the absence of cancer. I seriously doubt those who would deny effective pain management in the absence of cancer have ever experienced intractable pain.

With that in m ind, the decision triggering assisted suicide or euthanasia should not be limited to "terminal illness". Conditions featuring chronic pain are often not illness based, but injury or deformity based. The decisions made by those suffering, and not onlookers, physicians, or clergy, should be honored before all others.

Someone with severe unmanageable pain should be able to end their own suffering, regardless of the pain's source.
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I agree, MercyL.
 
SeaBreeze said:
We both have living wills, both want simple cremation, and no formal funeral whatsoever.
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Both my folks were cremated and their ashes scattered from planes over Monterey Bay. I would like to have a gravesite to visit but figure when I'm riding waves, even though they were anti-surf, they're with me...
 
My Friends wife Pat is to be cremated on Tuesday at 10am. All her famiy & friends will be wearing bright colors to celebrate her wonderful life.
She has four Children, 8 grandchildren. When she was working she helped & housed down & out people, ex-criminals who were being released
from Jail. She found them jobs, homes, helped them get re-educated......We well give her the send off she deserves, we well laugh & cry.
PAT YOU WILL BE MISSED.080.gif
 
From what I've heard about life in Tassie lately just living there is a form of slow euthanasia anyway.

(kidding, but it was too good a line to pass up, and close enough. )

Good for them, that's one way of boosting their real estate sales. Might be easier for some than getting to Switzerland. Anyone see that ep on the ABC recently of that poor bloke who's been saving for years to get to there?
He's only in his thirties and could live another thirty but has severe physical and extremely painful problems that prevent him living a normal life and he's just simply had enough and knows it will get steadily worse from here on.
I think he's a wimp for not just taking a short-cut off a high place, but then that's what voluntary euthansasia is about, the option to choose an easier way out.
 
From what I've heard about life in Tassie lately just living there is a form of slow euthanasia anyway.
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Funny you should say that. A friend recently returned from a holiday in Tasmania, loved the scenery, said the infrastructure was chronic. Many years of Labor/Green government. Sigh.:(
 
It will take a progressive government to change legislation to allow for voluntary euthanasia.
We don't have many of those.

I wonder whether TA's reach will extend as far as the Tasmanian Liberal Party.
Will he be able to block a conscience vote?
 
You can bet your boots he'll try.

Not sure he can do much about it though, it's a State thing I think. They overturned it in the NT on a technicality, because it was a Territory, not a State. Hard to say how Tassie will go. Good luck to them with it though.
 
If Tasmania was a Coalition state he could threaten to withdraw some funding perhaps but that won't work on a coalition in opposition.
Whether it is a conscience vote by all parties would depend of the state party leaders themselves.
I know little about them.
 
As long as there will be no one left who will be dependent on government, I don't see why government should have any interest in suicide at all.
 
snaarl said:
As long as there will be no one left who will be dependent on government, I don't see why government should have any interest in suicide at all.
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I could never figure that out either, it seems to be a 'conscience/religious' carry over. But if there's, as we're led to believe, a separation of Church and State then what we think and what we do to ourselves without harm to others is simply not in their brief.
 
Suicide is not illegal but assisting someone to suicide is a crime under current legislation.

In religious terms, self murder is a sin because it is a rejection of the gift of life and the giving and taking of life is considered to be God's choice alone. It is not a sin to sacrifice one's life for the sake of another. "Greater love hath no man...etc"
 
But but but, Warri, that bit, that.... "taking of life is considered to be God's choice alone.".... how come we don't even blink at keeping someone alive whom God is doing his level best to harvest then?? Huh? Why is stopping him killing us okay but stopping him keeping us alive a sin??

When did we get to be bossin' God around like that?
 
Diwundrin, there are some who would agree with your proposition but not many.

In past times people would have seen life as a gift and applauded those who sought to preserve it by feeding the hungry and healing the sick. Because Jesus was a healer then the medical profession has been exalted in Christian societies but other societies also elevate healers and shamans (often the same profession).

It is only in recent times that physicians have had the technology to prolong or initiate life by artificial means. The ethical and theological questions are still being thrashed out.

As for me, I do accept sensible medical interventions - I take medication to control BP and cholesterol because I'm not a Christian Scientist - but I have resolved that I will decline certain other extraordinary interventions such as heart transplants and cancer therapies to extend my life by a few months. Just because I might choose to decline treatment does not mean that someone younger, with dependants and more to give to society, should have to make the same decision.

I won't accept termination either, at least I don't think I will speaking in the present but that might change. I'm happy with pain relief and good palliative care.

In the end 'sin' is a very personal and flexible concept.
 
Just thinking... a person who says someone who wants to commit suicide is just depressed? There is no thing as JUST depressed. Sometimes suicide really IS the only way out. Personal choice, I'd say.
 
A Belgian man has chosen to die by euthanasia, after his sex change operation turned him into “a monster”.
Nathan Verhelst, 44, was administered legal euthanasia on Monday afternoon, on the grounds of “unbearable psychological suffering”, by the same doctor who euthanized two deaf twins last year.
Shortly before he died, he told Belgium'sHet Laatse Nieuws: “I was ready to celebrate my new birth. But when I looked in the mirror, I was disgusted with myself.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...fter-failed-sex-change-operation-8851872.html
 

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