I’m sure a lot of people have known someone who has had to endure excruciating pain, or be deprived of feeding or water, but kept alive because the law, as it currently stands, says so. It’s refreshing that this topic is now being debated and perhaps there really is a chance that some progress can be made.
I don’t think it’s right that you have to take a trip out of the country at your own expense to end your life.
I know the religious folks will have an issue with it, as well as the ones trotting out the old slippery slope conspiracy people who think it will be organ harvesting for $$ time.
I personally think that if you’re terminal, with absolutely no chance of surviving, facing weeks/months either in agony or totally drugged out, the needle should be an option. —J. Kavorkian
This article appears in Nov 10-16, 2011.
Que all the same stupid answers from the same stupid people who dissagree with this topic every time it is posted. I agree with you 100% OP, I watched my grandmother and grandfather suffer needlessly because of this stupid law, and supported my stepmother when she went to Switzerland for her “suicide”.
Any adults body is theirs and theirs alone – the government has no business regulating life and death, or what people choose to do with their own bodies.
The real question is – would those against assisted suicide prefer someone jump off a bridge or use a shotgun instead? (Not that it is necessarily possible if someone is so ill they are bedridden) or would they prefer to have a safe humane method and process available, once all of the t’s have been crossed and the i’s dotted?
It seems to me the ultimate insult, illness or not, is that someone else (a person, an agency, a church a government) thinks they can control me and what I do with my own body. It is laughable, if it weren’t so sad to see what happens to people stuck in this position.
If I intend on killing myself because I’m going to die a slow painful death, good luck stopping me.
Voluntary Euthanasia should be next.
I always thought Kevorkian should have teamed up with the makers of the clapper………clap on / clap off.
That’s the whole point, to have a DIGNIFIED exit. Why should a person have to “use” a shotgun or jump off a bridge or any other messy demeaning way of offing yourself when there are physicians able and willing to accommodate a dying persons wish?
This type of decision is not easy to make by someone and certainly not made lightly and without good reason.
Therefore the ability to make it should be made as easy as possible ie: legal and with the facilities in place for a person to have as comfortable and dignified a death as possible, usually from what has turned into a painful existence not what once may have been a full and vibrant life.
True this may not be for all because of many beliefs etc., but it should be there for those who believe this to be a proper way to meet death. So no one should be forced to go through it. And not to used as an easy out and so it needs to be well thought out and well planned before made into law.
But in true needs cases why should someone suffer needlessly? We should be a more humane society than to expect that. This certainly will not be easy as it is a big shift in cultural norms for this country, but people can adapt.
I am flying in the face of the way I was raised, but to me dignity and choice should trump suffering and/or merely ‘existing’ – if only breathing. There is usually joy at someone’s birth, let there perhaps be some at death as well, when possible. And that may be joy of the patient’s freedom from pain and suffering.
People who would do this are selfless as well, in helping others in society, even if that was not an intent. Think about that. Blessings and all possible comfort to all those in terminal situations.
I heard this being discussed on the radio yesterday and a doctor was saying he feared one of the abuses of this would be greedy family member looking to hasten the demise of granny for personal gain.
A simple solution to that one might be that if the decision were to be made by someone other than the person looking to die, hold the estate in trust for 5 years and then see how much pain and suffering granny is experiencing.
valid point snubiz but we have more compassion for our pets and they can’t talk
Well, some of us do, pg –
http://bit.ly/skzJxv
great just great, i thought it was going to be a talking dog. roo
Sorry! Quick – watch my favourite –
http://bit.ly/uM1U1g
phew, thanks, i love that dog. what a face
OB…I’m with you.
Put one in every mall, make them like phone booths, with cool features like last minute will & testimont , & how would you like to go , quietly, excruciating pain, with a friend or in a group … ~:p
shit people, i’m up for it. you all wanna do yourselves in, call the old suckster. i got a .44 solution to your problem. nice and fast, just very fucking messy.
Hahahahaha nice one, uncle Suckster!
Snubiz’s post raised a very interesting point about people potentially abusing such a system though. My personal belief is that if we have a right to life then we have a right to death as well, but the latter should be the individual’s own choice.
I lived in Toronto when Tracey Latimer was murdered by her father. He decided she had enough(well, *he’d* had enough, anyway) and ran a hose into the cab of his truck in the garage.
For a couple weeks on talk radio people were saying how he was right to kill her because she was suffering.
After I was hit by an 18-wheeler I spent 2 years in the hospital.
I suffered.
I lost my left leg, much of my ass and lower back due to infection(that made me septic- I projectile vomited everything eaten or drank for 7 months/ I weighed 85lbs for the first year), I had 40 surgeries and a hundred(at least) procedures where I was knocked out. I was in horrible agony for a long, long time.
At no time did I ask to be killed or want to die, but the way people were talking, one of my nurses or family could have killed me because of my suffering, and it would be okay, because my life wasn’t worth shit anymore.
I am so fucking happy to be here, to have my second/third/who knows chance. I have a sweet life. Met a new girl a few weeks back, and it’s absolutely amazing.
And I support the right to die by my own choice.
“Dignity” is a hard one for me, because so little about the process is dignified. But to be able to direct your own exit, when it becomes truely unbearable and hopeless, should be legal. Someone deciding for you, not so much.
Choosing to end your life is not “easy” or taken lightly.
If I get in a situation where I’m degenerating, like from ALS etc, I hope the people I ask to assist me are legally cool to do so.
More, you mean like this?
http://ts2.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.as…
It’s a very complicated matter. As for messy suicides (gunshot, knife wounds etc), not necessary as there is a world full of pharmacuticals (legal and otherwise) out there. What I like hearing is “I can’t do it myself, I want someone else do it for me. Coward, you want it you do it.
Now if it is done right (and remembr we’re talking about people lol) I can see it being okay in the case of brain dead and maybe a few others but this too must be explored. Further legal/insurance complications that would all have to be worked out.
Of course the other problem is if someone has a dibilitating or fatal disease and you one chose to die thena few months later a cure or therapy is found. Think back to preinsulin diabetes or any other fatal disease that are curable/treatable today. Imagine one’s guilt if this were to happen.
As I said, this is not to be taken lightly. I’m not necessarily against it but it has to be done right.
Finally a solution to the homeless and Occupy protesters. I support assisted suicide for them. Maybe they could get a group rate.
This is one solution for the Financial crisis in Europe.
The Canadian version will be different as it will undoubtedly be a drive through…..
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/11…
people tend to think that they are in control of their thoughts and emotions. However, despression and suicidal thoughts are very common side affects to many chronic conditions, and many medications. Sleep deprivation is a common cause of depression, and studies show that sleep disorders are often left undiagnosed.
So how do we distinguish between involuntary suicidal thoughts and rational suicidal thoughts?
How to we legalize assisted suicide in a responsible manner to ensure that we aren’t ending the life of people that are suffering from relatively minor conditions?
If assisted suicide is to be legalized, I think it should be done in the presence of a psychologist/psychiatrist and possibly a lawyer to ensure that a) the person deciding is of sound mind and b) that there is a legal record of it to avoid any lawsuits. Also, there should be a way to preemptively make the decision and have it be legally binding. (Which I think goes without saying, but I figured I should mention it nonetheless.)
See… Same stupid answers against. We are talking about people with a death sentence ie: people with degenerative diseases that will end in a drawn out painful death. Not people who are paralized, depressed or any other spur of the moment decisions. It’s not complicated at all, it’s stupid questions that make it complicated. What if (insert stupid question here), can I die too? Why spend billions of tax dollars a year in health care to force people who want to die stay alive at all costs? Why force an 88 year old sick woman or man to remain in hospital for a year under constant watch till he’s 89? Is that any quality of life? I watched the hospital spend hundreds of thousands of dollars keeping my dying grandmother alive for 9 months, she had no hope of surviving the surgeries she had for cancer and was so out of it for the last 6 months she could t even talk. Good job healthcare. This shit has to stop, there comes a point where it is futile to keep people alive, it’s not feesable in any way. But yet we do it every day. For what? To make the family feel better?
Brotim, I just lost 100 IQ points by reading your post. The problem is with using drugs is there is no guarantee that they will kill you, not every person has access to prescription or illegal drugs, nor are most poeple experts on dosages, the human body will surprise you with its resilliance. Drug overdoses are also not as glamerous as you make them out to be. As the law stands, you have to be sneaky and do it when nobodys around or you take the risk of your spouse or caregiver being charged with assissting in your death. Another problem is what if you get found before you die, it’s a doctors code of ethics to not let you die, and terminally ill people usually need 24 hour care, and are not usually left alone for long. You also don’t have the opportunity to say good bye to loved ones and family, thats really awsome, sneaking around getting drugs and dying alone. You make it sound so easy to do, what if you fail like my stepmother did twice, you just put the family through more hell. In Switzerland they give you a small cup of liquid, you drink it and you fall asleep and never wake up. Very peaceful and dignified, with support staff on hand for the family. Yeah it sure is fucking cowardly to expect something like that, before you open your redneck mouth do us all a favour and stick Sebastions dick in it.
Yes but your stepmother did it, not someone else and THAT is the point. You want to go then do it yourself.
No she didn’t do it herself, did you even read my post. She did it under supervision by a team of trained professionals, do I need to try a different language?
can’t afford some visine???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visine#Visine…
almost tasteless and about the equivalent of a can of pop is enough to at LEAST put you in a coma.
Poison is readily available all around us.
hell, just drink water until you expire…. may not be very easy…. but it’d be cheap.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxic…