Terry Pratchett ready to be test case for suicide law

jp_bl_68

jp_bl_68

jp_bl_68

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8490062.stm

3/4 polled support assisted suicide for the terminally ill.
1/2 polled support assisted suicide for those that don't have a terminal illness (but are suffering none the less).

The results for the second poll surprised me.

What are your thoughts on the matter? If a person is seriously but not terminally ill, is clearly suffering and wants to end their life should they be given help in doing so?
 
Yes, without question. The very start of the Hippocratic Oath reads "First, do no harm". Allowing a person's pain to dominate their life and condemning them to an indeterminate time of confinement to a life of suffering they no longer wish to live can be described as nothing else but harm. Ignorance of the law is no defence in a court, and choosing to ignore a patient's pain is tantamount to facilitating that pain in smothering a patient. At the very last resort, when there's really 'nothing more we can do for you', there's always one more thing you can do to help. As sensitive an issue as it is, doctors all over the world do it - every day, in every hospital, because it's the right thing to do.
 
I do find it incredibly odd that when an animal is deemed too diseased/injured, we put them down and declare "Its the humane thing to do"...odd that we dont then show that same "humane" attitude to humans, even going so far to the opposite as to declare it a crime.
 
Terrible shame about Terry Pratchett.

Anyway yes, I agree that it should be a legal right, with some caveat based on requiring a will possibly to prevent abuse. Not exactly sure how it would work.
 
Tombstone said:
I do find it incredibly odd that when an animal is deemed too diseased/injured, we put them down and declare "Its the humane thing to do"...odd that we dont then show that same "humane" attitude to humans, even going so far to the opposite as to declare it a crime.
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The reason there is so much debate around the subject is because if it were legal then it is open to allot of abuse, families pressuring relatives into choosing assisted suicide, either intentionally or not, people simply choosing to die because it's "easier" or simply due to depression.

If it is made legal, which I think it should, it should still be hugely monitored, it shouldn't just be a matter of "Doctor, I would like to die now", "Right'o I'll get the killin' needle", it needs to be done in such a way that ensures it is the patients choice and that no alternative can be reached.


Side note: So sad about Pratchett...will be awful not having a new Discworld novel to look forward to...
 
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Tombstone said:
I do find it incredibly odd that when an animal is deemed too diseased/injured, we put them down and declare "Its the humane thing to do"...odd that we dont then show that same "humane" attitude to humans, even going so far to the opposite as to declare it a crime.
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In my opinion, the sanctity of life and its protection is more important.
 
Fenris said:
The reason there is so much debate around the subject is because if it were legal then it is open to allot of abuse, families pressuring relatives into choosing assisted suicide, either intentionally or not, people simply choosing to die because it's "easier" or simply due to depression.
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All the more reason to legalise it, by making it legal it enables a legal framework to be drawn up for it. As I say, I find it most peculiar that we say its humane to put down an animal , but its not humane to put down a human.

Nobody should be forced to wither away and die before the eyes of their loved ones, striped of the last of their dignity in their final days. I'd rather put a gun to my head than go through that.
 
Well, what Terry wants is a tribunal set up.

Sir Terry says he would like to see measures put in place to ensure that anyone seeking to commit suicide was of sound mind and not being influenced by others.

"At the moment if someone assists someone else to commit suicide in this country or elsewhere they become suspect to murder until the police decide otherwise," he told the BBC.

"I think it would be rather better if a person wishes to die, they could go see the tribunal with friends and relatives and present their case - at least if it happens, it happens with, as it were, authority."
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That sounds like the best solution to me - every case judged individually.

The problem is if you put in a blanket legalization, you might end up with families killing their decrepit old relatives in order to remove the burden, under the guise of 'mercy killing'. That would be bad.

What this wouldn't help was the recent case of the woman who injected her son with heroin - as even with a tribunal, he could not express his own wishes. I wonder how the tribunal would have dealt with that?
 
Just read this in the paper. Personally I'm all for euthanasia to be perfectly honest, and for him it must be especially horrible to have once been so intelligent to now simply not remember things.
 
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