Poll: Terry Pratchet what the...

Euthanasia?

  • I'm in favour of assisted death for anyone who chooses it

    Votes: 252 41.4%

  • I'm in favour provided the person is suffering from a terminal condition

    Votes: 301 49.4%

  • I'm not in favour of assisted death

    Votes: 31 5.1%

  • I hold no opinion about it

    Votes: 25 4.1%
  • Total voters
    609
spudbynight said:
It is the logical progression when we stop valuing all human life as sacred.
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No it isn't. It is pretty much the definition of the slippery slope fallacy. There is no suggestion or evidence at all that allowing assisted suicide leads to killing weak babies or killing handicapped people without their consent.

I also struggle to see how forcing someone to live on in incredible pain is treating life as sacred. Why are you so tied up in quantity of life rather than quality of life?
 
spudbynight said:
I am sorry if you misunderstood my post. I was in no way supporting the idea of people committing suicide either on their own or with assistance.
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I didn't misunderstand. My post was making the point that someone's inaction (of helping someone die) can be cruel and immoral. Stopping intervention doesn't mean people die.
 
Morbius said:
As with any medical treatment, you have the right to change your mind at any time. If he forgets he's made the decision and then decides that actually he'd rather not go through with it, then that's fine.
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That's not really the point though. With regards to Altzheimers, the example of somoene deciding before the symptoms become too bad that, if they deteriorate to a certain point, they wish for their life to be ended might be unworkable as their mind will be in a completely differnet state when the symptoms have taken hold, but that is what they decided beforehand.
 
britboy4321 said:
But because of the disease he has been declared by a doctor to be insane (in fact he is). Therefore all of his decisions are now null and void (as is always the case).

And his wife is saying 'go for it'. Exactly the same as the fact wives can currently say 'give him the anti-psychotic pills' even if the patient is saying 'the voices in my head are saying I don't need them'.
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Assisted suicide stops being suicide if the person who dies is being force fed lethal drugs against their will. That's murder.
 
Theophany said:
Flip side: suicide is regarded as a cowardly way to check out.

People who have it unimaginably harder than you or I don't have the option of choosing that route for whatever reason.

There is no valiance in suicide, it is not glamorous or brave, it's just a less difficult way out for a minority of people.
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but then I think you get into the line between what is suicide and the differences between dieing because your an ass and feel life is too tough or dieing because you have a big illness and it will literally suck the life and soul out of you.
 
RDM said:
No it isn't. It is pretty much the definition of the slippery slope fallacy. There is no suggestion or evidence at all that allowing assisted suicide leads to killing weak babies or killing handicapped people without their consent.

I also struggle to see how forcing someone to live on in incredible pain is treating life as sacred. Why are you so tied up in quantity of life rather than quality of life?
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I don't believe I or anyone else has the right to choose who lives or dies. Life isn't something which you can check out from if you don't like it.

I don't agree with suicide regardless of whether someone else helps you and regardless of what other factors there are. In the same way I don't agree with any other form of murder.

It saddens me greatly that as a society we have now reached a stage where human life is being viewed as disposable.
 
britboy4321 said:
But because of the disease the sufferer has been declared by a doctor to be insane (in fact he is). Therefore all of his decisions are now null and void (as is always the case).

And his wife is saying 'go for it'. Exactly the same as the fact wives can currently say 'give him the anti-psychotic pills' even if the patient is saying 'the voices in my head are saying I don't need them'.

So we're back to 'force the guy on to his back, hold his arms down, and pour the poison down his throat regardless of his screaming and thrashing'.

Which I, personally, disagree with.
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People should never be forced. If they decide at the last minute they don't want it, nobody should force them. It's really quite that simple. I don't see why you think this is an issue?
 
spudbynight said:
No it isn't, and to be honest that is rather an offensive thing to come out with.
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If I saw a dear in the middle of a road with it's guts all over the road but still alive I would call a dispatcher to euthenaise it. If would find it cruel and immoral to leave it there to die a painful death.

I don't see why this should be different for humans, after all we do it because it's "humane".
 
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