Euthanasia

Caporegime
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24 Oct 2012
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Godalming
My father was euthanized (put the sympathy cards away, the dude was a ****) and it had a massive effect on my family. Both positive and negative. In many ways it was a relief to those looking after him but also the usual sadness of losing a loved one. My half-brother and -sister are still struggling with it and it was 5 or so years ago.

He went to Switzerland to do it and helped push forward the legalization of it in Holland. I don't know if it's legal there or not.

Either way, keeping someone alive when are in extreme pain and want to die is barbaric, and not very different to the torture endured by captured prisoners.

Sorry to hear about your situation OP, I hope you get a good resolution to this.
 
Caporegime
Joined
8 Sep 2005
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Norrbotten, Sweden.
Sorry to read that.

Yeah it's a taboo subject, but it's one of those doors once open you can never really go back on.
It is bizarre you don't have ultimate control over yourself. Can you think how many millions of people would/will end it all when their chips are down?
If you really wanna end it all you find a way, not just crying for help.
Yes probably all religions fault.
Another 50 years it'll probably be normalised.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Dec 2005
Posts
2,748
My dad went into hospital with his cancer and couldn't eat anything, he wanted to go home. They said he had to be on a feeding tube which was fitted and he was told he had to stay in.

He was so depressed I looked it up and found it could be all done at home so I stuck him in a wheelchair and took him home.

Never seen him so happy to be home. We new he was dying so we made him comfortable at home.
The day he went back to hospital he was so mad, even with pneumonia.

Given the choice I'd like to go out on my own term's. After watching dad die I think I'd prefer it personally.
 
Man of Honour
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18 Oct 2002
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Äkäslompolo
Dude, just because your terminally ill father-in-law says (on his death bed) he wants to die doesn't mean you need to start talk about euthanasia. My god get some EQ.

Rather than rant about it on an online forum, why not do something? Get him a tablet, fill it with memories, encourage him to write down his memoirs. FFS.
Ironic that the most tone-deaf post in the thread thus far is urging the OP to “get some EQ”. Perhaps you should take your own advice?
 
Soldato
Joined
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South North West
I've spent the last 6 years supervising my mother's miserable -- and it has been miserable, no matter how trendy it is to accentuate the positives in some cases -- decline with dementia. She's now incapable of meaningful communication and her life is me lugging her between chair, loo, bed, and occasionally outside in her wheelchair... where she shows no sign whatsoever of being able to appreciate anything we see or do. She'd be horrified I'd looked after her well enough to get to this stage. She'd be horrified that she hadn't accidentally suffocated in her sleep, or starved to death, or... you get the idea. But I'm not as strong as I hoped I'd be.

There are always people who say "but euthanasia can be abused". And I say everything human beings are involved in can and will be abused. For eternity (or until global sterilisation). And if I could sign a piece of paper that said put me down when I can't pass a certain score on a cognition test (not a depression test) I would sign it in an instant, no matter what the potential for abuse.

All life is precious. But not all life is living.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
26 May 2012
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16,474
So are most things in life, so do you ban all them too?
That's such a cop-out excuse. There's plenty of rules/regulations/processes that could be put in place to prevent it being open to abuse.
Many legal activities are open to abuse. That's why we regulate them.

How can you regulate coercion by an unscrupulous family member that wants to get hold of the family fortune?
The victim would have been, in essence murdered and he w can the court judge when it is then "your word Vs my word"?
Opens up a big can of worms.
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Jun 2013
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3,674
yeah it is odd to me although i get the abuse concern

in an ideal world it is crazy to keep someone alive who is in the last days of cancer or whatever and they are in pain like we cant even imagine
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Dec 2003
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11,009
Location
Wiltshire
Because it is open to abuse?

You maybe mean mistakes in safeguarding will be made. Some will be saved from early death, while many will suffer unbearable final days that make the most barbaric of humanity look like saints.

Am I cynical in thinking that it's cheaper to keep people alive, suffering, than in is to have safeguarding and humane procedures to end someone's life at their request?
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Oct 2011
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ST4
It's illegal because death is still a taboo within our culture because we're still primitive and superstitious and not as advanced as we like to portray

That's just wrong. Back when we were a primitive culture, when we were still building stone circles for the Gods, death wasn't a taboo at all. It's only in modern times that it's become somewhat of a touchy subject.
 
Permabanned
Joined
28 Nov 2003
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10,695
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Shropshire
The NHS and private health care do not get paid for "caring" for dead people, just the same as I do not get paid for maintaining cars in the scrap yard. There's an incentive for keeping the unviable alive and raking in the dosh. Mea culpa, albeit with inanimate objects....
 
Soldato
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somewhere out there!
Dude, just because your terminally ill father-in-law says (on his death bed) he wants to die doesn't mean you need to start talk about euthanasia. My god get some EQ.

Rather than rant about it on an online forum, why not do something? Get him a tablet, fill it with memories, encourage him to write down his memoirs. FFS.

This is a ridiculous comment to make.

a pallative patient in pain and feeling miserable is not going to want to be doing that. They just want to be comfortable and pain free.

OP has just asked a valid question, which I can assure you a lot of people who are witnessing someone close at the end of their lives will have wondered themselves. (I know this from working with families of palliative patients)

I think you do not have any experience of palliative/EoL processes.

OP, I`m sorry to hear that your father in law is not comfortable. I sincerely hope that something can be done to make him pain free and comfortable.

As for the question, yes i agree that someone of a sound mind, should be able to make a decision to end their life.
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2010
Posts
22,263
This is a ridiculous comment to make.

a pallative patient in pain and feeling miserable is not going to want to be doing that. They just want to be comfortable and pain free.

OP has just asked a valid question, which I can assure you a lot of people who are witnessing someone close at the end of their lives will have wondered themselves. (I know this from working with families of palliative patients)

I think you do not have any experience of palliative/EoL processes.
I certainly have, my father - however I didn't go and post on OCUK about euthanasia referencing in extremely poor taste that the telly hasn't worked in over a year.
 
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