Should assisted suicide be legal (for everyone)?
- Thread starter dowie
- Start date
Soldato
So you want private companies to deliver the process, but who takes care of the paperwork, assessment, and tangential treatment for the people who don't immediately utilise the service?
Soldato
Yes, in medical cases.
I "lost" my grandad to Alzheimer's 4 years ago, it had been caught 3 years earlier so we all had time to enjoy him until the horror started. The family buried him only a couple of weeks ago.
Those 4 years were nothing but traumatic for everyone involved. I can see the toll it's taken on my family, I could see the pain and suffering in my grandad's eyes when I visited. If my grandad had the choice while he had his mind, he would have agreed to such a mechanism that would have avoided all the suffering; instead he didn't have any choice but to go through the process of losing the ability to talk, walk, control his ablutions, remember who people are, where he is, or what he'd done in life.
Those who say no to this are denying people dignity. To end it on their terms. To have some control when it's all but taken from them.
Sometimes if it's the one path remaining - as such if all else has failed and there's no coming back from an illness (mental and physical) - then it shouldn't be blanket outlawed.
Those 4 years were nothing but traumatic for everyone involved. I can see the toll it's taken on my family, I could see the pain and suffering in my grandad's eyes when I visited. If my grandad had the choice while he had his mind, he would have agreed to such a mechanism that would have avoided all the suffering; instead he didn't have any choice but to go through the process of losing the ability to talk, walk, control his ablutions, remember who people are, where he is, or what he'd done in life.
Those who say no to this are denying people dignity. To end it on their terms. To have some control when it's all but taken from them.
Sometimes if it's the one path remaining - as such if all else has failed and there's no coming back from an illness (mental and physical) - then it shouldn't be blanket outlawed.
Last edited:
Suspended
I think you've actually posted what I feel about it quite well with "lost". Unfortunately with neuro-degenerative diseases like this, though the body lives on - the person who was passes long before and it's nothing but pain and hurt for them and those that know them.
same as above if my dad was offered this he would have done it instead of going the way that he did (am not gonna go into details) which was just horrible to witness i mean jesus even the doctor handed us a dnr letter to give to the paramedics that come for him that night. we got a week of him at home (think they sent him home to die) before that night arrived which was nice though. it's a sad state of affairs when my mum and i agree that it was 'for the best' that he died and didn't need to suffer anymore. man am welling up just typing this.
Why not?
It's still too raw for me to go into the level of detail you described in your post for the experiences I've had recently. I couldn't agree with you more.
Soldato
Because there are very bad people out there that could get in to the mind of a person and make them do it.
I thought that would be obvious. No really.
Showing your ignorance again here deuse, this isn't some random thing you do like walk in to a clinic and ask for it. It took my father two years of assessments and trying every other option in the book before they signed it off.
Soldato
Surely you wouldn't get insurance because... It's suicide? And also because it's not an untimely death in any normal sense.
I do know of a case where the family still received a payout after suicide but it was a long way into the policy. It would be pretty unfair to not pay out for a sudden, unpredictable turn in mental health culminating in death. I think it's normal to have a period where a policy won't pay out for suicide but once that's elapsed they will.
I mean if you took out a policy and topped yourself a month later then it'd definitely look dodgy and I think they'd be well within their rights to not pay out.
Caporegime
Similar situation here, that was back in 2001 and my mum has never been the same person since. She would visit him in the care home every day and as a young kid I would tag along with her most of the time. At 10 years old I didn't fully understand the situation but I can remember the pain in her eyes every time we left the place. His life savings were pretty much obliterated within 4 years due to the care home costs and he'd had a solid career in the merchant navy.
My most vivid memory is of him sitting there making animal noises for an hour straight just rocking backwards and forwards.
Well as I'm sure you know it's not as simple as that. People do not or will never have complete authority over their own lives it's just an illusion people like to fantasise about that they do.
Is it really your life to end?
Then make it so the act itself is administered by the person who wishes to end their life, i'm sure there are plenty of ways to design a system whereby the choice is unambiguous. Then it won't be all that different to when someone starves themselves to death.
Caporegime
Yes for all the right reasons but a tiny bit of no for all those that will be coerced into it for the wrong ones.
It has to be done by themselves it is morally corrupt to force someone else to do it, They sometimes have no choice or they lose a job? So if you force someone else to kill you that is murder. What if there are consequences for that?
Design a system where it is eye or speech operated and the syringe is prefilled and if the voice prompt or visual promt says do you wish to end your life you simply look at yes or answer yes. You do it five times and it will adminster the dose.
But getting insurance payouts and forcing someone else to do it is insane, I would refuse to do it and i would never do it to someone either. Thats why life sucks the end is horrible for everyone death is a horrible thing.
Sometimes it's the life that's the most horrible with the death part being the end of a period of needless, inhumane suffering. What's worse, murder? Or purposely keeping a human being in a perpetual state of pain, confusion and hopelessness?
I'd be down to sign some papers today to give my family the right to end my life without repercussion should I ever reach that state. **** the insurance money, it really isn't worth it after what I've seen.
Soldato
- Joined
- 21 Jan 2010
- Posts
- 3,817
Like many people here, I've seen what end of life care can be like, and recognise some people might prefer the choice.
It would have to be in a strict legal and regulatory framework- I worry that a decision like that needs to have support and evidence in place.
It would have to be in a strict legal and regulatory framework- I worry that a decision like that needs to have support and evidence in place.