Assisted Suicide

[LiberalJunkie]

?

[DC Al Fine]

Way too many issues here with consent for me to support it.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Morally I have some objections to it, but if the consent issues are hammered out, I'm okay with it being legalized.  I don't think that just anyone should be allowed to partake in it, though.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

100% support

[John Dibble]

Way too many issues here with consent for me to support it.

Whose consent? Assisted suicide implies that the person dying has consented to it. It's not the same as pulling the plug on a coma patient - this is a situation where the person in question is lucid and can indicate intent.

[Antonio the Sixth]

VERY STRONGLY support.

Forcing someone who wants to die to remain alive is one of the most morally abominable things I can think of.

[Donerail]

Assisted suicide certainly. Euthanasia has more troubling elements, but no problem with assisted suicide.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Assisted suicide certainly. Euthanasia has more troubling elements, but no problem with assisted suicide.

Assisted suicide is euthanasia.  And I oppose it.  I understand why some people might want it, but there's always treatment options available (i.e. therapy, ECT, etc.)

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Assisted suicide certainly. Euthanasia has more troubling elements, but no problem with assisted suicide.

Assisted suicide is euthanasia.  And I oppose it.  I understand why some people might want it, but there's always treatment options available (i.e. therapy, ECT, etc.)

Yes, sure, I can watch my body rot away from chemo and radiation?  Thanks but no thanks.  You can do it, don't ask me to.

[Donerail]

Assisted suicide certainly. Euthanasia has more troubling elements, but no problem with assisted suicide.

Assisted suicide is euthanasia.  And I oppose it.  I understand why some people might want it, but there's always treatment options available (i.e. therapy, ECT, etc.)

No, it isn't. Assisted suicide is helping someone die by giving them the tools to do so; euthanasia is where the doctor does it.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Assisted suicide certainly. Euthanasia has more troubling elements, but no problem with assisted suicide.

Assisted suicide is euthanasia.  And I oppose it.  I understand why some people might want it, but there's always treatment options available (i.e. therapy, ECT, etc.)

1. You don't even realize that there is a difference between the two.
2. Some treatments aren't always the best option for people just because you say it is.
3. Given that you seem to know little to nothing about this issue, why do you have an opinion on it?

[Likely Voter]

I support for same reason as support legal pot, prostitution...people should be able to do what they want with their own bodies.

However there is also a fiscal reason to support it. A huge percentage of the cost of healthcare is keeping people alive for the last month or two of their lives. Given the choice I think many would forego what is often a very painful process that has only been made possible due to modern medicine. The 'death with dignity' option could possibly be one of the ways we can help save medicare without higher taxes or gutting benefits.

While some would demagogue this as 'government mandated death' it would obviously only be based on patient consent from those who are deemed in their right minds or via living wills.

[DemPGH]

Support completely. Conservative Big Government does a lot of harm here on a personal level, because assisted suicide being illegal means the government is forcing a person to lie in a hospital bed and just suffer, or be dulled with enough painkillers to dumb a rhinoceros, with something awful. I wonder if they think it's part of God's plan?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The last two posts in this thread accidentally explain why I'm very much extremely uncomfortable with the idea.

[DC Al Fine]

Way too many issues here with consent for me to support it.

Whose consent? Assisted suicide implies that the person dying has consented to it. It's not the same as pulling the plug on a coma patient - this is a situation where the person in question is lucid and can indicate intent.

Sure, but we are living in the real world. To cite the Netherlands, plenty of people wind up being euthanized without their consent.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/02/26/but-rick-santorums-sorta-right-about-dutch-euthanasia/

Among other things, the article lists
1) Patients being euthanized when they could not possibly consent
2) Euthanasia regulations not being followed completely 41%
3) Infants being euthanized

Would you feel more comfortable about torture in America if Britain did it with strict regulations that were followed less than half the time with the odd tortured baby making it's way in there?

Euthanasia is a classic example of DC's law of unintended yet completely foreseeable consequences. Despite claims that assisted suicide will never lead to involuntary euthanasia, it appears that proper procedure is the exception, not the rule.

[John Dibble]

Way too many issues here with consent for me to support it.

Whose consent? Assisted suicide implies that the person dying has consented to it. It's not the same as pulling the plug on a coma patient - this is a situation where the person in question is lucid and can indicate intent.

Sure, but we are living in the real world. To cite the Netherlands, plenty of people wind up being euthanized without their consent.

Assisted suicide and non-voluntary euthanasia are not the same thing. One is where the person in question is making a conscious choice to end things, the other is where someone else is making the decision for them. Medically the process is essentially the same, but legally they fall into different categories.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Choice is not always such a simple thing.

[minionofmidas]

Not, alas, that unlikely to decide to "want to die" to save your badgering offspring bother and money, rather than to save yourself pointless suffering.

Incidentally, the current de facto situation here in Europe where if you really want it, you can take the effort of transporting to Switzerland to do it there... seems to be working (preventing such abuses more effectively than they could be under any legal framework) for us non-Swiss Western Europeans.

[minionofmidas]

And of course there's also the whole field of what you might call 'passive euthanasia', ie not doing medical procedures necessary to keep you alive for the time being or at least to have a chance to do so, at the patient's behest. The legality of that is certainly a good thing.

[DC Al Fine]

Way too many issues here with consent for me to support it.

Whose consent? Assisted suicide implies that the person dying has consented to it. It's not the same as pulling the plug on a coma patient - this is a situation where the person in question is lucid and can indicate intent.

Sure, but we are living in the real world. To cite the Netherlands, plenty of people wind up being euthanized without their consent.

Assisted suicide and non-voluntary euthanasia are not the same thing. One is where the person in question is making a conscious choice to end things, the other is where someone else is making the decision for them. Medically the process is essentially the same, but legally they fall into different categories.

Yes, but I have yet to see a case where the government has done a good job of seperating the two. Ergo, I cannot in good conscience support it.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

If one wants to kill themselves, they should just drop a toaster in the bathtub. I support legalized assisted suicide, though I can't say I like it too much.

[politicallefty]

I support it, but the laws need to be very carefully crafted.

[Globus Cruciger]

Very strongly oppose. I think murder is murder, regardless of if the victim consents or not. Now I must add that I don't think it's wrong to withdraw medical treatments; we don't have an obligation to go to unnatural lengths to prolong a suffering life. But directly and actively killing a patient is always wrong.

[Darth Maul]

Strongly Oppose.

[dead0man]

very strongly support