Why is assisted suicide classified as "playing God" but life support isn't?

Question

If someone wants to die, and they are of sound mind, then who has the right to stop them?

Sure they could go the DIY pfo, but for some people who are suffering and have their family supporting them, they want to die with more dignity than a shot to the head.

Answer 1

I think that life support is also "playing God," to an extent. But it favors extending life, so we allow it.

Life support is a generic terms these days, and includes measures not formerly considered heroic, such as feeding.

Get a living will. You can ask for pain control, even if it kills you. No one will stop you. It is fairly routine these days. The key is pain control, rather than deliberate suicide.

Answer 2

I'm going with: States' Issue -- NOT the federal govt's. The last thing we need is to hand D.C. a power that could easily permit them to take lives with impunity. Of course, a State is just as capable but State govts are smaller and more easily and quickly voted out. Some reasoning: The "assisted" part is the stickler. No govt entity can watch a person 24/7. So if that person intends to end his/her own life, it can't be stopped without more people standing guard than those determined to die. The area is grey enough to question whether it's manslaughter, murder 1, murder 2 or something else, altogether. Therefore, it appears to be a States jurisdiction. There should be some legal avenue whereby a loved one could provide necessary means for a painless, peaceful exodus. I even believe that, if a person over 21 wishes to donate all his/her organs so that others may live, has expressed this intent in writing consistently over, say, 18 or 36 months and accepted all available alternatives, counseling, medication for depression, etc, that they shouldn't be discouraged. Even scripture supports that as "no greater love". .

Answer 3

Assisted suicide is different than a plain old suicide because a medical doctor has taken an oath to preserve life and to do no harm. Assisting a patient in killing themselves runs counter to the doctors' Hippocratic oath. It is not simply a matter of an ill person acting alone as it involves a medical professional assisting in the suicide. However, I would grant you that in many cases life support is "playing God" and perhaps should not have been administered in the first place because there is/was absolutely no hope of the patient ever recovering as in the Terri Schiavo case.

Answer 4

Well the difference is a person who needs a feeding tube and other life support mechanisms is basically dead. You are using machines to keep the person alive unlike assisted suicide where the person is of stable mind and thought. Also to turn it around a bit isn't it playing god by using machines to keep someone alive who couldn't be alive under their own will. That is how I would make a difference between the two.

Answer 5

Because assisted suicide takes money away from hospitals and the AMA, while life support makes millions for hospitals and the AMA. Like everything else, it's all about the money. You don't really think the AMA cares about you, do you? You are a dollar sign to them and that's all.

Answer 6

Good point. My mother-in-law was on life support for over a month even after the doctors had declared her brain dead because my sister-in-law (who had power of attorney) refused to turn off the machines. It seemed to me (and my husband and the rest of the family) that she was playing God. That was the argument that finally won her over and got the machines turned off.

Answer 7

A person should have a right to die.

If a person suffering an untreatable affliction, in pain and has no quality of life and wants to die and go to heaven to meet their maker – would they not be pursuing happiness?

Life, Liberty and the "Pursuit of Happiness”!

Answer 8

The problem I have with assisted suicide is that it leaves the doors open for too much leniency. Before long, folks will be killing their loved ones who have become burdens to them, and others will choose suicide because they don't want to be a burden or live with an affliction. Haven't we seen this happen with the abortion issue? Abortion is readily available to anyone who doesn't want the burden. Assisted suicide has the potential to become a Pandora's Box.

RE: Schiavo, he made his decision because he was banging this other chick for years and had 2 kids with her. He tried to hide behind the agenda that Terri wanted it this way...

Answer 9

Both are "playing God". I'm agnostic, so these God arguments mean nothing to me. A sound of mind person can commit suicide, why should they need help?

Answer 10

Because the "Christian" "conservatives" said so. Notice how they did everything they could, legal or not, to keep Teresa Schaivo alive when she'd been brain-dead for 10 years.