What do you think about Assisted Suicide?

Question

and should it be banned totally? Only allowed if you are going to die anyway? In constant pain with no end in sight? Any of above and physically unable to do it yourself? Allowed to anyone?

I admit I am not sure where I stand on this one. I would think it is the person's right to end their life....as for the doctor's end I dunno...seems like something that could be f'd up very easily..especially by the HMO bastids.

But I know if I was in constant pain with no positive improvement possible, unable to perform the deed myself (or just wishing my family be spared the gruesome scene of self-inflicted) I would want medical help to just end it all.

effin ken> LOL it does seem like they will do anything for a buck..start setting stuff up like McDonalds. I'll take a #4 hold the penecillian and if I can have a side of morphine..make that a grande morph..and a 12 pc Percoset..that's it

JK> Do you think though that your faith should deny someone not of your faith the right to end his/her life or help someone who has no chance of living for long without intense pain?
Do you think there is a distinction between removing a respirator and providing a painless OD if both result in death?

Got some great answers here on both sides...very thought provoking.

Answer 1

This is a great ethical question - my response is another question; why is it the government's job to prevent people from engaging in mutually agreed upon acts?

I feel a personal connection to the issue because my mother has terminal pancreatic cancer. She is still feeling pretty good, but knows in the next few months she will start feeling intense pain throughout her body.

What will she be to do? She knows that for the rest of her life (however short that may be) she will be in excruciating and debilitating pain, losing all of the dignity and power that she has spent her whole life accruing. If she (as she has already stated as so) decides to move on, is she to clumsily toss down a bottle of sleeping medication, hoping that she doesn't simply go into a coma, or have an allergic reaction to the meds, or in any way just make her already horrid situation any worse?

If a doctor (as all doctors should) feels that, with her consultation, it is in her best interest to no longer have pain, I'm puzzled as to why the government (or anyone, for that matter) would chose to step in the way and envoke their own moral decisions on those whom they have never known, met or understood.

I see this hideous situation coming about, where everyone in my family is sitting around my mom's writhing body, and we are pleading to have to doctor help her into her next stage, and he says that he can't. Then we ask him why, and he points to some guy standing on the other side of the hospital door grasping desperately at a cross, and the doctor says "because he says so."

I'll get off my soapbox now...Thanks for being my therapist. :)

Answer 2

I think it should be legal in all states and not just Oregon. I would have some clauses though. You need to be terminally ill or in physical pain. If you are just depressed, you should have to try treatment for at least 6 months first to see if it will work.

The decision should be made ONLY by the person that is ending their own life. The Doctors should be able to set up the machine but YOU have to press the button yourself. If you are physically unable to press the switch, it should require a court mandated "executioner" to press the button. Family should NOT be allowed to do it or you can get a slippery slope of jerk off kids killing their parents because they don't want to have to deal with them anymore. And yes.... It does happen. Unfortunately there are a LOT of ungrateful jerks in the world that don't give a care about their parents and just want the money.

Answer 3

I hear ya, it's a pretty touchy subject. In general, I try to keep politic's out of a doctors' ethics as much as possible. I find that I trust Doctors to make ethical decisions on a case-by-case basis, more than I trust politicians to do the same. But that said, it's got to be some pretty remarkable circumstances to make that okay in my mind- many people live years after doctors have told them they'd die. I understand the desire to die with dignity, but considering that our bowels release upon death, I don't think that's a "right" that any of us can claim or reasonably expect. Death just isn't dignified.

Then there's the fuzzy line of letting someone die naturally, or prolonging their pain longer than their body could last on it's own. I don't envy a doctor who's got to look a patient in the eye, and make a decision either way on this topic.

Answer 4

The basis of the hippocratic oath is do no harm - or the modern version is not play at God. I think every human being has the right to be free of fear, pain, and loneliness. I think you have a right to choose your own beliefs. I think people who choose suicide are either not firmly in control of their mental faculties or suffering - both of which should have steps taken immediately to end the problem BUT not by killing them. I cannot support an intentional third party ending to someones life. That is how I define the word murder. If I am fired as a pharmacist for not issuing the morning after pill am I also fired as a physician for not killing you?

Answer 5

I feel like this, anybody can assist in suicide. The Government, and they have the strength to do it. The State, they listen to the people and almost always the people win. The Locals, doesn't happen on schedule but it's always justified. We've allowed big brother to step into our private matters, and the cost for seeing someone you love suffer, saying out of their own mouth, that the last part of the road is unbearably painful and to see someone in this condition is gut - wrenching and sad. The family is left to feel useless, oh and there is the chance you'll get arrested for murder. Your NATURAL IMPULSE is to help them , to stop the suffering. I think that every one involved should talk to a priest and see where it takes you.

Answer 6

I think it should be LEGALIZED.

My Mother did it as she suffered through the last of Lung Cancer in 1991.

My Father put into place a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) order as he entered 5 months of hospitalization following an infection due to a faulty heart-valve replacement.

AMEN to screwing the HMO's PPO's and Fed Government... I also want the Death Tax repealed

Answer 7

The gov't doesnt seem to have a problem with the death penalty, why should it have a problem with assisted suicide? I'm with Red_F on this, he said it so well. I think the gov't needs to butt out of the medical field, like everything else, they are experts on nothing. If someone wants the end to come sooner than later, why is that anyone's business but their own and their familys?

Answer 8

Nobody should be allowed to play god. I think hospitals do a pretty good job of easing the patients pain. Basically they try to ease your pain with drugs and remove your assistance like respiratiors. I think doing anymore would be crossing the line. It is part of my faith that a person should not take another life or their own. It is definetly painful to see someone you love suffer.

Answer 9

why should right wing jesus freaks tell me I have to live with pain? pain that eats away at you night and day? what do they know? self righteous sobs! once your on the machine all your doing is making money for the hospital. this is why you need a living will so that when your time comes YOUR WISHES are what matters.

Answer 10

I definitely think it should be legalized. After all, if a person has a terminal illness that is causing him/her constant suffering, he/she should have the right to decide whether he/she wants to continue living in misery.