What thoughts do you have on euthanasia?

Question

In human terms, is not euthanasia a preferred and valid alternate to the artificial and selfish attitude of "life at all costs" now generally practiced?

I posted this question as it was proposed to me.

Min- You told an insightful story about your niece.

Answer 1

I have a hard time seeing this one in any thing BUT personal terms.
I have a niece who when she was 18 had a horrible accident when she passed out at the wheel of her car, on the way home from an all-night rave. She was thrown from her car,and was dead, and was recussitated a couple of times at the scene and in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. She lay in a coma, for weeks. We were told she was likely to die at any time, and that if she lived she would probably be a vegetable. She had a brain injury, and the subseqent swelling caused oxygen flow to her brain to be shut off.
Knowing all this, the doctors STILL aggressively fought to keep her here. Brain stents, anti swelling meds, ICU nurses hovering...she recieved very good care...and she came out of that coma, not all at once,but painfully slowly. Unable to speak, unaware of herself as an adult woman, wearing diapers and fighting her trach and feeding tubes so much that she had to be tied to the bed.
it took weeks for her to SPEAK. She had to learn to walk again...to feed herself, to use a toilet...and she didn't come all the way back.

You can have a conversation with her now, she sounds singsongy and childlike, and it takes a few minutes before you realize that there's nobody home. She has frontal lobe damage - and the part of her brain that understood right and wrong, deferred gratification, and appropriate behavior is gone forever. After they saved her, they dumped her into a system that didn't know what to do with her. She has a SS check, and a crack habit now. She has had 2 babies.The first one died in my sister's arms after about 24 hours.The second one was adopted and is living somewhere in england. She appears to be normal; my niece's unstable behavor had landed her in jail and she was drug free for that pregnancy.
My niece is out there,somewhere, sleeping with men for drug money, and will probably produce more crack babies.

medical advances are just wonderful...if used in wise ways...BUT the idea that all life, at ANY cost, is sacred and MUST be maintained, is not .

Answer 2

I believe it is a valid option for people who are suffering and want to put an end to it all. I dearly hope that if I ever get to that state, it would be legal for me and/or someone else, to help me to leave a miserable existence and move onto the next world.

This does not mean that I think all sick and suffering people should be euthanized - there are many means of relieving pain which can be used, but if the person is suffering incurable pain, and life has no value to them, then I firmly believe that euthanasia should be made available. It is legal in some countries, and I do hope that my country will recognise the rights of people to pursue this practise in the future.

I abhor the common modern practise of keeping people alive through artificial means, simply because those means are available.

If people want to talk about God's will in this context, I believe that "letting nature take its course" is God's will, and that keeping people alive is flying in the face of his will.

I work in an aged-care facility where several people are being kept alive through means of artificial feeding, and these people are just "bodies in the bed"...kept alive because their families can't face up to the inevitable. I think this is a detestable practise which should not happen to elderly people under any circumstances.

Answer 3

As a Catholic I don't believe in the use of artificial means solely for the purpose of extending life. But I do have a problem with "euthanasia" as it is practiced in some countries and advocated in others. That's because of the huge gap between the theory and the practice. Pain, even severe pain, can be controlled with drugs. So, the presence of pain to me isn't a good enough reason to want to "shuffle off this mortal coil". And euthanasia isn't suicide. It involved the active participation of another human being to end one's existence. No matter how you slice it or parse it, that's murder.

Answer 4

I believe in euthanasia for people in severe pain, or for people who no longer have a quality of life that they feel they can or want to live with. I do not believe people should be kept alive for extended periods of time, I simply can't imagine anyone wanting that.

A living will gives us the right to express our wishes as far as being kept on life support. My husband and I both agree that 3 weeks is the limit for us... anything beyond that isn't reasonable.

I also (and I'm going to catch flack over this) think that people who are sentenced to life in prison should be given the option to opt out by euthanasia.

I know that suicide is a sin, it is considered the taking a life, according to the Bible. but somehow, in my heart I don't believe this to be a cold hard fact.

Answer 5

Euthanasia will KILL YOU!!! I really
dislike that word.
To be serious, I have seen many people with terminal illness that linger
and are in extreme pain. Lord, what a
subject...but anyhow, they reach a point where if they could choose to be put to sleep, I'm sure they would rather. Of course, this could always be misused by care homes, etc. but there
must be some way given for the poor
old ones who are in extreme pain and
only want OUT.

Answer 6

It should be available to those individuals who want it but after all treatments have been looked into. I have Fibromyalgia. The first 2 yrs I had it I hurt so bad that I considered suicide. I finally got a very small amount of relief with a ''cocktail'' of pain meds and muscle relaxers. For the last 9 yrs I have been using a medication that has allowed me to stop taking prescription pain meds for my fibro. There was one woman who was in the news several yrs back and she also had Fibromyalgia and committed suicide. It is such a shame that she never discovered the treatment that I and so many others have found. The treatment is not one that every doctor would prescribe or that all doctors know about or believe in. We often have to take responsibility for our own health care and not leave in the hands of others.

Answer 7

I think it should be a personal choice. Do not resuscitate orders are in a lot of files at the nursing homes. I can also understand the need to die with dignity and not suffer pain when there is no hope. Having been through mom`s suicide I can truly understand the reason for wanting to go, but that by no means makes it easy for those left behind.

Answer 8

This is a great question. Less than a century ago, people died of diseases at much earlier ages. Now, technology has stepped in and given us much longer lives. This is usually a good thing when the quality of life is worth it.
After watching my dad go through dialysis, suffer from crippling pain, and dealing with his inevitable decline, I wondered how HE felt about it. We sat down and talked and he explained that he was staying alive because of his wife. He didn't think she could handle it if he died. He looked me in the eye and said "This isn't living. If it weren't for her, I'd quit fighting it".
Why is it that we can put our pets down because we don't want to see them suffer? It's because we love them enough to be humane. But if a human has no hope, and is suffering terribly, we have to sit back and watch doctors try to save a life, regardless of the amount of pain and suffering the patient will have to endure.
I'm not saying I'd want to be the one to administer the lethal dose but I can really believe that sometimes technology just prolongs the dying process.

Answer 9

As I get older I realize that quality of life differs from person to person.
What I may consider an inadequate quality of life, may not be someone else's definition.

They are finding now that they can bring people who are in some lighter forms of vegetative states back with drugs like Ambien and they don't know why.

I think though it's each individual's right to choose , if they are terminally ill, when they want to die and that should be stated equivacably in a living will or if you have a gp who will discuss it , with him and one's family , so it's made abundantly clear what procedures you will or will not submit to and what your criteria of quality of life is.

Answer 10

So many excellent stories especially for the advocacy of allowing each person/family to make a decision. My sister and I had a pact not to let each other linger. Sadly she is gone. I'd personally prefer to bow out of this life if in a vegatative or demented state.