playing god. assisted suicide/suicide.
 

Just curious as to peoples opinions? In 'playing god'. Suicide is taboo I guess. Governments make assisted suicide illegal in most places. It should be an option. The world has already played god to save lives. Premature babies get incubated, some people in comas do too, that's playing god. It seems it is ok to play god to save a life, but to take ones life is a big no-no.

I am in favour of euthanasia.

Me too.

I'm in favour of assisted suicide/assisted dying. I think having a dignified death should be an option, rather than a slow drawn out undignified one because assisted suicide/dying isn't an option.

Fairly recently Tony Nicklinson who was a sufferer of locked-in syndrome, died after his legal case arguing his right to die was unsuccessful. It was a shame that he viewed his life as undignified and had to resort to refusing medical treatment and food after he became ill with pneumonia. Although, cases like his would of course bring up further complications because he was physically unable to take his life as he was paralyzed from the neck down.

Yeah, I'm all for suicide and assisted suicide.

^You're not going to argue? D:

So many threads about this already. With strict criteria, yes, I am in favour.

I am in favour of it.

People should have the right to pick.

I wonder what people think of suicide/attempted suicide for the most severe of mental health problems which are incurable, such as long engrained treatment resistive depression or schizophrenia?

Personally don't agree with it for mental health, but I do wonder what others think, as it could seem a bit rich to excuse people with horrendous physical illnesses from living in pain/distress but force people with horrendous painful/distressing mental health problems to keep living.

Essentially, no. I think for some people, it can be right. If, and only if, they do it themselves. I'd like to see more (and better!) palliative care systems before going down this route.

I don't really buy into the whole "everyone deserves to die with dignity" line, since not everyone gets that opportunity. If you choose to end your life, why should the State condone and even supply it for you?

Lol originally I had a huuuge post explaining how ridiculous the expression "playing God" is, which more or less boiled down to 'Christians toting moral superiority are dumbass'. So pretty par for the course for me. :P

I changed my mind, though, because I don't care for this to because a religious debate on my watch.

Go for it.

But what if, for example, they're paralysed?

It is possible to live with chronic, lifelong, treatment resistant depression. Tough, but possible.
One of the reasons for my chronic illness? The legacy of all the stuff around my premature birth trauma.
Great, huh?
But I don't want to be allowed to die.
Most of the time.
/personal pain.

I am all for assisted suicide, and not just for physical problems. If there is no quality of life, there is no quality of life, be it due to physical issues or mental. Do I think there would need to be restrictions on it to evaluate whether someone is making a rational, well thought out decision versus a rash "I want to die" without exhausting all other options? Yes. But I do think it should be allowed.

I think it would come down to the individual and the quality of life they felt they had. Two people could have the same illness/condition and one might believe they had no quality of life whatsoever and not want to carry one with life, and the other might feel quite differently. So I guess it comes down to personal perspective on your own life and illness/condition.

Everytime I see we post in the same thread you say some pretty interesting things. I would say it as just a term, like instead of 'playing god' more or less then 'people taking control of things that are typically not ment to be controlled'? If that helps to drop the religous out of it. Ants don't put other ants on life support when they get squashed. You follow? I feel religion really has nothing to do with it, other than terminology, but every religon has some kind of god almost.

Turns your unknown expiration date, to possibly a day you choose.

I'm very. 50/50 on this one simply because I believe has the right to die in the way they want on the other hand I believe that there will be using assisted sui just because they are sick of their long term chronic condition. More laws should be in place to protect the elderly and vulnerable.

There are ways. Using eye controls or similar.

Lol thanks I'll take that as a compliment! :P

I understand what you're saying, but all religion aside I still find it silly to say humans shouldn't be allowed to controlled death. History is filled with people taking (and preserving) life in some form or another. Humans have always had the power to give and take life. How does one rationalize the mass extinguishing of lives through war, while ending someone's suffering with their consent even is morally wrong? That's fucking retarded, lol.

You say that religion has little-to-nothing to do with it, but I disagree. It's the same as the abortion debate. The vast majority of those against euthanasia or abortion find it morally objectionable on the grounds that the right to take life belongs only to God.

What's wrong with knowing the day you die? Giving you a heads up might make you really enjoy life if you know how long you have left. There's a lot of fiction out there based on that premise.

I find it frustrating that some Christians are very anti-abortion and euthanasia but have no qualms with people who've broken the law being executed. It feels that their view on life, and the value of life, can be a bit pick and choose sometimes, just seems odd to me.

I think it's a shame that euthanasia is allowed for animals to end their suffering but not for humans to end theirs.
I think knowing when you're going to die would also allow those close you to to adjust, say goodbyes etc when the time comes.

I think everyone should have the right to die.
To the point it actually makes me really angry. I'm sure some of you have heard of Tony Nicklinson case and his fight to get the right to die. I know his family are continuing with this, and i seriously hope they can get the law to change.

My best friend is going to end up, both physically and mentally incapable and the thought that she will have to live and be nothing because of this law, kills me. This illness is not her fault, she should have the right to die, when the time comes and the illness starts to over take!

Everyone already does. Just not necessarily in a medically controlled environment. Considering the NHS is financially stretched as it is, what treatments are going to lose out to fund euthanasia? Or would you make it an entirely private service and therefore exclude the poor from "dying with dignity"?

Even if he went to a Dignitas clinic, Tony Nicklinson wouldn't have been able to die, because he couldn't do it himself.

No, which is why the law needs to change. He could tell people he wanted to die, but instead of letting that happen, he'd planned to die a painful death of not eating or drinking! Thankfully it didn't come to that.

So you think it's fair for say someone with his condition, to carry on living a life like that? My friend for example has Huntingtons disease. Is it fair, that she will turn into nothing, that she will physically not be able to do anything for herself? That mentally she will not be there at all? That she wont be able to talk, or even eat. It's wrong. So wrong that they will do nothing. If they were animals, they'd put them down without batting an eye lid.

I don't think it should be private, no. Yes the NHS is stretched but i believe it's something that really should be in place. Obviously there needs to be a lot of laws in place for it to work. But there should be something, for people who end up in horrible horrible conditions where they can end it.

This is what gets me about the euthanasia debate,the government and nhs already have a version of it up and running,yet when someone asks about making euthanasia legal they go on and on about how there's no way they will.
Liverpool care pathway.
Nhs use it more often than you think,mainly on older people with the families permission. So you have the choice to end your elderly relatives suffering using this pathway but if you didn't know about it and tries to go to court it would be classed as euthanasia and therefore you'd get turned down!

(My bold) Life isn't fair. It never has been and never will be, and to use such emotive language doesn't help matters. Is it fair that someone dies by the hand or poor actions of another? No. But it happens.

The problems with the 'strict conditions' that would surround this procedure, is that no one can ever agree upon what they should be.

Actually he did resort to refusing any food or medication when he developed pneumonia, so it did come to that in a sense, although the pneumonia sped it up.

As said, life isn't fair, disease and suffering isn't fair, but it happens. I think cases like Tony Nicklinson's do serve to ensure the debate continues, as well as other people who've spoken about it, for example Terry Pratchett who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

I'm not an expert on the LCP, but I thought it was more about accepting death and making the patient as comfortable as possible, as opposed to actively doing something to end the person's life. I am in favour of some form of a assisted suicide or euthansia in theory; I'm just not sure how it would work.