Euthanasia

I don't think the government should be able to control this.

Lol, my small government views are showing :O .

 

Well, I doubt highly that someone who supports voluntary euthanasia would necesarily support involuntary euthanasia. Come to think of it, involuntary euthanasia is just murder.

I am a full supporter of euthanasia. I believe that we should have the choice of a painless death if we so wish, since people who are denied that choice will only try to kill themselves anyways, and that usually ends up being a lot more painful than if a doctor were to do it.

One thing I find interesting is that, in places where euthanasia is allowed, the total number of people who commit suicide each year and the total number of people who opt for euthanasia each year, when added together, are less than the number of people who commit suicide each year in other places. People argue that allowing people to have the option of euthanasia would make them more eager to use it, but the reality proves otherwise.

I agree, though only because I think the euthanasia should not even be a moot discussion.

 

Voluntary, doctor-assisted euthanasia is fine by me as long as the doctor is willing and the person is of sound mind.

Involuntary euthanasia, i.e. ceasing life support of a person who is incapable of ever regaining consciousness or sentience, I'm still in support of but a little less enthusiastically. If a person is never going to "live" again, they're going to lay there in a hospital bed for the rest of their days, ought not be bounced around by tax dollars and used as paperweights for hospital equipment and space that could be used for the living patients who could make real use of those resources.

 

We passed the Death with Dignity Act in Oregon which legalized doctor prescribed euthenasia. There was alot of controversy when this was on the ballot but I rarely hear of it anymore. I think its a good thing.

 

Now granted, it's been a while since I've heard two words about this, but as far as I know, isn't legal involuntary euthanasia extremely rare? Last I knew, whoever was in charge of the patient's care (generally the family) had to provide evidence that euthanasia was in the patient's wishes, while they were still conscious. There was some famous case I seem to remember that had a lot of controversy over that very issue, and whether or not they were able to preform the euthanasia depended on how strong the evidence was that this was what the unconscious patient wanted.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_suicide

Looks like Oregon and Washington are the only states that allow it.

 

You have the right to

 

I support a person's right to make such a decision for themselves, and it's not a state secret that if I'm ever made into a vegetable, I'd prefer if someone just helped me along rather than letting me linger.

Steam Giant, I think the case of which you're thinking is the Terry Schiavo case from a couple of years ago. She had been in a persistant vegetative state for almost a decade, and her husband wanted to remove her life support. Her parents wanted to keep her alive, and many court battles ensued. Eventually, the SCOTUS declined hearing the case, which meant that her feeding tube was removed and she was allowed to die.

 

I agree that if the person is in extreme pain with out hope of recovering and they will die a horrible, painful death, then euthanasia is alright.

However, to just do like the Nazis did and kill those that weren't of the supreme race is wrong.

I believe it should be the person/person's family's choice. It shouldn't be disallowed because some dude in a suit disagrees with it.

 

I think that we should have the right to die with dignity. For me it is all about quality of life, not quantity. The next question though is how to regulate it so that the system is not abused!

 

Voluntary euthanasia, where the person themself makes a decision to die with dignity and it is overseen by a doctor, I agree with.

Involuntary euthanasia, where somebody OTHER than the person makes the decision, and the person is still alive (which I see as the person able to stay alive without the help of machines OR needs the machines to keep them alive so there is still hope for them to wake up) then that I don't agree with.

I've made it a point to tell as many people as I can what I want in certain situations. I don't want a Teri Schiavo case where nobody knew what Teri wanted and everyone made the decision for her.

 

i really don't have a strong opinion on this, people should do what they gotta do.
Besides, most people who attemp suicide and fail aren't tried for it, only when someone who needs help with killing themselves do people get punished. Wrong much?
(Sea Inside quote thing i believe, its an interesting movie)

 

I have a hard time finding my views on this.. In a way I reckon it'd good for people who are going to die a painful death to be able to go peacefully, but I'm not sure about non-medical reasons.

 

Firstly, involuntary euthanasia is murder. I think we can safely assume that pretty much everybody fundamentally opposes murder.

We've spent a lot of time on this in med school school, and I've come to this conclusion: It's a personal decision. No one, not the family, not the doctors, and certainly not society or the government can possibly know what it's like to be in the shoes of the terminally ill patient. Therefore patients should have this option and be able to decide for themselves. There need to be safe guards. Mandatory psych evaluations to rule out depression, med consults to ensure they understand their condition and the like. But, it should be up to the patient.

The wider MD community continues to be opposed to this. Some of the reasons are valid, fear of abuse, patient depression, etc. Other reasons aren't, our own feelings of failure, etc.

This is a really interesting topic, and we can talk about different situations if people want, the difference between a coma and brain death, Oregon's current law, issues of patient competency etc.

But the short answer is that none of us knows how we'd feel in this type of situation until we're in it. So no one is in a position to judge the decision of a fully competent patient.

 

I honestly don't see a problem with doctor prescribed Euthanasia. Non-medical cases would have to be very heavily regulated. Involuntary, if there is enough medical evidence to say so-and-so will be in a vegatative state for the rest of their life I would support 'pulling the plug'.

Just as long as we don't go as far as the movie Soylant Green I think it would be okay but that is on an entirely different end of the spectrum.