<p>Well not just him, but euthanasia in particular. What are you guys opinions on it? Do your opinion differ on the old and the young (babies)? What about the chronically ill but still young (young adults/adults)?</p>
<p>My gut response to this is to say that people should be allowed to do whatever they want. Its their lives to live or end as they please, but I know this isn't a particularly logical statement because of many reasons.
First off preventable suicide, should be, well, prevented. And by that I mean that persons suffering from depression or any other form of treatable mental illness should be given counseling.
But my opinion on those who suffer from non-treatable illnesses that cause intense amounts of pain differs. </p>
<p>In terms of infants the first thing that comes to mind is an episode i saw on Law & Order SVU where this baby had a disease (I don't remember the name) that was incurable, would cause her intense amounts of pain throughout her life, and she would only live to the age of 3. So her parents, rather than let her suffer, had her euthanized. And I can honestly say that if I were in their position, It wouldn't have been easy but I would have done the exact same thing. No child deserves what she would have had to gone through.</p>
<p>For the terminally ill (i.e. cancer patients) I would say the same thing. If a person is in an intense amount of pain and no amount of pain killers or treatment is going to help them, why not relieve them of their misery if its what they want?</p>
<p>For the elderly personally, I see absolutely no reason to make a person live beyond the time that they want to. I know if I were to ever get to the point where I can't go to the bathroom by myself, I can't feed myself, all of my days are spent confined to a hospital bed and I'm basically being kept alive by drugs and machines I would consider my life officially over and done with and I would appreciate my family's support should I choose to end my own life.</p>
<p>(I apologize if I come off as insensitive in anyway, these are just my opinions.)</p>
<p>As you can see, I believe that assisted suicide for medical (i.e. pain, old age) should be legal.</p>
<p>There’s a great movie i watched about this, it was called “You Don’t Know Jack”. I agree with you, why not end someones misery when you can? When someone is in unbearable pain and they’re going to die, why not just put them out of their misery? Its ok for a doctor to end someones life that is on life support (with permission of course) but its not okay for a fully conscious person that is suffering to give permission to a doctor to end his or her life?</p>
<p>Yeah… Kind of obvious the OP was referring to this. Isn’t it a little bit annoying when people bring up something seemingly out of the blue and don’t refer to the event that prompted them to discuss it, as it were somehow intellectually disingenuous that they became interested in something after watching a movie?</p>
<p>Anyway, I pretty much agree with the OP, except this part is hairy:</p>
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<p>Ehh… So if you are 65, healthy, and don’t want to live “beyond the time that [you] want to”, assisted suicide is okay, but if you are 35, it isn’t okay? That is a very ambiguous legal standard there.</p>
<p>Actually I wasn’t referring to that, I’ve never watched that movie in my life. But thanks for deciding what I meant for me.</p>
<p>Actually I was prompted by To Write Love On Her Arms, but as I am referring to assisted suicide rather than suicide because of depression I didn’t find it relevant.</p>
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<p>Good point, let me rephrase. They shouldn’t be forced to live beyond a the time at which they become physically incapable to care for themselves permanently. That was what I really meant anyway, but I didn’t phrase it correctly.</p>
<p>I think that the number of 35 year olds that would actually choose assisted suicide, given the time to think about it and counseling that would be necessary beforehand, is small enough not to give great concern to.</p>
<p>If you don’t mind the perspective of someone in their 50’s and the prior caretaker of elderly parents and a young sister with terminal cancer. I have often wondered how I would feel if I knew the rest of my life would be one of extreme pain and dependence on my family to care for me. After much thought I have come to realize that I don’t understand how we are allowed to put our pets out of misery but not our loves ones. I watched my sister die from the most painful death when she was a young and once vibrant woman. She begged to die and all we could do was sign papers that stated that no life support would be provided. Her death was slow and the final hospitalization was three weeks. She did not lose consciousness until two days before she passed. I am still horrified about how long she suffered, and I begged God everyday to take my sister.</p>
<p>My inlaws both suffered from dementia and they both came to live with us at seperate times. This was probably the most difficult period for our family and yet the most rewarding. It was our turn to give to our family what they had given to us. My in-laws were difficult people in their healthy years but I always recognized that they loved their son, my husband. I questioned everyday why someone who can’t function anymore or even recognize a loved one was still alive. There was a part of me that was angry but a bigger part of me that felt relieved that neither of them was in any pain. I look back on that period of our lives and I realize that it took a toll on all of us. We had little sleep and we were 24hr care givers. I would not recommend doing this to any family who is going through the same thing. My children were all living at home at the time and this was grossly unfair to them. </p>
<p>However, the question is should a person be permitted to end their life? Even after all of this I still have mixed emotions. My sister suffered more than anyone should have had to endure, and my inlaws became children unable to do the most basic things. I suppose the reason this is still not legal is because the thought of allowing someone to make this choice is filled with too many variables. How do we know when the right time really is?</p>
<p>well thank god you’re not a politician, because you’re career would’ve gone done the crap shoot with that quote. There’s a cuddly, ‘foofy’ statement that’s passed around that says something about how every life is precious and priceless. Just because we’re dealing with a small amount of people that will opt to kill themselves if given the chance… that makes it not such a big deal? lol.
And beyond that, i totally disagree that many 35 year olds, contemplating assisted suicide, would choose counseling. Any healthy person seriously contemplating assisted suicide… is probably going to go through with it instead of seek help; more so because of mental imbalance than actual choice.</p>
<p>@momma-three
thankyou for that post. The people who are against assisted suicide need to hear stories like yours. I doubt they’ve ever been in the position where they’ve had to watch a love one suffer or become a shell of their former selves.</p>
<p>Hahaha… So, titling the thread “Dr. Kevorkian” and making it about “Assisted Suicide for the Elderly who are terminally ill” is just a huge coincidence given the movie that came out. </p>
<p>To Write Love on Her Arms isn’t relevant? As in, college kids don’t commit suicide anymore? Oh. Thank God.</p>
<p>And if that did prompt you to write about something related to suicide, you chose not to write about or mention the campaign that prompted you to do write this in the first place and instead focus on a totally different part of the spectrum, because To Write Love On Her Arms has nothing to do with terminally ill people and assisted suicide; it is about depressed people and suicide.</p>
<p>I just did my senior speech on this today.
I believe that assisted suicide shouldn’t be illegal; of course there should be provisions and rules but I don’t think that physicians and others can be accused of murder if they help someone commit suicide.</p>
<p>Wth? first of all, Why would I lie about whether I watched a movie or not? I’ve honestly never heard of that movie (but I just googled it, and yeah, it is a coincidence.) And I in no way said that depressed teenagers is an irrelevant topic, but TWLOHA deals with suicide related to depression and self mutilation, I’m talking about assisted suicide.</p>
<p>And like I mentioned in my original post, I was thinking about a L&O SVU episode. And I entitled in Kevorkian because his work is the most publicized.</p>
<p>I don’t get why you even care why I chose to mention it, “You don’t know jack” about me…</p>
<p>I can’t imagine being the family member here. Someone you love can request assisted suicide and you’ll just stand idly by? </p>
<p>It’s not just Dr. Kevorkian who has to accept the guilt/responsibility. The family member who couldn’t legally stop it will remember this the rest of their life. It’s not just the suicidal person who bears the consequences of their death.</p>
<p>^^But is the family members’s inability lo let go worth the pain and suffering that the actual victim has to go through?
What do you think is worse? Watching someone you love be in intense amounts of pain for extended periods of time? Or watching them go away peacefully and knowing their no longer in pain?</p>
<p>I know its not necessarily as simple as that but I think some people need to understand that there are things in life that are worse than death.</p>