Hey, c’mon. You’re British: you probably have a ton of Moorcock books with the original British titles (do you have any idea how long it took me to find a copy of “The Transformation of Miss Mavis Ming”?), and you probably have a much better collection of Torro/Fanthorpe than me. So I’m still perfectly willing to give the future Widow Wright a waterbed and a buck a book.
Back on topic though, Steve articulated a lot of the reason that I’m uncomfortable with this whole idea is what seems to be the lack of legal rules/guidelines for the physician. And I have a major problem with doctors getting involved in any capacity.
About 11 years ago, my grandma was told that she’d to have a quadruple bypass and that it was risky for someone as old as she was (80 or so). She decided she wanted to take the risk as she had a lot to live for. The doctor started actually arguing with her, telling her that she won’t have a good “quality of life”. :rolleyes: She lived almost 11 years more, saw the birth of three great-grandchildren, several weddings, one bar-mitsvah, one bat-mitsvah, etc. I posted a long rant about this a while back
I really, really don’t want doctors to have anything to do with this process.
I also want any sort of assisted suicide to have the requirement that the person sign a living will in advance or at minimum, sign a living will that guarantees that the plug won’t be pulled if unconcious.
From the home of Dr. Kevorkian (MI), we have a new case, here (read it quick it’s a local paper and they don’t keep stuff up very long). A mother has been charged w assisting a suicide. Her teenage son and his wife (also a teen), who had a baby, had some unspecified legal issues (possible criminal charges) going on, his mom encouraged them to commit suicide, picked up the drugs, took them to an abandoned farm, watched as they took the drugs and then left them to die. The wife didn’t die, was found stumbling around.
Anyhow.
are there non religious objections ? you bet. Case above outlines what the slippery slope is (from dieing slowly by centimeters to ‘living in pain from acute but non fatal disease’ to ‘gee your situation sucks’ ).
However, I don’t see the above as ‘typical’ or even likely (especially since this woman is only the second person to be charged w/assisting suicide, Dr. Jack of course was first)
There’s some strong objections from the general ‘persons with disabilities’ community, fearing that people will be urged or will on their own feel guilty as burdensome to their families.
BUt I believe that these can be handled by the suggestion above, to require the person directly make the request, through the courts.
In the case of the terminally ill, this can actually be a self-contradictory phrase. While they live, the people whom might benefit from an easy end would be unhappy. Which of these rights should they self-alienate? Life, or happiness? For this reason alone, I think the Preamble To The Declaration Of Independance to be irrelevant to the discussion at hand.
Disclaimer: First, I’d like to talk about my own situation. I’ll get to discussing terminally ill patients soon.
I went through a couple of very painful, suicidal stages in my life. As someone who narrowly escaped making this horrible mistake, I beg you all… please, please, PLEASE don’t think that you’re helping anyone by helping them to commit suicide.
People going through great pain or suffering sometimes go through momentary phases wherein they lose all hope. I know; I went through many such phases. I desperately wanted to die, and in fact, one person even encouraged me to kill myself. I’m glad that I did not follow his advice, and I’m glad that some caring individuals talked me out of it instead.
Now I realize that the situation is different for terminally ill patients. However, as hansel said, legitimizing suicide for the terminally ill would indirectly legitimize suicide for the emotionally distressed. I speak from first-hand experience – many suicidally depressed people would see their situations as being no different from a terminal illness. In addition, I suspect that many terminally ill people go through momentary phases wherein they want to die, but change their minds later on.
I’m for it, but I kinda agree with those who say that there are some problems with having doctors performing assisted suicide. I’d like to see a new career become available, the licensed mercy killer. They would be required to have psychological, medical, and legal training and would be required to make sure the candidate really wants to die and that all the legal problems were taken care of, and would administer the lethal dose of drugs, but would not be bound by the hippocratic oath. The job would probably require travel as it’s unlikely you would have enough clients in one area to make a living - either that or it could be something you do to supplement your income, like getting licensed as a notary public.