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Should we legalise euthanasia?

Convalescent

We should let anyone (except children and the seriously mentally ill) choose to die.

why not the mentally ill too? I bet many want to.
I'm a big supporter of euthanasia. I would rather end my life than seeing my days out as a vegetable.

Reply 21

Elles

17

I voted "No (primarily for non-religious reasons)". I've posted in here before about why, but summary:

- Suicide is legal in this country - if someone wishes to end their own life they're free to do so.

- Refusal of medical treatment, even if life saving, is legal in this country (providing the patient has the capacity to do so) - so in this sense 'passive' euthanasia can already occur.

- Palliative care is much improving these days (although won't have direct exposure to this until next year in my course - so definitely reserve the right to change my mind!) - so I think the focuss should be on symptomatic relief rather than just hastening death (not sure whether I think this from a 'sanctity of life POV' or just perhaps more selfishly what I'd imagine I'd feel comfortable doing in a professional role).

Related to this - medical intervention can already be given that might be reasonably forseen to hasten death (i.e. increasing morphine doses for symptomatic control of pain), as long as this is not the primary intention (obviously can be open to interpretation).

My reluctance to support a change in the status quo here for active euthanasia, I think is the slipperly slope argument - as Lib North mentioned with the potential for abuse. I can see how in certain very clearly defined circumstances you could consider it the ethically correct thing to do... but not sure this would outweigh the potential for abuse. :s-smilie:

Reply 22

AverageGuyOnTheStreet

9

I'm really undecided here. I guess I have no objection to people ending their life if they are that desperate but I believe very strongly that only God can decide when we die. I've never had a terminal illness so I believe that I am not actually entitled to judge as I really don't know what I would do in that situation.

Reply 23

Thud

17

i can think of nothing worse than getting into the kind of state where you can't even kill yourself to get out of it. I think it's disgusting that the state can keep people alive like this against their will.

Reply 24

Agent Smith

11

We'll make a Libertarian of you yet. Relatively speaking.

Reply 25

Thud

17

me?

**** no.

.....it'd be legal under communism.

Reply 26

Bexxxx

14

Sometimes people are in situations they never see themselves coming out of, and so they wish to end their lives. What happens if the situation is short lived and they turn out okay? I have a close friend whos dad requested his life be ended, then a week or so later he started recovering and is now fine.
Until she told me her story, id always been for euthanasia, it certainly made me rethink it! I think if it was to be legalised but with conditions, like suffering a terminal illness, it could work.

Reply 27

Cushti

10

Yes- nobody has the right to dictate to another whether their life is worth living or otherwise.

Reply 28

Convalescent

blackswan

why not the mentally ill too? I bet many want to.
I'm a big supporter of euthanasia. I would rather end my life than seeing my days out as a vegetable.

I was originally thinking that they wouldn't be able to consent, but yes, you're right, we should let the mentally ill die too.

Reply 29

Square

13

Thud

me?

**** no.

.....it'd be legal under communism.

Under Communism, life expectancy probably wouldn't allow most people to live to an age where Euthanasia is considered.

Reply 30

AverageGuyOnTheStreet

9

Square

Under Communism, life expectancy probably wouldn't allow most people to live to an age where Euthanasia is considered.

You don't have to be old to consider euthanasia, just terminally ill.

Reply 31

Thud

17

Square

Under Communism, life expectancy probably wouldn't allow most people to live to an age where Euthanasia is considered.

original.

Yes.

The Remmelink Report-- On September 10, 1991, the results of the first, official government study of the practice of Dutch euthanasia were released. The two volume report (6)--popularly referred to as the Remmelink Report (after Professor J. Remmelink, M.J., attorney general of the High Council of the Netherlands, who headed the study committee)--documents the prevalence of involuntary euthanasia in Holland, as well as the fact that, to a large degree, doctors have taken over end-of-life decision making regarding euthanasia. The data indicate that, despite long-standing, court-approved euthanasia guidelines developed to protect patients, abuse has become an accepted norm. According to the Remmelink Report, in 1990:

2,300 people died as the result of doctors killing them upon request (active, voluntary euthanasia).(7)

400 people died as a result of doctors providing them with the means to kill themselves (physician-assisted suicide).(8)

1,040 people (an average of 3 per day) died from involuntary euthanasia, meaning that doctors actively killed these patients without the patients' knowledge or consent.(9)

14% of these patients were fully competent. (10)

72% had never given any indication that they would want their lives terminated. (11)

In 8% of the cases, doctors performed involuntary euthanasia despite the fact that they believed alternative options were still possible. (12)

In addition, 8,100 patients died as a result of doctors deliberately giving them overdoses of pain medication, not for the primary purpose of controlling pain, but to hasten the patient's death. (13) In 61% of these cases (4,941 patients), the intentional overdose was given without the patient's consent.(14)

According to the Remmelink Report, Dutch physicians deliberately and intentionally ended the lives of 11,840 people by lethal overdoses or injections--a figure which accounts for 9.1% of the annual overall death rate of 130,000 per year. The majority of all euthanasia deaths in Holland are involuntary deaths.

Falsified Death Certificates ---In the overwhelming majority of Dutch euthanasia cases, doctors--in order to avoid additional paperwork and scrutiny from local authorities--deliberately falsify patients' death certificates, stating that the deaths occurred from natural causes. (19) In reference to Dutch euthanasia guidelines and the requirement that physicians report all euthanasia and assisted-suicide deaths to local prosecutors, a government health inspector recently told the New York Times: "In the end the system depends on the integrity of the physician, of what and how he reports. If the family doctor does not report a case of voluntary euthanasia or an assisted suicide, there is nothing to control." (20)

http://www.internationaltaskforce.org/fctholl.htm

I do think it should be legalised, just not in hospitals by doctors, there should be a seperate industry.

Should we legalise euthanasia?

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