Jul 8, 2009 -- 5:59PM, Americafirst wrote:

If people want to kill themselves, they can easily do it on their own, without assistance.  The only point of euthenasia is to enable a third person to assist in the suicide.  The problem with that is that it can be too easy to cover up a murder with this type of pretext.

This is an entirely 100% false statement, a bald-faced LIE. If this were true, there would be no need for euthanasia to be legalized and no point in having this discussion in the first place. 

The people who might be eligible for euthanasia are not the able-bodied, that's the point. 

Ever hear of Don Cowart a.k.a. Dax? How would you kill yourself if you were completely blind, had all ten fingers burned off, and couldn't walk on your own? Guns require a finger to pull the trigger, pill bottles require hands to open them, jumping in front of a semi truck would require being able to locate one, not to mention opening a door knob or walking out the door. He did not live next to any convenient cliffs or bodies of water. How is a man who for a long time couldn't even take a piss himself going to kill himself without assistance? 

Or what about late-stage Lou Gehrig's disease? How would you kill yourself if you had no voluntary muscle movement south of your nose? Even if you could get some pills and get them up to your mouth without assistance (impossible), you couldn't swallow them. Much less lift a weapon, or even a plastic sack to cover your face with. 

I could give many more examples, but I've already proven your statement wrong. I doubt you will be able to come up with some brilliant plan of suicide for people in either situation, since many very intelligent and motivated people in those and similar situations, often thinking about the problem for months on end, could not. 

 

Considering the restrictions that would (and rightly so) be put in place, disguising murder as legal euthanasia would be nearly impossible. It would require several documented requests by the patient to the doctor, separated by a certain period of time to help ensure it was a stable, ongoing wish of the patient. It would require psychological analysis by a third party to prove the person was competent and under no duress. Certainly, it would be rather difficult for someone to fake all of this, especially after a murder, and impossible if the other people involved (even supposing the murderer was one of the medical staff) were doing their jobs properly. 

If you're under the impression that I could walk into a sick relative's house and give him/her lethal drugs and then claim it was euthanasia, you're very misinformed. I would go to prison for murder EVEN IF it actually was intended as a mercy for a dying loved one. Under no proposed plan would anything that uncontrollable or undocumented ever be legal. 

~Stalker

Jesusfreakgal,
    I understand what you are saying, but when people make decisions about euthanasia they have to make these decisions on the information avaliable to them. Not a what if its not the correct diagnosis, what if they may lead an ordinary life,etc. We cannot predict the future and have to rely on what is in the present to base our decisions on the matter.

Tolerant Sis -
I agree with you that it is the individual's decision to make, and nobody else's.  I think that, where a person with a terminal illness is concerned, or even just somebody who doesn't want to live anymore for whatever reason, the person should be allowed to make whatever decision s/he wants.  It's his/her body, after all.  I don't think that suicide, assisted or not, is in any sense of the word a sin.

jesusfreakgal wrote:

First I have a question: Should euthanasia be legalized? Why or why not? What, in your opinion are the advantages and disadvantages of legalizing it?

For me, I do not agree with euthanasia. Even though I disagree with it, I think that if someone wants to be euthanized and has a good reason for it (for example they have terminal cancer and are/ will suffer before they die because of it), then that is their choice and I wouldn't stand in the way of it. BUT legalizing it could pose some problems, in my opinion. Even if it was only legal for people with living will (which outlines the course of treatment that is to be taken by caregivers) who stated they wanted euthanasia (or no treatment in certain health/ medical situations), things might become tricky. Someone might get misdiagnosed with something terminal, such as ALS and decide to be euthanized before the disease really takes effect. It could also happen that the law(s) relating to euthanasia could evolve, to include various other situations in which euthanasia is legal. This could create situations where people who otherwise would not have been euthanized, would be euthanized (such as newborns with down syndrome who stop breathing). Imagine Chris Burke (the actor who played Corky on Life Goes On) had an added medical condition at birth that required immediate treatment, and his parents had chosen to do nothing (euthanasia)? If you think about how he turned out, that would have been a very bad decision. I remember watching a recent episode of ER in which a woman came to the hospital because she was having troubles relating to her cancer. Later in the episode it was discovered that she infact did not have cancer, but rather had a treatable infection and she would make a full recovery. Has such a person gone the euthanasia rute, it would have been a big mistake.  There is also a case I read about in a book where a patient with terminal cancer needed immediate attention. Her regular doctor was unavaliable so another doctor came to her aid. Upon his arrival, the sick patient said "lets get this over with." Instead of asking her or her mother (who was with the girl at the time) what was meant by what the patient said, the doctor went and got a syringe of medicine that was leathal enough to kill. He then gave it to the girl and she died. I believe that if euthanasia was legalized, more situations like this could occur. Doctors would have patients say things that sound as though they were asking for euthanasia (without directly asking for it), assume that euthanasia is what the patient wanted and then have them euthanized without making sure that is, infact what the patient wanted. I don't know why, but I believe it may be more likely that a doctor would make sure euthanasia is REALLY want a patient want before euthanizing someone if it is illegal rather then legal (maybe because they might get into additional trouble if the person had actually not wanted to be euthanized but was mistakenly and this was discovered). Overall I believe that making euthanasia legal would pose a lot of problems. Although at first I believe the law(s) would allow for only safe euthanasia (that is, only euthanasia of those with a living will stating that is what they want), I do believe eventually things might breakdown to allow for euthanasia of newborns born with birth defect(s) or of persons with significant mental handicaps (such as those wheelchair bound, and who cannot talk or really think for themselves) or the like. It could even, IMO come to the point if it is legalized where it would either be hard to keep doctors responsible euthanizing people who may not have truly wanted it in the first place or to keep doctors responaible in cases where the answer (did the patient truly want to be euthanized or not) is unclear.
JFG

i agree that the option to help someone end there suffering is long over due in our society.

no one should be made to suffer or be made to live with suffering because some else thinks that that is the moral thing to do.

it is my personal prayer that all that would be made to experience what they require another to live with.

that being said- if a believer is willing to accept a doctors diagnosis as some thing more powerful then Our Fathers  Power to cure it - then that believer needs to ave there "personal believer radically "adjusted and without delay.

there was a time - about 2000 years or so ago- non-bible true faith in Gods Truth made all disease even death in the human being run.

maybe one day soon the bible will be put away and the power in that level of faith will return to us.

I am in favor of voluntary euthanasia for patients whose diagnoses suggest a terminal illness.  No one should be forced into it, obviously.

My husband and I and my eldest son all have living wills, and all of us, after watching the horrific leave-takings of some beloved family members, have decided that if we ever face the same or similar situations, we would want to be able to choose our own endings.

It is in fact nobody else's business.