Thoughts on assisted suicide?

[Stoneheart]

Im good, i have greatgrandpas Luger if i need it.

But i also think about my grandma, she is old and i think i will have to drive her to switzerland at some point, and i dont know how to feel about that. I dont know if i can do it. My Greataunt already went down that road, but she did it on her own without leaving the country. She wasnt that close but it still felt very strange.

 

[Queen Elizabeth II]

Yes. Though I don't think it should be easy, and restricted to those with terminal/degenerative conditions rather than things like depression. As unplesant and crippling as depression can be, there's hope for improvement unlike someone far gone in dementia.

It's possible that relatives could encourage older people to kill themselves in order to not "squander" their inheritance upon things like their own care, but this stuff happens already.

While it comes with its own problems like changing your mind, I think an opt in system like with organ donation might be an idea. Make it clear when you're younger and of sound you're open to the idea when your sanity cannot be questioned and relatives haven't begun to swarm for the leftovers.

 

[neverendingmidi]

I just wonder how far down the rabbit hole we’ll go. At first it was terminal illness. In some places now it’s a far more vague “quality of life”, which has led to physically healthy but depressed people using assisted suicide. Why not make it available for anyone with a health issue? You’re diabetic? Here’s suicide! You have a small skin melanoma? Here’s suicide! You’re near-sighted? Here’s suicide! Just think of what you’ll save your family (or government) in care costs!

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

As long as the person in question is old enough and mentally sound enough, yeah, I say it should be allowed. My body my choice right?

 

[Tesshollidaysflupaknees]

I think it should be legal. However, as most people have said you need to be mentally sound enough to make that decision.

 

[SweetDee]

Yes I do. Being mentally sound shouldn't matter.

 

[lil bitch]

i mean, if you're mentally okay, sure. if you get what you're doing it's fine. i don't see why it should be illegal, anyway. if the person at hand wants to end it all, and is suffering a LOT without any signs of improvement, wouldn't you want the suffering to end instead of seeing em go through it more aimlessly? if that person wants to end it for their own good, then let them. that's pretty selfish to me if you keep them alive.

 

[BestUserName]

Autists have a high rate of suicide. Should it be made compulsory for them?

I think euthanasia is a great idea for autists. We have nothing to offer, and no life worth living, and keeping us around in this horrible state of being neither alive nor dead is beyond insane at this point.

 

[Night Owl]

Sure. I can't think of a worse fate than dying in agonizing pain or having your mind slowly deteriorate. I'm still on the fence wherever or not it should be allowed for people who are not in any immediate danger of dying because that can easily go down the slippery slope, but I guess it could give genuinely suicidal people an easier way out without traumatizing other people in the process (a few years back a classmate's mother jumped in front of a train, I can't imagine the aftermath was anything short of horrifying).

 

[Dokkaebi]

I think people should have the right to die under any circumstances. In my opinion I'm a bit of a nihilist in that people should be able to do what they want without imposing their will upon others, because the option is there if they want it. That goes for doing hard drugs, killing yourself, etc. It is truly darwinism at work if people feel the need to blow their brains out. I'm not a completely emotionless psychopath or something, obviously if someone close to me chose to die, I would grieve just like anyone else. I just look at choosing assisted suicide as a less messy alternative to shooting yourself in the head, jumping off a building, etc.

 

[vanilla_pepsi_head]

I believe in the idea, but understand the necessity of limiting it to permanent and/or degenerative conditions. Mood disorders, personality disorders and addiction don't count. If someone in mental anguish wants to kill themselves badly enough they will find a way, even if you're afraid of pain or failed attempts it's not difficult to score a lethal dose of heroin or fentanyl in a shitty neighborhood. If someone wants to die but is too physically feeble to do it themselves and there's no hope of that changing, that's when euthanasia should come in. The hard questions are the ones where the person acquires a disability that is permanent but won't necessarily get any worse - I'll use my personal example: I would want to off myself, no question, if I ended up blind. Sure, plenty of blind people lead perfectly happy and productive lives, but I just couldn't fucking do it. Not worth it to me. I don't feel the same way about ending up, say, paraplegic, but maybe some people do - Should it be an option for them? Who is to say what conditions should or should not qualify? The criteria here (Canada) is that the suffering/decline/disability is both permanent and intolerable to the person, but if they think you might acclimate to the condition I don't know if they try to talk you out of it or just deny your case and make you reapply later. As far as I know anyone with a garden variety mental illness who applies is promptly told to fuck off. I'm not sure about dementia or Alzheimers because by the time those get bad the person usually isn't in any shape to make an appeal.

I don't think it would lessen the need for hospice care or supportive care all that much, it certainly doesn't here. But with so many people in the US facing their family's financial ruin if they get very sick, I think that could influence a lot of peoples' decisions. That is where I think it might be vulnerable to coercion and abuse. It's been legal here for a while but is still really rare because massive unmanageable hospital bills aren't really a thing, and the reality is plenty of old, sick or disabled folks need help with all their daily personal tasks but are happy enough watching TV all day doped up on morphine.

 

[DNA_JACKED]

I think it should be made available for anyone with a degenerative condition or terminal condition. Think cancer, AIDS, ALS, Alzheimers, dementia, Parkinsons, end stage heart.organ failure, ece. Keeping these people alive and in pain, while subjugating their families to financial and social hardship in the name of "fighting" is just plain stupid.

I dont think this would change the interest in curing diseases. Curing would still be socially seen as preferable to euthanasia.

I also think it could be used in certain cases for mental patients. Schizophrenia is a big one. I think if people have along documented history of mental illness with treatments being unsuccessful and said condition is damaging their lives, then a way out should be offered. It's better them killing themselves (and possibly others) in a variety of very messy ways.

I also think there should be incredibly powerful safeguards to prevent any abuse of this solution.

 

[Medicated]

If you're 25 and able bodied do it yourself if you're that into it.

There are any number of websites with detailed and accurate instructions on how to do it effectively, painlessly, and quickly.

Like what? The only two ways I've seen that are (relatively) painless and over 90% effective are a jump from a height of at least ten stories, or a correctly placed shotgun to the head. As soon as you go to other methods, risk of living and braindamage increase, pain increases, panic reactions from you convulsing causing failure in some other way increases.

You'd think something like Drug Overdose would be relatively simple, but due to the tight controls on most of them, most people end up going for over the counter drugs and failing with liver damage or worse after living.

I don't think most people who want to die, want their loved ones to find their body with an exploded skull or maimed and crushed body they have to identify though.

 

[KiwiKritter]

I think assisted suicide shouldn’t be allowed unless the person has a terminal illness. For me its not as much as “there isn’t any hope”
As it is many people don’t want to die a slow painful death. Some people want to die on their own terms and not the diseases, and they don’t want their families last memories of them to see them getting worse and worse.

Also I guess assisted suicide should be available to super old people as well, like if you are 100 years old and just are like “society is horrible, my bones break when I blink I am ao fucking old.” then I mean sure why not I guess.

 

[Hell]

I think it would be a good thing to make everybody come before a properly-appointed board, just as they might come before the income tax commissioner, and say every five years, or every seven years, just put them there, and say: “Sir, or Madam, now will you be kind enough to justify your existence?” If you’re not producing as much as you consume, or perhaps a little more, then, clearly, we cannot use the big organization of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us and it can’t be of very much use to yourself.

 

[ObsoleteMediaFormat]

For it, would get it done myself if I ever lost the use of my body or got alzheimer's. Sometimes death is better, but need to be rules and laws in place to stop anyone from doing it.

 

[Niggernerd]

I'm unsure because I mean it would be cool to have a bro willing to help you be released from this mortal coil but at the same time grow a pair and do a flip off a bridge. So it being illegal would help motivate doing it yourself

 

[Darksy DePhil]

Suicide and Euthanasia are too dramatized. Not every single thing that comes to this world belongs in it.
If anything, these options should be tried far more often.

 

[i440BX]

I am against it. It is an irreversible operation.
I am afraid of the slippery slope introduced by euthanasia. In Netherlands and Belgium they are free to euthanize children, ill people or people based only on some mental disorders.
I am not persuaded by the pain argument. You can offer pain relief in most cases.

 

[Troon_Patrol]

Anyone actually read "Of Mice and Men"? George shoots Lennie in the back of the head with the 9mm Luger to spare him a gruesome death? Its been a few years for me. For all who didn't read the book or watch the movie, as best I recall Lennie is borderline mentally retarded and has a kind heart but is easily confused and very strong for a man, he loves animals but he gets confused startled and reacts violently easily when confused. A dumb whore has made the mistake of trying to act like a dumb whore around Lennie and he kills her as he is confused and doesn't understand her advances, an angry mob forms and they are going to tear him apart probably lynch him. George talks to Lennie, reminding him about a nice place he always wanted to be, it makes Lennie so happy to just picture it and George draws a 9mm Luger and shoots his only friend in the back of the head knowing the last conscious thought was of his "happy place" instead of of being killed by an angry mob for something he would never understand. I read that book as a very young man and I decided that death had a time and place to be "utilized" if the alternative was worse.