chinese crested

I saw Sir Terry Pratchetts documentary on assisted suicide on monday - its the first time the BBC has shown the peacefull ending that those who travel to dignitas are unable to have in their home countries. I know what my own wishes would be given certain circumstances. I guess a lot of us may think 'if I was a cabbage with no hope of coming back'.... One interesting fact Terry Pratchett found out. Even if you make the decision 'in the event of' prior to losing your faculties, the fact that you have lost your faculties means you can no longer agree with competency, and they can not help you because that would be murder. You can have no release if you wait too long with illnesses like dementia.
Do you think assisted suicide should be a bit like being caught with just a small spliff in your posession - worthy of a telling off but not serious enough to make you a criminal?
We consider it a kindness to our pets, sparing them a last few days or weeks of suffering. Are we less compassionate to people who are suffering and who wish to take the final exit?
Heres a clip for your consideration -

MSD

We treat our pets better than we treat our elders and terminally ill. I don't know that I'd ever exercise the option if I were still competent to make such a decision, but I've made it clear to my family that if I'm incapacitated and given a few months to recover with no improvement, that I do not want to be kept alive by machines when I as a person am gone.

I find that many people are uncomfortable when I state it, but given what I know about the nature of life, not only is a fundamental foundation of free will the right to end one's own life on one's own terms, if free will exists then suicide is the only truly pure expression of that free will.

chinese crested

One of my ffriends in her eighties is currently breaking the law as she has a banned american book on euthanasia. I dont know anyone who has worked in elderly care who wants to go into it. The saddest bit I think, is without the information they need, people can cock it up and end up worse. The body is just a shell. My father had a few strokes that left him - like a person trapped in an empty falling down house silently staring out of the windows with no hope of escape nor of recovering even the ability to find words. I know they were all in his head along with other stuff, with the man he was - but he could not vocalise. He was PTS at the end, but not when he had asked to be helped. I think the decision has to be yours, like when you look at an old dog sometimes - you just know they have had enough of fighting a battle they can not hope to win - they want to go - usualy.

noodle

There's a difference between euthanasia, assisted suicide, and rigt-to-die movements. This frustrates me to no end that people neglect to make and/or acknowledge the difference. You have to go through a hellovalot of evaluations before a doc can give you meds that would allow you to off yourself in Oregon... possibly Washington and I think Texas, but they were going to repeal it. Assisted suicide is when someone pushes the button for you when you want them to. Euthansia is what they do in war times or at the animal shelter... the being really doesn't have a say so.
Euthanasia is really the only thing I have an issue with unless there is no other alternative but pain and suffering. I'm totally for AS and I have someone in my life that has promised to help me if I ever need it, and I will reciprocate if the situation is reversed. And I whole heartedly agree with the right-to-die movement and upon licensure, would be involved with the evaluation process to allow people that right and personal freedom to end living with a terminal illness using prescription medication that would ensure that there is no foul-up or chance of survival.
But, then again, I'm a hospice social worker with kids.
And believe me, even kids ask for help for it to end.

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chinese crested

Thats a hard job you do noodle. My sister (nurse) said the hardest wards to work were those with terminaly ill children. One little girl was on so many drugs, she would see birdies on the windowsill - she liked watching them, and the nurses would like play along with them being there. What had realy got to my sister one day was a temp nurse was on and said to this dying child 'what birdies, there arent any birds on the windowsill'. Child was crushed. Hurt my sister.
I know I wont end up like my dad, because I already have planned for that eventuality coming my way - scarey bit is knowing strokes and such can suddenly leave you unable to open a pill bottle - Like yourself noodle, I have promised a friend should her life become unbearable - she is in considerable pain - old age. Trouble with england is, assisted suicide risks imprisonment for the helper, and there are no counties - which I think of as the equivalent to your states, that you could travel to. I think maybe I renmember it happening in australia - but that was probably not condoned by the legal system. Even talking about assisted suicide is illegal - heck - suicide is illegal - wonder how many failed suicides have been prosecuted for their efforts? As youre there with a handfull of pills or a sharp knife, I guess the though of prison is supposed to be a deterrent.

MSD

The idea is that people who attempt suicide can be given court-ordered psychological examinations and treatment, not to deter.