Would you advocate for a more liberal assisted suicide law in this country like in Belgium? (crimes, party)
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I don't think my fear is unreasonable claudhopper, nor unrealistic...I mean just look at all the victims of society already who were tried, convicted and sent to jail....only to years later be found innocent...Why do you blame an elder for "allowing abuse", and not complaining about it, yet see it as alright that someone else takes his life? Don't you think that this same abused elder could also suffer an unwanted death?(especially if he's been declared incompetent and has lost his power of attorney) ..At first it would be " a team of doctors", but for how long before that changes. Once the foot is in the door (so to speak) that "door" could end up wide open.
In your scenario, the elder just continues to be abused. Who would want that?
My position Annie53 is this: Elder abuse is rampant, and all too ofter perpetrated by those closest to the victim. Victims are usually, and frequently unwilling to complain about the abuse because they`re embarrassed or fearful. Legalized assisted suicide invites the ultimate elder abuse....and that is my fear...not just for the elderly but also for the disabled............Over 30% of Euthanasia Cases in Belgian Region Did Not Give Consent: Study
That is my answer to your question Annie53...can you understand a little of what I'm saying?..Do you think my fear is completely irrational?
I agree, your fear is not irrational if you wish to live no matter what quality of life you have. But that fear could easily be relieved by providing an advance directive stating that under no circumstance do you EVER wish to be euthanized.
Yes, elder abuse is rampant......especially in nursing homes.....where we warehouse people waiting for them to die.......and make big money doing it.
The actual caregivers are overworked and underpaid.....which inevitably leads to substandard care or outright abuse. I have seen this happen personally and there is not much you can do about it in many cases.....unless you are very, very wealthy.
My biggest fear? Having a stroke or becoming unable to speak for myself....or kill myself.....and being stuck in a nursing home and kept alive like an animal in a cage against my will. Why is that not considered abuse?
Why should I be kept alive, in a gilded cage, against my will, so the upper echelon of the nursing home industry can live like kings?
Do you think my fear is irrational?
I should be able to sign a document requesting euthanasia under certain circumstances....it is MY life....and I should be able to choose how I want to live and how I want to die.
Starman....murder is not just taking the life of someone against their will, it is: "the intentional and unlawful killing of a human being"....
You can define it however you will, but it doesn't change the fact that murder is illegal and wrong because you are violating someone else's right to live. You have taken away their choice in the matter. That's why it's illegal. You are violating someone else rights.
How hard is this to understand? If the person says "please, take my life. i'm tired of living," It's not murder. Legally, maybe, but morally and ethically? No! You're not taking away their choice in the matter.
My position Annie53 is this: Elder abuse is rampant, and all too ofter perpetrated by those closest to the victim. Victims are usually, and frequently unwilling to complain about the abuse because they`re embarrassed or fearful. Legalized assisted suicide invites the ultimate elder abuse....and that is my fear...not just for the elderly but also for the disabled............Over 30% of Euthanasia Cases in Belgian Region Did Not Give Consent: Study
That is my answer to your question Annie53...can you understand a little of what I'm saying?..Do you think my fear is completely irrational?
Well, take a look at the rest of the articles on this website. Click on the other articles. Some are in English. You don't have to read the language to figure out that it is a pro-life one and is going to be biased against assisted suicide, abortion and any other situation along those lines. I for one take what their statistics show with a large grain of salt.
While I respect your opinion, I do not see this study as necessarily being legitimate since it is in a place that has a viewpoint to push.
The point is there should be NO killer Konraden...how you choose to commit suicide should be your decision, and yours alone, and you don't need a doctor to give you pills to do the job, they're everywhere, and if you feel you want some help, get your best friend, or a relative, not a doctor.
Pills are everywhere? I had a hard time getting a sufficient amount of pain pills from my own doctor before I had back surgery and I was in constant pain. Most doctors just don't hand them out like candy despite what people are led to believe.
Tell me, how is someone who is bedridden or in their 80's going to go to some back alley somewhere to pull off a drug deal, or break into someone's home to steal them, or rob a pharmacy?
What are they supposed to do? Ask their son, daughter, husband, wife, friend to go and illegally procure some drugs for them? What if they get caught? Should someone who is desperate to die be forced to coerce those who care about them to committ a crime? That is the answer? Really?
Suicide lives in a gray territory of legality. It's classically illegally, but because it's unenforceable, no one is really prosecuted for it.
Your slippery slopes aside, Washington's law has a means to control for the unsound mind. A formal request has to be made--twice, and two doctors have to sign off on it. People can already persuade others into killing themselves, and it doesn't require legalization of assisted suicide to do it.
Not really. People are sent to jail for attempted murder, etc., those who attempt suicide and fail are never sent to jail for attempting to committ a crime.
Not really. People are sent to jail for attempted murder, etc., those who attempt suicide and fail are never sent to jail for attempting to committ a crime.
Interesting.
Attempted murder is an inchoate crime and punishable. Attempted suicide (as far as I can tell) has no such criminal laws against it.
I am of perfectly sound mind, perhaps more so than the many people who think that it's perfectly okay and acceptable to crap on or use others to get ahead, yet if I were offered a painless, guaranteed way out right now, I would take it. I'm not irrational, nor is my deep-down desire to just call it time spontaneous. I have felt this way for many years and have tried the conventional methods, yet I have no quality of life at all and just exist, despite not suffering from any tangible terminal illness.
The only thing that makes me scared of willfully committing suicide is failure, or extreme physical pain. If you are warped enough to think that fear alone is a good reason to keep me here, there is something wrong with you. I know that I'm not alone either. There are many people like me, just existing with no hope of change or improvement because it simply isn't in our chemistry to fight for a life we will never have, being forced to live among people we don't like, in a society that we don't want to be a part of, tortured with feelings of inadequacy, sadness, anxiety and repressed anger
Assisted suicide should be an option for all, even those suffering from incurable mental illnesses. What irks me is that here in the US, many states grant serial killers a peaceful death via death penalty, or laws are in place to allow people to defend their homes with deadly force. So bad people get to die via lethal injection (which is probably not even a punishment to them), yet those of us who have committed no crimes and haven't hurt a soul are forced to exist because of "morals" and the so-called "sanctity of life" and are demonized and called cowards if we do find the strength to finally pull the trigger. Oh and let's not even get started on war and the massive amount of money a so-called "Christian" nation invests in advanced weaponry, which is ultimately designed to kill and maim.
Anyone else see something wrong with this picture, along with the sheer, blinding hypocrisy of it all?
What's the difference between killing myself and hiring someone to kill me?
Killing yourself OR attempting to kill yourself is a "private" act that doesn't necessarily go against "public policy" and law in this country sets "public policy". That explains why attempted suicide is not prosecuted unless a special test is met. That is that in the action of attempting to kill yourself you injured or killed another ad you survived. In that case the appropriate phrase that would papply I would think would be that old reliable..."HERE COME DA JUDGE!".
Hiring someone to assist in that task makes of the act itself a now "public" action, for having involved another party, and as such is covered and prosecuted by appropriate law.
Assisted suicide is not murder because the person WANTS to die.
That may be so in Australia, but in America the 'wanting to' has naught to do with it and you could be doing that head-slapping in a prison uniform for a lonnnng time! You could ask olde Dr. Death himself, but he's dead[1]
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You can stop the Stabbing now Abby
