The right to death?

[mina.magpie]

So pretty-much the whole world recognises the right to life, if only through lip-service, but there's no debate around it.

By contrast, the right to die is mired in bitter controversy, and flared up again last week around Eluana Englaro, an Italian women in a vegetative state for the last 17 years, who finally died on Monday.

Italian woman in right-to-die debate dies

Personally, I believe that my right to decide my own fate is sacred, even if that means me deciding to die, whether it be in suicide or euthanasia, even if that decision is disagreed with, and I struggle to understand how others can justify preventing that, especially if I'm terminally ill or just not there any more. I have a ... for lack of a better word, "death pact" with people I'll not name directly whom I've asked to help me die with dignity if I'm ever in that position, and I've promised them the same, and it just saddens me that we have to resort to this kind of ... subterfuge to claim this right.

I don't know, perhaps we are wrong, and we are committing some heinous sin or criminality, but against whom?

I know that suicide has been discussed at length around here, and I think pretty-much everybody knows where everybody else stands, but the question of euthanasia is a different one, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

Mina.

[TamTam]

I do believe that euthanasia is a right.  We euthanize pets when they are in pain, why can't we do the same with humans especially when humans are able to specifically request it?  There are certain circumstances where I would want to be able to die relatively peacefully, rather than be kept alive ad nauseam merely to obey somebody else's idea of morality.  For example.. if I ever get Alzheimer's.. it's over.

[Janet_Girl]

I have a medial advisory with my HMO, Kaiser.  If I am terminal and can not speak, No life support at all.  And Oregon is a right to die state.

[Sephirah]

We can't choose how we come into the world, I think we should be able to choose how we leave it, unless someone we don't ask inadvertantly chooses for us.

[Alyssa M.]

I think that suicide and extreme life support both, in different ways, desecrate life. We are each given, without any deserving, a span of days. When we cut them short, there is a kind of ingratitude in that rejection. When we try to artificially extend them, simply to rack up more days rather than more life within those days, there is different kind of ingratitude. It's like getting a gift and looking for the price tag. It is the basest way to show your appreciation.

I know that these are harsh words, and I don't intend them to judge anyone else. But they are how I see my own life, and why I find both suicide and the empty shell of life support to be so tragic.

[Sephirah]

Hypothetical question: what if someone who wanted to be euthanised, could donate an organ that would give life to somone who was already dying (their heart, for example)?

[Dennis]

Hypothetical question: what if someone who wanted to be euthanised, could donate an organ that would give life to somone who was already dying (their heart, for example)?

The two aren't mutually exclusive. I believe strongly in my right to choose my death, and in organ donation. If euthanasia is legal, it can be done without damaging organs.

When my father was dying, I had to make the choice for him about removing things that could prolong his agony. I chose to remove them and I choose to think that was the right thing to do. He was in absolute agony and the painkillers did little for him. It would have been easier to have him conscious for a few hours, talk about it with him, and then choose to end his life. Instead he had three weeks of suffering that he shouldn't have had. It was the most painful thing I've ever had to go through, watching him during that time. He was either unconscious from the meds, or conscious but drugged and in pain. A few months later, I happened to minorly injure myself while I was looking at a mirror (he and I look very much alike). The flinch I made and saw on my face was the pain face I'd seen on my dad. It brought it all back for me. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, either being the one suffering, or having to watch someone you love suffer.

Dennis

[iminadaze]

Soo let it be, pro-death for me   

Nicole

[Pica Pica]

I once had  a tutor who said that a coma was not a terrible way to be alive, but a great way to be dead. He said that with some of the machines they have, when you wake up, your muscle tone is better than when you went in...He was one of those eccentric tutors, taught me nothing, nice guy.

[Alyssa M.]

I once had  a tutor who said that a coma was not a terrible way to be alive, but a great way to be dead.

It is, however, most definitely not "our most modestly priced receptacle."

[Natasha]

if we have no right to die then it's not really our life, is it? one of the fundamental rules of property is that the owner can do with it as he pleases, including disposing of it. regardless of material possessions, one's life is the one thing we all own. so yes, everyone should have a right to end their own life. without such a right, we have no ownership of our lives and are no better than a slave.

[RebeccaFog]

I once had  a tutor who said that a coma was not a terrible way to be alive, but a great way to be dead. He said that with some of the machines they have, when you wake up, your muscle tone is better than when you went in...He was one of those eccentric tutors, taught me nothing, nice guy.

If he was so into it, he should have found coma survivors and compiled some proof that it's so great.

A regular coma isn't the issue, it's more is the person in extreme pain with no chance to heal, or is the person braindead?

Dieing is as pointless as living. Better to have never been at all than to tear yourself from your mother's womb just to later have to decide if it's time to go.

[JD]

Dieing is as pointless as living. Better to have never been at all than to tear yourself from your mother's womb just to later have to decide if it's time to go.

If life and death really were both equally pointless, it wouldn't make a difference wether you have never lived, or ended your life yourself. But I disagree with that. Call me hedonistic, but just because something is pointless, doesn't mean you can't enjoy the time you're spending with it.

If someone's terminally ill, they should be able to choose wether to live on or not. I think there was this famous case about 2 years ago, where an old lady in the UK wanted to die and her case got rejected in court. Since she wanted to die at home and not use the euthanasia in a different country, her husband finally put her to rest. He got charged with murder. That just seems wrong to me...

[Miniar]

I'm firmly of the opinion that people should have the right to die if/when they so choose. I think it should be treated as a basic human right.
The closest thing we have to it is the DNR thing (do not resuscitate) which is "good" but I believe we should be allowed to make a legal statement with a lawyer present "I of sound mind hereby.... " and then be quietly put to sleep and (should you so choose) then be harvested for organs.

[sd]

If someone wants to live, I have no problem with it, if it is within reason. If you are brain dead, why are we keeping your body alive though?

If it was me, pull the damn plug.
If I will never be the same, never have an even remotely normal life, what is the point? Staring out a window, listening to the machines making me breathe, drooling on myself for days on end, that is not life. In order to live, you need something to look forward to. Looking forward to death is not living.

[Miniar]

If we had a pet cat/dog/animal of your choice, and you loved that animal with all your heart, but that animal becomes sick/injured with something that "WILL" kill the animal after a prolonged period of immense suffering, the Humane thing to do is to let the animal go.
Why don't we have the same mercy for each other?

I had a cat. She was beautiful, intelligent, a great character, truly the queen of the house. We realized she was loosing weight more than was "okay" and took her to the vets. Her liver was shot and she was basically starving to death because it was fubaring her entire digestive system. We had the choice to take her home and wait until she actually did "starve to death", which in my mind would have been a truly torturous thing to do to the poor thing , or to have the vet put her to sleep, end her suffering and let her go. Ofcourse we picked the later. Out of love and respect for the cat.
I truly hope that if/when I am in a similar position to her, that my people love and respect me enough not to want to keep me alive and in immense pain until I starve to death or equivalent there of.