Euthanasia - for or against?

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Because euthanasia is such an emotive issue I wouldn’t be surprised if this has come up before, but I think it's worth starting a thread on it anyway. Personally, while I couldn’t imagine assisting somebody in killing themselves, I think if I loved somebody very much and they were in a great deal of physical or emotional pain which hadn’t been curable despite exhausting every possibly avenue, I might just be persuaded to keep my mouth shut while they went off and killed themselves. I realise this may be an unorthodox view, but really, how could I possibly dictate to somebody I loved how much pain they should suffer before it was to end?I'd be interested in hearing other people’s views on this.

In theory I am for it, but in practice I'm against it.If people feel their quality of life is not worth living they should be entitled to die. But too often people aren't in the right state of mind, it is too open to people pressuring them to do it etc.

Yes, when you're talking about mentally ill people it is a different matter alright. I certainly wouldnt go along with its being legalised anywhere.

I'm against it. Human life from youngest to oldest is the most precious gift you can get. If the person is going through critical physical pain then ok. Not in a barbaric way something more peaceful. If it's emotional pain what they need is a friend.

there was a huge thread on it during the Terri Schiavo case.

In theory in for it but I don't think It would work well in real life.I think people should have the right to end their own life is they are in intense pain etc and will definatly die anywayhowever, it would be too dificult to control and could get out of hand. People could kill a sick person and claim it was euthanasia and the person asked them to or the 'killer' felt that that person had to be put out of their missery and get away with it.

Euthenasia is another one of the "Pandora's Box" issues of our time...right up there with abortion, fetal stem-cell research and, especially, cloning. Why? Because of what they will lead to down the road. Once you find a way to justify euthenasia, it's only a matter of time before control of it is wrested away from us for some reason that will make sense to the majority of the public. Can you say "Logan's Run"?

> "Pandora's Box"

pandora's box, pandora's box...that metaphor is getting quite a workout. Pandora did pretty much the same thing that Eve did, didn't she?

Do you understand the informal logical fallacy of the "slippery slope"? Everything is a Pandora's box. Stepping out of your house in the morning could open a Pandora's box. If so, how will we put the genie back in the bottle?

If someone doesn't want to live, who am I to say they have to keep living. If they want a hand as long as I won't get into any trouble and they don't mind I’d give them a hand. Or a chainsaw.Maybe I could sell tickets to those who want to watch. I could make a few bob on the side. Besides, much better people who want to kill themselves out of the way and with a little more dignity than throwing themselves in front of a train disrupting everyone’s day. Bunch of C%#tsMr. Nuts

I really can't decide if I'm against it or not. But I'm sure I'd never agree to kill a person I love, even if he asks me for this. It would be so hard for me and the guilds would hunt me endlessly.

i had to do a date on this in grade 11 in anthropology class...basically i guess im for it under the circumstance that the person has the ability to choose and the choice is theirsbut im against people like robert latimer who killed his handicapped daughter

Suppose someone had terminal cancer, and he was sure to die within weeks. Let's say he was in terrible pain, and could not get relief from drugs. Suppose he wanted to get it over with, and die now. Would it be OK if he killed himself? We're not even talking about euthanasia here. Is suicide wrong under any and all possible circumstances?What if a person is doomed to spending the rest of his life totally paralyzed and in intractible pain, and he wasn't going to die any time soon. Suppose he just didn't want to wait for God to call him home. Would it still be completely wrong for him to speed up the process?

The danger is that once the public in general agrees to allow euthenasia based on their own choice, it's only a matter of time before that choice is in some way wrangled away (to at least a certain extent) by the government. Do you want the government deciding in any way as to who lives and who dies?If one certain set of circumstances makes killing anybody (even yourself) an allowable choice, doesn't that make it much easier to make that choice under a different set of circumstances? Now let that choice be made by the government. Are you still happy with your decision to allow people to be killed?Euthenasia...abortion...two issues that revolve around the right to decide who lives and who dies. Is it a coincidence that these issues are raised now, at the same time? While abortion is relatively new (at least in terms of being medically safe), the technology for euthenasia certainly is not. Why is it an issue now, and not years before?

I cant bear the thought of being totally incapable of movement. Lets say I was entirely paralised except my voice. That terrifies me more than death. Thus I am pro-Euthanasia. I am not sure how it should be implemented though, certainly it requires alot of thought.

There was a band not too long ago, where the singer wanted to kill himself or have someone kill him onstage because he was diagnosed with cancer. Not sure if he did it or not. I think it was in Florida.As for my thoughts on the subject, I would agree with Euthanasia, but as SYL said, I don't know how it would be implemented.

I really don't know, but I would never even support someone to commit suicide, even if he's in a terrible situation. Who knows, maybe something will happen in the future [a miracle, great events] and he will regret his decision to die. This probability always exists and it fills me with many regrets for doing something so serious. That's why I consider it wrong.Anyway, I'm talking hypothetically and in real life this question gets much more harder to answer.

The danger is that once the public in general agrees to allow euthenasia based on their own choice, it's only a matter of time before that choice is in some way wrangled away (to at least a certain extent) by the government. Do you want the government deciding in any way as to who lives and who dies?The government (at least in the U.S.) already has the right to kill people. It's called the death penalty. Now that they're killing people who have been convicted of serious crimes (although some of whom have not gotten very fair trials, based on the number of people who have been released from death row). Do you really trust the government, which has shown itself to be untrustworthy is so many ways, the right to decide who dies? Isn't it a slipperly slope?

It's not government, but people in positions of too much power that I don't trust...regardless of what country they hail from.I do not expect the justice system to be perfect. I don't believe it's realistic to expect that. And although I believe there to be better solutions than the death penalty, I can also see that in some cases it may be justified on the basis of social justice. But it's really a different situation altogether as the death penalty is a result of breaking the law, and so is a choice by the person...not the government.

Big question.

I am against euthenasia, because I don't want that decision made for me at some time in the future. I am on the fence with assisted suicide though. Assuming reasonable mental health (which I know opens another can of worms), how can I say that someone MUST continue living when they don't want to? House recently dealt with this one, and the weird part was how it ended with the person most against assisted suicide being the (likely) one to do the deed. They didn't acutally show who did it.

I get the impression that it happens a lot more than people think, both from programming like that and what real life evidence I see. My maternal grandmother died from a painkiller overdose after she injured herself in a fall. She was in full command of her faculties at 92 but physicaly crippled by osteoporosis and arthritis, and I had heard her say many times that she was ready to go as she was the last of her generation, and she seemed so lonely.

Among the Eskimos where resources were limited and it often appeared that the elderly were a burden on the young, seniors who felt they could no longer contribute sufficiently to justify their existence would walk away from the community out into the cold, and eventually freeze to death. It was expected too, and according to what I have heard they weren't stopped by anyone when this happened.

I wish I'd been here during the Terri Schiavo thread, as that was a good issue to talk on and one I felt/feel strongly about.