Poll: Are you in favor of legalizing assisted suicide?

There is no moral or political debate that I find more difficult than euthanasia or assisted suicide. I have been in the type of pain that many terminal patients go through and if there were no hope of recovery I don't know if I'd want to stay alive. This is such a personal decision that I am uncomfortable with the state interfering. On the other hand we don't allow healthy people to commit suicide. Instead we treat them for depression. One of the most compelling arguments I've heard against assisted suicide is that if the pain is treated aggressively enough that there is no need for the person to suffer. The most affective analgesic is heroin which is not legal in the US even for terminal patients. Perhaps we should be learning how to help the patients live in comfort rather than helping them to die. I know that i would never be in favor of a law that mearly legalized assisted suicide. This is a case where the devil would be in the details. How is the decision to be reached? That is something that be worked out. Is there a workable way? One danger would be that family members would pressure a patient to die to releave them of the monetary and emotional burden. I don't know that a good mechanism could be enacted. Perhaps with time I'll feel like Harry Blackmun felt about the death penalty, " From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death." I know that I'm against Dr Kevorkian. This is not an issue I want to be decided emotionally or that civil disobedience is appropriate. This needs to be worked out rationally. I also know that I am against the federal government interfering with Oregon or any other state implimenting an assisted suicide law. This is perhaps the perfect case to illustrate the principal of the laboratory of the states. We find out what is best by trying different things in limited regions. I think that the distinction between euthanasia and assisted suicide is specious. I can't see why it is morally superior to give someone a switch to pull to deliver the lethal injection but it is wrong for the trigger mechanism to be the patient telling someone else to pull the switch. They are both overt acts. So what do you think?

I don't think it is a sticky moral issue. Human beings have the right to exercise their conscious choice to end their lives. If we cannot decide to end our lives in whatever manner we choose, then we are not free.

Now, if someone puts in a living will that they do not want to be put on life support or have extraordinary steps taken to preserve their life, is that the same thing as suicide or euthanasia? We allow such terms to be placed in a living will, but not if you a chronically ill.

*backs away slowly* have fun, guys.

Hey I was stuck thinking about this. Why should I be the only one to suffer?

what is needed first, though, is an absolute "right to die" for all people. we currently do not have such a right in this country. if we did, it would only be a logical extension to say that if a person chooses to die, but is physically incapable of taking his or her own life, someone should be able to assist them in the process.

Actually, a few months ago, I did a poll on FHDC on this same subject, it's somewhere in the dark corners of this site. I have been a passionate advocate of PAS and euthanasia for many years. I fully agree that right to die should be a constitutional right, however, I only support the practices of PAS and euthansia on the grounds of terminal illnesses. Emotional suicide is, in my opinion, a great evil, and I would like to think that most of you agree, at least to some extent. If any of you want, I actually have Dr. Jack Kevorkian's address in a Michigan prison and can give it to you, for me, he is one of the great icons of my life. Also, I would like to present my great enthusiasm on the recent Oregon Supreme Court decision to uphold the state right to Euthanasia and PAS, stating that John Ashcroft and his Gestapo goons did not have the right to bar this noble right, this is the happiest I've been with any state government.

I don't have much of an opinion as far as humans are concerned, but I'm glad that pets are offered the option of euthanasia. It 'saved' my dogs life a month or two ago. Then again, it was the most reasonable and unselfish option we had.

My cat had heart disease and we had to put her down on Monday because she was in pain and there was no hope of her getting better.� *cries*

I think if an animal suffering like that has a right to end its life (or rather the owner can make a decision to end its life) then the same courtesy should be shown to a human.� If someone is in terrible pain and there is no chance of recovery, or if someone is terminally ill and confined to bed for years and cannot live out a happy life, I think that person should have a right to decide whether it's worth it to continue living unhappily and unhealthily.

In some cases it just makes sense, but I can see why it is such a difficult issue.� I feel so horrible about my cat, I can't imagine how I'd feel if, say, my dad was terminally ill/in pain�and wanted to end his life early.

i was thinking (and infact posted, and then deleted cause you apparently posted as i was typing) the exact same thing.

i agree with you, and my sympathies on your kitty.� i'm glad you had the compassion to be able to make a hard choice that was about her quality of life.�

Thanks.� I miss her a lot but I'm glad she wasn't in pain for very long.