Euthanasia

[zachsta830]

What do you guys think about euthanasia? Do you think that the legalization of voluntary euthanasia (like in Oregon and the Netherlands) will lead to the practice of involuntary euthanasia? By the way, from some nonfiction books I've read, this effect is called "The Slippery Slope" effect. Coincidence? lol.

[Freshie]

Whats euthanasia?
*reads posts*
Hm, seems like my life..
..must not die..

[Charles Vane]

I remeber Kevorkian.. what happened to him? Didn't they put him in jail?

I'm not quite sure on my standpoint of this. In some ways I think it's wrong but if thats what they really want then sometimes it doesn't seem so bad.

[negativenine]

We had a big case here a couple years ago... a man killed his daughter who had some sort of brain disease. There was a huge debate about it all over...

Anyway, an interesting thing happened just before the official verdict was out. A disabled man (he had the same thing this girl who was killed had) came to talk to us about himself and about the centre in which he lived and about diabilities in general (you know, the typical kind of thing they present to you when you're in grade 9 or so). He had really strong views about it. And he was such a happy person and was enjoying life so much and he talked to us about his pets and how he couldn't move anything but his head and his one hand, but he still didn't want to die... I dunno. It just made me think. The girl couldn't talk, her father had no way of knowing if she was unhappy and why and... It was confusing, but when this guy was talking to us I just felt like... it really wasn't the father's choice and he didn't have a right to kill his daughter.

In that particular case, I think the father just wanted to end his own suffering. He had to see his daughter every day and pity her and it hurt him emotionally and he wanted to end it. The guy who talked to us said he hated when people pitied him or assumed he couldn't do anything for himself...

I know I'm sort of getting off-topic, talking about this guy, but I really thought, after having him talk to us, that it wasn't right.

And I know there are other cases, and I know it really isn't black and white... it's not an easy subject. It's got to be hard to live with someone or to have to take care of someone you know is in pain... still, I don't think mercy killing is acceptable. But, of course, the cicumstances depend. If someone's mentally healthy and about to die and just doesn't want to suffer anymore, I can see where it wouldn't be so wrong.

We had a choice of writing an essay on Euthanasia and someone said, "What's so interesting about Asian kids?" It was hilarious.

[MambaduMal]

I agree completely with Neggie on the killing someone else because you think they're unhappy... it was ultimately for the guy's own happiness that he did it.

I myself don't want to be disabled, but I know that there are ways to thoroughly enjoy life even with a handicap or disability... and I'd be the only true judge of whether I was happy or not. I think perhaps people with health problems should be able to choose whether they want to die, as long as they've considered other options... if their lives are nothing but pain and living from day to day, and their family members have to see them suffer all the time... there's no reason their suffering should be prolonged if it doesn't have to be.

Yet there are people who we'd have to watch out for... there are clinically depressed people who want to die all the time but with help and therapy and perhaps some medications they could learn to love life again... and people who are insane (as swans mentioned) can't very well make a firm and solid descision on this... neither can young children.