Assisted suicide / Euthanasia

[steptoe]

can I ask a sensitive question, and I think this is a sensitive poll.?

how many people actually die from for example cancer?

very few,

most die from an overdose of painkilling injections/drugs etc.

so how do we quantify this,

by with holding treatment, or by over issuing it. ?

sometimes a doctor just cant win.

is it not a doctors duty to prevent a patient suffering?

as Apache said, if we treated animals in the same manner we treat some humans we would be in court for cruelty.

BUT,

its a very personal decision, but one we should have the freedom to make.

I dont vote for someone else to tell me its my time to die.

 

[Apache]

can I ask a sensitive question, and I think this is a sensitive poll.?how many people actually die from for example cancer?

very few,

most die from an overdose of painkilling injections/drugs etc.

This is completely illegal, and many people do die of cancer with very high doses of painkillers relieving some of the pain. I agree that in some cases they may contribute to the patients death. I have known a couple of family friends die from cancer in the last couple of years and they both were in pain, both on high doses of morphine and both died from the cancer, not the morphine.

I dont vote for someone else to tell me its my time to die.

100% agree - all I want is the choice there if you want it.

 

[Andy™]

should be legal, if being kept alive will make the person suffer

 

[revjames]

A doctor in the mail today said in 30 years he had never been asked for euthanasia.

 

[Andy™]

thats because its illegal. but if it was legal he may have

 

[androiduk2002]

But is a DNR order (Do Not Resucitate) not a form of make the decession to die so a form of euthanasia , could the same go for refusing a life saving treatment ??

 

[Apache]

But is a DNR order (Do Not Resucitate) not a form of make the decession to die so a form of euthanasia , could the same go for refusing a life saving treatment ??

An interesting point you raise!

According to the House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics, the precise definition of euthanasia is "a deliberate intervention undertaken with the express intention of ending a life, to relieve intractable suffering"

I think the 'deliberate intervention' bit is critical - doing nothing, IMO isn't an intervention!

I have thought it interesting that certain religious groups consider both euthanasia and blood transfusions as abhorrent. One saves life, the other takes it. :|

Discuss!

 

[revjames]

I have thought it interesting that certain religious groups consider both euthanasia and blood transfusions as abhorrent. One saves life, the other takes it. :|

Discuss!

You are referring to Jehovahs Witnesses which are actually a cult rather than a mainstream church. Christians have no problems with blood transfusions. In fact I am only alive today though having 11 pints of other peoples blood pumped into me after a horriffic crash. No problems with having other peoples blood transplanted organs or anything like that. Stem cells from aborted foetuses? thats another can of worms....

Euthanasia is another issue completely. I don't think many Christians could support it (if they believe their Bibles) in any case.

 

[Lurch]

You are referring to Jehovahs Witnesses which are actually a cult rather than a mainstream church.

All religion is some form of a cult.

 

[exbdc]

There have been cases where doctors have obtained a court order in order to administer a blood transfusion to a Jehovahs Witness against theirs or their family's wishes.

 

[revjames]

All religion is some form of a cult.

Thats your opinion.

In a cult religion or belief is not as important as gaining overall control of people.

 

[Lurch]

In a cult religion or belief is not as important as gaining overall control of people.

So, you agree with me then?

 

[The Godfather]

Cult pejoratively refers to a group whose beliefs or practices could be considered strange or sinister.

Don

 

[steptoe]

All religion is some form of a cult.

Thats your opinion. In a cult religion or belief is not as important as gaining overall control of people.

Cult pejoratively refers to a group whose beliefs or practices could be considered strange or sinister.Don

seems to me like we are talking about the roman catholic church here.

in control....

very secretive and perhaps even sinister when you consider the hush money being paid out.

not to mention all the different sects(or are they cults within cults)

 

[a12jpm]

Leaving the religion question out of this it's a tough question and there will never be a right answer.

Having had a year where I have seen a 18month old boy not wake up from a nap, a father riddled with pancreatic cancer on a machine making him breath, and a wife who as a nurse cares for the poor soles who are counting what's left of their lives in day's rather that years. Death will come to us all - fact! Should you be able to decide when - ???

Why not. I could choose to shovel all sorts of stuff up my nose on a weekend, I don't but the choice is still there for me to make. I can take the evidence for and against and make my own reasoned argument and carry that out. I can choose to walk on the road in front of the bus, I won't by the way, but it is my choice all the same.

So after talking myself round in a circle the only conclusion I can come up with is this : when you are there you will make the decision that fits, right or wrong by everyone else's standard means nothing, you make the decision and you live with it. Some days you will feel it was the right decision and some days you will feel it was the wrong one. Either way it is your decision so don't make it lightly.

 

[Apache]

So after talking myself round in a circle the only conclusion I can come up with is this : when you are there you will make the decision that fits, right or wrong by everyone else's standard means nothing, you make the decision and you live with it. Some days you will feel it was the right decision and some days you will feel it was the wrong one. Either way it is your decision so don't make it lightly.

Very well put

 

[Evans Electric]

This is a big question and I don't feel qualified to answer it . My brother and I are opposites, he was a hospital chaplain for years and dealt with patients and their family's suffering every day, I don't know what his opinion would be. I think it would be in favour. I could not do that job, can't even watch Animal Hospital TBH. But then he can't climb a ladder.

Our dad contracted lung cancer and a stage is reached when you wonder how much a person can take, I think the morphine assisted him in the end.

Our Mom was racked with the awful pain from osteoporosis ,as her bones crumbled, she closed her eyes and slipped away one afternoon in hospital.

Back then , if I had had the power to authorise a leathal dosage, could I have lived with it ?

I just don't know.

My wife called a halt to even more surgery on her very, very frail mother with terminal cancer, in the end she thought it was time to let her slip away. She has lived with it every day since.

I just don't know.

Deke