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Legalized assisted suicide push in U.S. alarms doctors, disability advocates: 'Where do you draw the line?'


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Physician-assisted suicide has been a hotly debated topic across the United States for decades but a push to legalize the controversial practice in more states is picking up steam this year.

Starting with Oregon in 1997, ten other states and the District of Columbia have made it legal for a terminally ill patient to ask their doctor for a lethal cocktail of drugs they ingest to die. They include California, Montana, Vermont, Washington, New Jersey and Hawaii.

Lawmakers in ten more states have introduced physician-assisted suicide laws in 2023.

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12 hours ago, Tug said:

An ill person of sound mind should be allowed to exit life in a manner of their own choosing without harming others of course 

I would imagine that the drugs used to keep someone alive at the later stages when you are told you are going to die would be 99% mind altering, so the 'sound mind' is a little iffy.

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14 hours ago, billd766 said:

It is MY life, MY body and MY right to end it I so choose.

Not sure if that's the problem though. Yes, I agree with your statement but is it right/ethical etc. for you to expect someone else to assist you? Just as you have the right so does someone else in refusal to assist...which possibly could include, by extension, the law makers/physicians (oath and all that).

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15 hours ago, billd766 said:

It is MY life, MY body and MY right to end it I so choose.

..................................................................................

It is quite possible to do it myself, which may put my wife and son at some legal risk.

 

OTOH, if I did that and got it wrong, .............

 

Exactly my opinion. But if done completely alone and with (or without) success, what legal risk for wife and son could there be ? There is of course more than a risk if they would assist somehow.

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7 hours ago, TKDfella said:

Not sure if that's the problem though. Yes, I agree with your statement but is it right/ethical etc. for you to expect someone else to assist you? Just as you have the right so does someone else in refusal to assist...which possibly could include, by extension, the law makers/physicians (oath and all that).

Is it also ethical to spend money on keeping me alive against my wishes. I would not wish on anyone the problem of keeping me alive as a vegetable for perhaps years, and depriving other people a chance to live?

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26 minutes ago, billd766 said:

Is it also ethical to spend money on keeping me alive against my wishes. I would not wish on anyone the problem of keeping me alive as a vegetable for perhaps years, and depriving other people a chance to live?

If you mean 'vegetable' in that you are brain dead and a machine is performing functions then as always, I would have thought doctors would consult the family and it would be their decision. I don't think that comes under 'assisted'. 

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9 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I once had to look after a patient that kept trying to die on the ward by removing her feeding tube. I felt bad for her, but as she had no DNR order, legally she had to be treated.

I feel for you with that, much kudos to you and your medical colleagues for what must be a rollercoaster of emotions you deal(t) with. From the high of bringing back someone from the brink of death to situations like this that must be soul destroying. 

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13 hours ago, billd766 said:

Is it also ethical to spend money on keeping me alive against my wishes. I would not wish on anyone the problem of keeping me alive as a vegetable for perhaps years, and depriving other people a chance to live?

Don't ignore the fact that a vegetative body is earning hospitals loadsacash for little expenditure.

 

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12 hours ago, TKDfella said:

If you mean 'vegetable' in that you are brain dead and a machine is performing functions then as always, I would have thought doctors would consult the family and it would be their decision. I don't think that comes under 'assisted'. 

Plenty that are not brain dead and can live without being on a machine.

Always seemed strange to me that we think it kind to euthanise an animal that is unable to function properly, but deny humans the right to opt out voluntarily.

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2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Plenty that are not brain dead and can live without being on a machine.

Always seemed strange to me that we think it kind to euthanise an animal that is unable to function properly, but deny humans the right to opt out voluntarily.

Very well then, please give an example of a person in that condition would proceed...assuming the Doctor is under a Hippocratic oath?

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5 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Don't ignore the fact that a vegetative body is earning hospitals loadsacash for little expenditure.

 

But it is not doing a lot for the person involved nor their family. The hospital facilities could also be used for people with a greater need.

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Only right-wing Fox News seems to think the notion of "assisted suicide" for the terminally ill is controversial.

 

If a terminally ill person still has their wits about them and is capable of making an informed decision, they certainly should have the right to make it as regards their own life and body.

 

Perhaps it goes against the grain for some doctors' well-engrained professional notion of "doing no harm."

 

But in my book, leaving a terminally ill person against their will with no resort but to suffer in pain and/or unable to control their own body and its functions is doing far more harm than letting them escape from than pain and anguish.

 

Should be legal in all 50 states.

 

 

Edited by TallGuyJohninBKK
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