physician assisted suicide poll.

PAS = Death with Dignity

 

People who want to die due to pain or declining health have access to plenty of drugs that could be used for an overdose anyway.

Anyone could ask for assisted suicide, but doctors decide who gets it. Doctors must predict, however unreliably, whether a person will die within six months and doctors judge whether or not a particular request for assisted suicide is rational or results from impaired judgment.

I am, like, the SuperLibertarian about such things. I think people should be able to sell their organs. I think most medications should be available without prescriptions. But even I don't really see how the current climate surrounding euthanasia, and the current societal attitudes towards death, disability, and resource allocation would allow it to be implemented as a just and safe option.

 

I selected I don't care because I feel it is a personal decision, if someone has the option of a painless death vs laying in a hospital dying I don't see why they shouldn't have the option of assisted suicide. However, when it comes to mental health issues I don't feel it is so clear cut I mean ultimately it is up to the individual as if they continue wanting to do it they are likely to find a way...but I think there should still be attempts to help them find other ways to end their pain or cope with it better.

So I don't know I guess I am of the opinion it sort of depends.

 

i think everyone should have the option, but i don't trust a for profit health care system with it.

 

If the healthcare system was in charge of it, I imagine it would be very similar to hospice or palliative care. I work in the healthcare field and I think so long as the family, power of attorney and social worker are all involved to advocate for the patient, it would be a good thing for people who are suffering.

 

Yes. Its your body, do what you want with it. MAYBE have a cool-down period to make sure the individual truly wants this?

 

It happens now in hospitals...i seen both my parents, die in the same hospital, and were both medicaly assisted to die quicker...yes its true...
They turn up the morphine on my mum, she died within moments of this, and they refused to hel her..
My dad had a long stressfull passing, i was asked did i think he was suffering, i said yes, the nurse left, returned with a syringe, and said to me, are you sure, there will be no coming back after this! She injected, he died! I know other people have said the same...so why all the fuss? It happens...

 

Depending on one's beliefs or knowledge of what happens after the body ceases, it could be considered that death is a healing. When it is painfully obvious that the death of a loved one is inevitable, people will fight for that life as if it were their own. And that's understandable since we tend to consider the life and presence of others as parts of our life. We don't like having parts of us ripped away. Ultimately, the living are left with the question of what is best for the loved one, which, in itself is a kind of dying process for the survivors.

As my father-in-law was moments away from death by cancer, I had the thought that he was giving up the ghost. Not in the usual sense of the term, but in a reversed sense. That is to say that, if life doesn't cease after physical death, then the body is the ghost which is being given up.

What was the point of his pain? His children were divided as to whether he should be brought home to die or left in the hospital where his life could be prolonged for as long as possible. Even though he wanted to go home and "let it end" as he worded it, some of the children were ready to take that decision away from him. They needed to be reminded that this event was not about them. He was brought home, and he died.

 

I voted yes for the same reason that most cats on here did man. Because people have a right to do what they will

 

I voted no by mistake. I wanted to vote yes.

 

There are a lot of fantastic documentaries on Netflix on this issue. I highly recommend How To Die In Oregon.

Dying with dignity is a human right. The only issue I could see, is the patient not being mentally apt to make the decision themselves, even if they're clearly suffering.

I remember when my grandfather was on his death bed a couple years ago suffering from liver failure. The nurses and doctors could see he was going soon and was in intense suffering. The nurse came in after all the family was there, and took the titration settings off his pain pump, handed the button to my grandma, told her to hit that button as many times as she felt my grandpa needed, and left the room. We all held each other and gathered around him, and my grandpa grabbed my grandma's hand, giving her an approving squeeze while my grandma hit the button over and over, essentially overdosing him. We could see his body start to relax. He opened his eyes for a few moments, looked around the room and saw us all there, then an overwhelming look of relaxation and peace came over him a few minutes before his vitals began to decline. He was given a few minutes of peace and euphoria with his family gathered around him while he crossed over to the other side.

There's no doubt in my mind, that he wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

 

certainly. but too many people don't have that going for them. and the hospitals quietly sweep their corpses under the rug. as someone else has mentioned, i've seen this with my own eyes too.

every place is different. but every system can be gamed, and the profit motive is an almost unoposable and irrisistable motivation for doing so.

my mom was in this hospice situation you describe, and the social people tried to do what they could, but were really powerless to do much of anything. my wife didn't even have as much of that, and there was very little if anything i could do by myself. even her brother, who was deputy attorny general of another state, was nearly powerless in this context.

so i support the intention. its just that the for profit hospital industry has just gone to far, not for the sake of reducing suffering, but in persuit of little green pieces of paper.

 

I'm going to use myself as an example, lol.

1. If I want to die, I would like to have the proper resources to kill myself successfully. I believe I have the right to kill myself and the right to those resources.

2. I don't think it should be at the hands of others, such as doctors or family. It's my decision, so I think I should carry it out.

3. It should be regulated and documented. Very official, where I fill out forms, get a request, etc. I think that would ensure not just anyone commits suicide. I also think that will ensure protection to the person committing suicide and the professionals providing them with the resources to commit suicide. And most importantly, I think it will lesson the taboo of suicide. It won't completely remove it, though.

4. Even though it should be governmentally carried out, it shouldn't be something that is extremely hard to obtain, but it shouldn't be something so easily obtainable, neither. We all have examples of government regulated services or materials that are really hard to obtain and really easy to obtain. If I'm ready to die, I don't want to deal with either of that. I don't want something that is so easily obtainable that I end up questioning myself or something that is so hard, where I did everything they ask, but it's five years later and still I'm waiting.

I think the same goes for everyone else.

 

Actually this isn't true, if you commit suicide you forfeit your insurance and your family looses out. If you die naturally you are covered. With the idea you are already going to die the insurance should be covered if you choose to die before brain death or total loss of body function and that's what people are aiming for, to die the right way before being left a vegetable but legally so it's not suicide. Suicide is for people lost for what else to do and it's their easy way out leaving others to fend for their left over expenses.
Did you know many loans are covered by the banks if a person chose those coverages? Mortgages are sometimes covered, all kinds of stuff could be lost if you jump over a bridge. Many people have done so and left their kids suddenly on welfare. They don't cover suicide but if doctors are able to determine you have an end of life disease and let you go sooner then later your family would be covered for probably everything you thought to insure.
It's a matter of being allowed to do it the right way, under medical supervision. I support it all the way.

 

One and the same.

 

Proving you can't eliminate religion and politics in responding, after all they are pretty much one and the same.

 

The right to die seems like the most fundamental of human rights. There would be safeguards, obviously--the person would need to decide this, and not the family nor the state. I also think that physicians should be given the option to opt out; doctors should not be forced to prescribe or deliver suicide medication.

 

It’s a mercy we owe to the sick and dying in terrible pain who want to end their on their own terms.