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Comment by sysbin | Hacker News Reader

I theorize society would be a better place if people could choose to end their life when they please by assistance in dying (commonly given to terminally ill). Although the idea is controversial I'm firmly attached to it from what I've witnessed in my life. Some people just have a terrible fate and nothing that comes in their life changes it because not everyone gets a good job, significant other, place to call home, and the healthy body. Some just don't want to settle with what fate gave them and others have had enough of life. edit: lol @ the person who downvoted every single comment of mine.

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> Some people just have a terrible fate and nothing that comes in their life changes it because not everyone gets a good job, significant other, place to call home, and the healthy body.

There's actually a term for this, SLS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shit_Life_Syndrome

Apparently it was coined as a "ha ha, only serious" joke but came into more general usage in the UK: https://authenticmedicine.com/did-i-discover-the-concept-of-...

Fate is a real thing and so I can see how SLS started as a joke. I didn't know of the term SLS (thanks for sharing).

Fate is not a “real” thing. What are you talking about exactly when you say fate?

Fate is a "real" thing. Predestination is another word for it. Everything is cause & effect and you cannot change the path you're on.

"Fate" might be a real thing. But while a bunch of white rich guys are complaining about fate in the US, millions of Africans and Latinos are living happily without 1/100 of their affluence.

I think this is a uniquely western / American dilemma. I recently had an older relative decide to not proceed with treatment for stage four pancreatic cancer and my family’s response was almost of shame and aghast.

It’s still odd to me that my parents were almost offended when I signed forms that indicates I did not want to be on life support if I’m brain dead or forcibly resuscitated if I arrived at a hospital “dead”.

As someone who continues to fight depression, I don’t understand why others feel their opninions should have weight when it comes to someone else’s decision to live or not continue to live.

I assume correlation with religious ideology. The everyone must live & appreciate the unique gift given to them belief. Never considering the persons wanting to end their life don't consider life a gift but the opposite. Also fear of death is another factor in the equation. In any case I think there will be a change in 60 years.

And some people pass through terrible phases just to find happiness and fulfillment later. If we had the "right" to give up in bad times, a lot more people would kill themselves before they discovered that there is different ways to be happy. And btw, if you are deadset on killing yourself, you can choose end your life, as you don't care about anything anymore. To ask it to be legally and assisted is just more weakness.

I see you don't have TRD then.

Euthanasia is a distinctly separate topic to suicide (in my mind), but since you brought it up, here is a magnificent oration by Andrew Denton on the topic:

https://youtu.be/FMP8eDEik14

It's 50 minutes, and I haven't seen all of it, but it's sad and moving and somehow perfectly combines humanity and logic.

(Edited to specify my own bias)

How is suicide not an attempt at self inflicted euthanasia? I'll watch your video (thanks).

> How is suicide not an attempt at self inflicted euthanasia?

There's a specific separation in my mind of the definition of the two, whether that's reflected in the dictionary or not.

The video is fairly specifically about end-of-life kind of suffering, which is along the lines of my definition of euthanasia (rightly or wrongly). Re-reading my comment, and your questioning of it, I do present it more "black and white" than it actually is.

So as soon as we develope the ability to keep people on perpetual life support, any right to euthanasia would go out the window?

I think only in rare cases should be assistance by dying. In most cases either you can recover or you can commit suicide alone instead.

What do you think should be done if a person fails to commit suicide alone but left a note requesting a mercy death if somehow were to survive with extreme brain damage.

The only people that fail at suicide are those that didn’t truly want to die.

There are people experiencing locked in syndrome from failed suicide methods that worked for others. Maybe your comment is meant to be sarcastic.

As someone who has survived 5 or so serious attempts, I can say that it's not actually that easy unless you're a masochist, and that this comment thread strikes me as quite ignorant.

Some people have all that yet have suicidal tendencies I believe. It should be normal to try to fix those bugs.

I see that rhetoric get thrown around once in awhile and I wonder if people that use it in fact work in the healthcare field. Sure, we get anomalies in life but it doesn't make sense to oppose someone of their wish to die because of it.

I am a patient

It's not straight forward. Someone has to be involved in the process of validating that decision and then we get these kind of clowns - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/4215059/Dignita...

You're referencing allegations that haven't been proven.

My point is someone else has to validate the decision.

And when you allow it sooner or later you will hear "Epstein/Khashoggi/that Uygur/this narco cop" were troubled souls and we were just helping them.

I think it should get to self validation.

This is a horrible idea. A lot of people commit suicide because of treatable depression, i.e. the wish to die is temporary and could go away with treatment.

There are certainly a lot of things that could make society a better place, suggesting more people start killing themselves is not on the top of my list.

>>the wish to die is temporary and could go away with treatment

Stands true if you count euthanasia as threatment

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