I had someone close to me opt for it. They were greatly suffering and had no chance of their condition getting better. Having a planned final date allowed us to say farewell and thank each other for all the great moment we shared without feeling ominous. The last phone call I had with them will stay with me forever.
It is absolutely insane the way we do this stuff.
I understand why people are concerned about medically assisted death, but this is the sort of thing that happens without it.
It's now legal here, but family, religion and tradition can be obstacles to assisted dying.
In case you don't want to leave that way, you have to prepare ahead of time. There's different legal means in different countries, e.g. advance directive covers the case where you can't decide yourself anymore.
Besides with modern technology it has become debatable what death is. You can plug someone to a machine and keep their heart going for years.
No reason we shouldn't allow it to ourselves.
The risk with allowing humans to do this is that it’s possible for someone not of sound mind to come to this conclusion.
It seems like lots of people think you can just go to your doctor and be prescribed a cocktail of death because you feel down today. That's not what assisted death programs are like, at all.
There's waiting periods, evaluations by independent doctors and psychiatrists, interviews, etc. to determine your capacity and understanding of the decision. Someone who is not of sound mind is not getting approval for assisted death.
Anyone sufficiently determined enough is going to find a way to die, regardless of what laws or programs are there. These programs don't change that, and they aren't meant to.
For many of us, this is a classic catch-22 as requesting such approval demonstrates the lack of a sound mind.
This is wild to me.
I watched my father, who had a life expectancy measured in months, live in unbearable pain 24 hours a day. And you believe that him wishing to end that nightmare demonstrates a lack of sound mind? The sound decision, in your opinion, is to suffer in pain, knowing that there is no treatment nor cure coming, just pain for some number of months until death's release?
I find it particularly cruel that you (seemingly?) think that he should have had to continue to suffer. And, by extension, myself and the rest of my family, should have had to continue to watch him suffer.
(Before we get too far into it, I will say upfront, there's not much in way of argument that will sway me from this opinion. I am certainly open to hearing your opinion, though.)
Go into a nursing home in the U.S. sometime and walk the halls. Tell me if you think the majority of those people are waking up with something to look forward to? Some of them are sitting in their own shit for hours because the nurses are too short staffed. I’d rather be dead than sit in my own shit for hours while being in chronic pain, and abandoned in a nursing home.
There are other reasons to choose death too of course. But i digress. I’m not in the mood to make an exhaustive list.
If you’re old and in okay-ish health, and have _something_ to look forward to (hobby, seeing grandkids, reading, etc), then it’s a different story.
/s
We are already risking someone not of sound mind owning a gun or operating heavy machinery and ludicrous speeds in public places.
Do we really think the benefit doesn't outweigh the risk in case of medically assisted death?
Assisted dying is a horrifying, but probably overall good idea; however, we need to reform our medical bureaucracies before it's something that they can ethically provide.
Surely you don’t think an 18 year old claiming to be endlessly suffering due to failing a math test sound enough to terminate his life?
Luckily we have our neighbor countries that are way more civilized than we are.
But I reject your framing.
You already have the option to choose suicide. Go make your arrangements, and then go do it privately. Nothing is stopping you except yourself, and no one can stop you if you don't make your intentions clear to someone willing and able to do so, in which case it is really a "cry for help."
What the pro-euthanasia/"aid in dying" legalization people really demand is not a right to suicide, but a right to social approval of their suicide. This is what they call "dignity," the right to broadcast their intention to kill themselves on their own terms, while anyone else in a position to intervene is forced to helplessly watch them do it.
And to integrate this into the healthcare system, and we've seen how that story plays out in Canada and in Europe. To the point where desperate people are pushed toward suicide and physically healthy, mentally sick children are killed off with state approval.