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Comment by qualeed | Hacker News Reader

>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.

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> Someone who is not of sound mind is not getting approval for assisted death.

For many of us, this is a classic catch-22 as requesting such approval demonstrates the lack of a sound mind.

>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.)

Please remember this if you ever get diagnosed with a painful terminal illness.

tell me you haven’t been around old suffering people without telling me. I literally think your comment is crazy. Like batshit crazy.

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.

When I volunteered at a nursing home an attendant complained to me about a guy who wouldn't make the effort to go shit but expected staff to dig it out for him. Why bother choosing to live if you don't find it worth even that much effort.

the amount of implied privilege in this mindset is mind-boggling.

Appalling comment. You have clearly not been around extreme end of life suffering.

You (and every other reply) clearly misinterpreted the comment.

IMO it's purely a liability debate. The other concerns are philosophically interesting but on a practical basis mooted: anyone of sound or almost anyone of unsound mind and two nickels to rub together can reliably off themselves without asking anyone for approval.

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