Does anyone know any good arguments against mercy-killing?

[Catholic_Action]

What about if the person’s in serious pain with a fatal illness and asks to be killed?

In an advanced society (technologically not morally) like the US the resources exist to treat pain. No one should be in unbearable pain for days or weeks at a time. Analgesic medication can be administered continuously through pumps to those with horrible conditions. Actually skills in pain control and management are less likely to be developed in societies that permit euthanasia since its easier to dispatch than to treat people in such pain.

So, if pain is controlled a person who nevertheless asks someone to kill them must be motivated by something else. If it is because they do not feel that they can endure their current quality of life then that almost certainly means they are suffering from depression. A person with a mental illness is not really capable of formulating a rational request on such a vital manner. Even if we accept that they are there is no “right” to demand that someone else carry out a killing.

The absence of euthanasia has led to developments like the hospice movement which create environments for dying people and their loved ones to come to terms with terminal illness and to face death at peace and free from pain. Where euthanasia is permitted such initiatives simply disappear since the state finds killing the terminally ill much more cost effective than keeping them alive.

 

[vern_humphrey]

I developed this non-religious position when I was running for Congress in '04:

Human life is sacred.

The right to life is the most fundamental of all human rights. Without a right to life, all other rights are valueless. What good does freedom of speech do a dead man? How can a corpse exercise the right to trial by jury?

The right to life accrues to each of us as a part of our basic humanity. It is as much a part of us as our minds, our personalities, or our arms and legs. It is given to us by no one. It is ours merely because we are living human beings.

There are those who say that “society” or the government decide when we get the right to life. If that is so, then it is no right at all, but merely a privilege, for if the government can grant the right to life, it can surely withhold it. Once you accept that the government has this power, you must accept, willy-nilly that the government can decree some people – perhaps Jews, or Blacks or Catholics – never get the right to life.

If, therefore there is such a thing as a right to life, it must accrue to every living human being. Those who would justify the taking of human life must meet the most rigourous test – and that test must be applied to all human life, regardless of age, physical condition or state of development.

To deny this is to deny that human rights exist.

 

[KathleenElsie]

I developed this non-religious position when I was running for Congress in '04:

Human life is sacred
.

The right to life is the most fundamental of all human rights. Without a right to life, all other rights are valueless. What good does freedom of speech do a dead man? How can a corpse exercise the right to trial by jury?

The right to life accrues to each of us as a part of our basic humanity. It is as much a part of us as our minds, our personalities, or our arms and legs. It is given to us by no one. It is ours merely because we are living human beings.

There are those who say that “society” or the government decide when we get the right to life. If that is so, then it is no right at all, but merely a privilege, for if the government can grant the right to life, it can surely withhold it. Once you accept that the government has this power, you must accept, willy-nilly that the government can decree some people – perhaps Jews, or Blacks or Catholics – never get the right to life.

If, therefore there is such a thing as a right to life, it must accrue to every living human being. Those who would justify the taking of human life must meet the most rigourous test – and that test must be applied to all human life, regardless of age, physical condition or state of development.

To deny this is to deny that human rights exist.