Euthanasia - Your Personal Views

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D’aw man, it’s over an hour long - no way my internet will hold out that long.
 
Just realized my post wasn’t meant for this thread. Sorry about that!
 
Drinkgasoline said:
Anyway the man that I was originally talking about, Tony Nicklinson, has just been pronounced dead after refusing food.
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At the very least I’m glad to hear that his suffering and the suffering that the family expressed experiencing is over.

From some conversations I’ve had after befriending some hospice workers it sounds like assisted suicide may be more common than one would think. Some one in hospice is already thought to be dangling on the precipice of their life and when one finally goes off the edge it doesn’t raise suspicion. With there already being an expected cause of death there it doesn’t come across as unusual for the family to not request an autopsy. There’s been cases where some of the workers thought that a person may have died from the family intentionally giving the one in suffering enough pain medication to stop some autonomic function and make the person relax and die. Because of sympathy for the family the workers are not inclined to report it.
 
Drinkgasoline said:
Remember when I said it was a philosophical thread? Not just a “the Church says so” thread?

Anyway the man that I was originally talking about, Tony Nicklinson, has just been pronounced dead after refusing food.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19341722
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Yes I realize that. I do apologize. My views are still the same, IMHO I feel it is still wrong. I feel the Creator has a plan for us all, no matter how difficult it is for our human minds to comprehend.

It is very sad that the man you were talking about passed away. May God rest his soul.
 
When I was younger I used to support it for philisophical reasons (a person owns their own body). When my grandmother was suffering on her deathbed in ICU about 7 years ago and our family was in the room and I saw that she could barely breath and was clearly suffering severely I was overwhelmed with personal grief and sadness and could not bear to see her in that condition. I was asking the nurse to give her more morphine. I didn’t want to see her in pain for my own selfish reasons, I didn’t have the strength to handle it. She had zero chances of surviving and it was a matter of hours/maybe a day that she would continue to live. I needed to leave the room while the rest of my family stayed there. I simply could not handle it.

Now I am newly Catholic as of less than 3 months after being away from the Church for a couple of decades. And now I am actually invested in living my life according to the laws of God and the teachings of Jesus Christ whereas before I did not have that investment, even when I was being raised Catholic as a child and regularly going to Church, receiving Holy Communion, going to religious studies as part of the process of being raised Catholic, etc.

I need to rethink my position on this subject now. I am against capital punnishment and always have been and actually don’t understand why anyone, regardless of religion or lack thereof, would be for it. Maybe it makes them happy to know that the person who did the terrible crime is being killed. To me it seems that is less of a punnishment than life in prison without the possibility of parole, like a LOT less of a punnishment, particularly if the person is not old.
 
I’m a doctor and I get asked regularly about this. (for info : I live in a country where euthanasia is illegal.)

My question is always “Who’s going to end the life of your grandparent/parent/child/sibling etc. You? Me? The nurse? The janitor?” In my experience, very, very few people answer. No one wants to do the deed (to their own family) and they sure don’t want to know who pulled the plug or pushed the KCl.

I don’t want to live with fact that I murdered my patients. As it is, I have probably accidentally sent some to the grave sooner than expected. Willful, pre-meditated murder (which is what euthanasia is) is something I could never live with.
 
We must be honest with ourselves and realize many deaths are blessedly hastened by the decision to administer medication such as morphine. With both my father and my sister we were gently educated on the peace medication would bring to them; in both cases the medication that brought them peace also brought death (before the natural moment of death?). My father was conscious when we were presented this sad choice and he selflessly decided to accept the medication sparing both him and us an unknown number of pain filled days all leading to the inevitable final moment. Was this assisted suicide? Well, we did agree to a course of treatment that ended his life and I do not regret it for one moment. He slipped into God’s hands proudly and beautifully - in my mind we are already practicing assisted suicide and while I hate the way those words sound, it should not be dismissed without careful thought and prayer.
 
Honestly I couldn’t go to a doctor that killed someone on purpose. I can see the police turning a blind eye to whatever someone wants to do in that situation but making it a formal practice just feels wrong. I’ll be voting no to the question next election (it’s on the ballot this November in MA).
 
I know sometimes it is a very hard call, especially if loved ones are suffering terribly, but I don’t believe we should be able to make the decision to support the ending of someone’s life. To me, that’s like playing God. If God is ready to take them, He will.
 
Maureen64 said:
We must be honest with ourselves and realize many deaths are blessedly hastened by the decision to administer medication such as morphine. With both my father and my sister we were gently educated on the peace medication would bring to them; in both cases the medication that brought them peace also brought death (before the natural moment of death?). My father was conscious when we were presented this sad choice and he selflessly decided to accept the medication sparing both him and us an unknown number of pain filled days all leading to the inevitable final moment. Was this assisted suicide? Well, we did agree to a course of treatment that ended his life and I do not regret it for one moment. He slipped into God’s hands proudly and beautifully - in my mind we are already practicing assisted suicide and while I hate the way those words sound, it should not be dismissed without careful thought and prayer.
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Yes the same thing happened with my Mom when she was dying of cancer. The morphine just eases them into death. That’s a little different than assisted suicide though.
 
I do see what you are saying - I am wrestling with equating the of hastening death with a compassionate use of morphine what people call assisted suicide. In my mind there are many similarities though I agree they are not the same thing. Still trying to sort this out myself and I really appreciate the dialougue given the upcoming ballot issue in MA which speaks to assisted suicide for terminally ill patients.
 
Maureen64 said:
I do see what you are saying - I am wrestling with equating the of hastening death with a compassionate use of morphine what people call assisted suicide. In my mind there are many similarities though I agree they are not the same thing. Still trying to sort this out myself and I really appreciate the dialougue given the upcoming ballot issue in MA which speaks to assisted suicide for terminally ill patients.
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I feel the same way you do. It is a tough question. Maybe the morphine really isn’t necessary. I don’t know if my Mom would have suffered that much without it or not. It was just given to her. I do know that it did hasten her death.
 
I think that people who are terminally ill and suffering a great deal of pain should be made as comfortable as humanly possible while they are concluding their life journey here on earth; however, I don’t think that we have the right to speed up the progress of that journey. Job 1:21 says that life is God’s to give and take away: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord.”

I think that once people start demanding to speed up the death process (euthanasia), the government may eventually enter into the situation and begin declaring that assisted dying should be not only for the terminally ill but also for the mentally disabled, the chronic unemployed, and perhaps anyone else that society may judge as having no beneficial value to it.
 
shoe said:
I think that people who are terminally ill and suffering a great deal of pain should be made as comfortable as humanly possible while they are concluding their life journey here on earth; however, I don’t think that we have the right to speed up the progress of that journey. Job 1:29 says that life is God’s to give and take away: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord.”

I think that once people start demanding to speed up the death process (euthanasia), the government may eventually enter into the situation and begin declaring that assisted dying should be not only for the terminally ill but also for the mentally disabled, the chronic unemployed, and perhaps anyone else that society may judge as having no beneficial value to it.
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Yes it could become a very slippery slope. I totally agree.
 
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