Euthanasia

[9sublime]

What if the person who cant move to kill themselves can still someonehow without a doubt communicate that they want to be killed.

In the name of free will for all you Christians, but regardless, I'm not a Christian, and I don't give two about your views on life if they start affecting the way I live.

 

[invest07]

Euthanisia and suicide

We need to recognize that euthanisa and suicide are 2 very different animals.

Suicide is the taking of one's own life. The individual makes the decision and carries out the act. No one else need be involved. While I am not comfortable with suicide, I believe it is an inherent right. It may be illegal in this country but it is still a basic human right, none the less. A "Do not rescusitate" document or other living will amounts to a form of suicide.

Euthanasia involves one person deciding to take the life of another. Euthanasia is when your pet is old and you take them to the vet to be "put to sleep". Even if you think euthanisa is humane, it still involves one person making a life or death decision for another. Even if the affected person is incompetent, vegetative, comatose or otherwise incapacitated, euthanisa requires one to decide the life or death of another. Euthansia is illegal and should always remain so.

Eugenics is related to euthanasia. Hitler believed he could create a super race by selective mating and by killing those he considered inferior. As a result Hitler gave us the Holocaust in which 6M Jews were killed, about 1/2M gypsies and 2-3M Rusians and Poles.

It is interesting that Hitler read and was influenced by Margaret Sanger who would later found Planned Parenthood and preach abortions to any and all.

 

[Mare Tranquillity]

Well, simply put, I agree with you. If I am suffering and my fate is set, I cannot imagine why one would make a law forcing me to accept a long, slow and painful death.

However, I do struggle with this. Say I am in an accident that leaves me in a coma and on life support. Half my family wants to pull the plug and the other half wants to wait and see. What is done? Chances are I will never wake and spend several years wasting away in a hospital bed. Or, I could simply snap out of it as many have done in the past. If I have no legal documentation covering this circumstance, and many do not, how do we proceed?
-Castle

Many people make living wills and medical directives to guide their families in these kinds of decisions, it's a reasonable action to take if you have strong feelings about how you wish to be treated.

 

[palerider]

So Palerider, I have a termial disease. I'm in huge pain, slowly dying. Watching myself waste away, not being able to move a muscle. If I could kill myself, I would... but I can't...

So you want me to commit murder for you? You believe that you have that right? Murder doesn't have to be committed in anger. Murder is simply killing another with intent.

If you have a wasting disease, and you knew it was going to progress and involve a lot of pain, why did you wait until you must ask me to murder you instead of doing the job while you could still step off a tall building?

 

[heyjude]

I gotta tell ya! I've never liked the idea of tattoos, hating needles the way I do. But having DNR across my chest is a great idea! Maybe your friend is a bit nuts, but that leaves NO room for doubt!

If you are afraid of needles, don't bother. The EMT's will ignore it, as they will ignore a DNR written by your physician. They perform cpr on 100%.

 

[heyjude]

I once was doing private care, and my patient was terminal. He had a DNR. His Dr. told me that if he went into heart or respitory failure, to wait 15 min. before calling the EMTs. That way, their attempts to revive him would be futile.

 

[TruthAboveAll]

If you are afraid of needles, don't bother. The EMT's will ignore it, as they will ignore a DNR written by your physician. They perform cpr on 100%.

This varies state to state. In some states, the laws regarding DNR orders lag in the field/emergency situation from the established medical community in hospitals. Because of the vagaries in on-duty staff, nursing homes often function under a variety of policies.

The biggest problem overall is that so many people have not addressed this. Additionally if they have addressed it, there is a breakdown in the communication of these directives. That DNR tattoo would at least get a lot of emergency/medical personnel's attention.

With a tattoo, documentation, medical type bracelet and even a nose ring saying it I'd guess if a fireman pulls me out of my burning home, unconscious and not breathing they are going to automatically try to resuscitate. With a good deal of third degree burns, possible severe lung damage from heat and smoke, if they can get my heart beating and air going into me, they're going to try. They don't have time to sort out who is DNR and who isn't.

It will always be a problem to some degree. That is, unless we want to pass laws and regulations that coma, no heart beat, not breathing and possibly an on-scene EMT's personal assessment of no possibility of recovery to "acceptable" living quality means no measures of resuscitation is permitted.

Because it's another end-of-life issue, the above could be considered a "passive" euthanasia. Doing something by doing nothing. Yet DNR's are a growing reality, and should be respected.