Euthanasia - Your Thoughts

[Whippet]

I'm preparing a presentation assignment for school on euthanasia and have noticed that there seems to be more support FOR it rather than against it - which I found really interesting.

I was interested what your thoughts are on euthanasia - why you're for it or why your against it - or are you on the fence?

[sockstealingpoltergeist]

For it. Of course it would have to be carefully monitored by a panel of diverse select people, to avoid abuse.

I cannot understand letting people suffer so greatly if they are going to die anyway.

[Skittles]

Working in a dementia unit i hope to god that it is legal before i ever have to deal with such a disease personally.

As ssp says though i do believe it would have to be very carefully monitored....

[Myztiks#1Fan]

i dont see how people think they have the right to put animals down by euthanising them yet its illegal for us to do it. afterall, arent we just another species of animals?

i do agree with SSP, it would have to be carefully monitored.

[LeeJ]

there was a thread discussing it not too long ago,

I will leave it at,

there is a point in alot of illnesses, where you are no longer living, just dying...

i hope and pray, i never have to go through that:no:

[BigRedV]

Yes, I am all for it.

My mum has MS, she is deteriorating as we speak. She cannot walk without the assistance of a frame and only through her own stubborness she isn't restricted to a wheelchair yet.

If she gets so bad that she isn't independent anymore, I know she would want to die. She already is almost incontinent and she already feels like a burden on my dad and us, her children. Although, we of course do not see her as one.

It is sad to watch people you love slowly crumble and become a shadow of the person they used to be :(

[bumMum]

for it. I don't beleive we need to prolong life for as long as medically possible. I think there comes a time when a person should be able to die. and that time is when their body is no longer allowing them any quality of life and they will never get better.

[lou333]

While in principle I agree with the right to die with dignity and right for autonomy, I don't think euthanasia should be legalized as it's a pretty slippery slope. There is a lot of potential for abuse and misuse. For example the very sad case of Erin Berg a young mother of 4 who did not have a terminal illness, but postnatal depression. She followed the advice of Phillip Nitcske's book and travelled to mexico to kill herself with nembutal and died a horrific death. Just one example of misuse, there are plenty of others. For Erin's story

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24003209-5012694,00.html

There are also issues of consent, especially as many terminal illnesses are accompanied by depression or dementia which affects the ability to consent and ethical issues for the person administering the means of death. Palliative care in Australia is pretty good and also allows people to die with dignity.

[~BEXTER~]

I am all for it.

I don't think it is something that should be done on the same day or the same week.

I think the person should be counselling first to make sure it isn't just a spare of the moment/ depressed thing.

We never alow animals to suffer but humans are meant to.

[Whippet]

there was a thread discussing it not too long ago,

I will leave it at,

there is a point in alot of illnesses, where you are no longer living, just dying...

i hope and pray, i never have to go through that:no:

I didn't realise there was one recently - I'm only new here after a leave of absence ... Thank you for your feedback though :)


For it. Of course it would have to be carefully monitored by a panel of diverse select people, to avoid abuse.

I cannot understand letting people suffer so greatly if they are going to die anyway.

I agree, there has to be some stringent policies put in place for it to work well.


While in principle I agree with the right to die with dignity and right for autonomy, I don't think euthanasia should be legalized as it's a pretty slippery slope. There is a lot of potential for abuse and misuse. For example the very sad case of Erin Berg a young mother of 4 who did not have a terminal illness, but postnatal depression. She followed the advice of Phillip Nitcske's book and travelled to mexico to kill herself with nembutal and died a horrific death. Just one example of misuse, there are plenty of others. For Erin's story

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24003209-5012694,00.html

There are also issues of consent, especially as many terminal illnesses are accompanied by depression or dementia which affects the ability to consent and ethical issues for the person administering the means of death. Palliative care in Australia is pretty good and also allows people to die with dignity.

That is were the risks are in allowing such a thing to be legalised. There will always be people wanted to find loop-holes and abuse a law meant for those really in need.


Just wanted to say thank you all for your feedback. I understand it's a touchy subject and can be quite an emotional one for some so I really appreciate the maturity in the comments made here.

Thanks :)

[HollyHotLips]

I am for it, why should people be left to suffer if they want a way out?

As for suicidal people... TBH I think if someone is at that dark desperate stage they will find a way to do it and if someone wants to take their own life who are we to say no?

JMHO

[WorkingClassMum]

Firstly suicide and euthanasia are totally different - depression is more often than not treatable and needn't ever end in death.

I'm about to have dinner - but will be back later for a looong post

[MumNeedsCoffee]

I have to agree that suicide and euthanasia are totally different

Many people who have been suicidal and survived have gone on to say how thankful they are for getting help
I tried to end my life when I had PND, I was in a dark place where it seemed that there was no way out. And thankfully I was placed in a psychiatrict intensive care unit to keep me safe and on the road to recovery.
And I've been told stories by a firefighter who has attended suicide scenes where the person survived, after shooting themselves in the head and swallowing acid. And despite some horrific injuries they were grateful to be alive.

I agree to some degree with euthanasia.
If there is no quality of life, if they are suffering pain from cancer. I think if I were in that position I would want the choice.

But there are too many scenarios where it may be the wrong choice, too many questions to legalise it.

[WorkingClassMum]

I do not apologise if my post is emotive - cos i think that the law makers need to feel the emotions that sufferers and their family and carers go through

My grandma slipped away several years before her brain and body realised.

A picture paints a thousand words, well I don't have enough words to describe the pathetic existence my grandma was forced to endure, and no pictures could ever express enough the pain that I feel as I watched her suffer and fade.

My grandma was a ballroom teacher in her hey day, and she wore corsets, silk stockings and changed her clothes to just go to the milkbar.

She wore a fresh face everyday, had a permanent booking with her hairdresser and had a manicure on a very regular basis. She took extream care of her face and body, excercised regularly in the days before ladies ever raised a sweat in public and also went to yoga one a week. She never lounged in a chair, maintaining a rod-like back. Never crossed her legs, sipped tea with a raised pinky. My grandma was an amazing lady that raised her two boys, and then just a few years later raised three grandchildren and also took on and nursed her FIL - 4 generations in one house, and she still looked a million dollars every morning.

The old women I visited in the nursing home looked a bit like Grandma, and sometimes you could hear something in her voice, but really she'd long since slipped away.

The old lady I visited had advanced dementia - just as well - cos if she had of realised that she was now wearing tracksuit pants - she'd died of embarressment.

The old lady I visited - who once cared for me as a child and licked tissues to wipe my face or scraped knee now dribbled food down her chin onto her stained ill fitting shirt. I now wiped her face and fed her mush - 'cos she had forgotten how to chew.

She always smelt like wee - cos she just wet herself whenever. Diabetes, blindenss and deafness, angina and high blood pressure and a constant UTI and bladder and kidney infection was just the start of aged diseases that ravaged her once proud, fit magnificant body.

I changed her clothes on a few occassions - that should never have been my job and she would have been mortified only a few brain cells ago.

She had abcessess under her empty paps that hung to her waist - her body was consuming itself and left pouches of skin...

She had nappy rash and wee burns, and excretement still stuck to her legs. I used DS's wipes and nappy creams to clean her up and sooth her 'nappy area'.

She was skeletal, her body was failing. Her hair had fallen out in clumps, her skin was paper thin, and easily bruised. Her nails were brittle, yellowed, split, thickened and peeling. Her hands that sewed a thousand seems were knotted and swollen and red. Her arthritis meant she could no longer hold herself upright and all her mediactions kept on clashing. Her spine was twisting and she could no longer walk unsupported.

But she hummed those blessed waltzs, and just catching one of those tunes these days just about breaks my heart.

No-one should ever have been allowed to exist in that much pain and suffering - and in my mind - that much disgusting ignomy.

Please don't mistake me - the nursing home was excellent - just the dementia, diabetes and UTI's etc meant she just wee-ed and wee-ed. She tore out a catheter, so there was nothing left but nappies.

Every time I visited I had to tell her who DS was. Sometimes, early on she thought that DS was my father, and she'd cry when I left that a woman (me) was taking her baby. After awhile she even forgot she had family.

My dog broke her leg, the vet xrayed, she had cancer and we put her down - it was all within a day. My old girl was granted more dignity and respect than my very beloved and missed Grandma.

My ex's Opa was diagnosed with a brain tumor a few years earlier - and 6 months later he went to sleep forever with the assistance of his Dr with peace, and dignity and his own election.

Why why why must we further degrade our sick and elderly to appease some god-like moralistic idealology that we shouldn't end a life? To have let my grandma go would have only meant the stilling of a beating heart, cos she had slipped away several years earlier

No-one should ever ever have to go through what society put my grandma and many other elderly and sick people suffer.

[Whispers]

I am all for it, it is the own persons choice it is their life no-one should be able to tell them they must suffer :no:

[MumNeedsCoffee]

WorkingClassMum - :hugs: I haven't been in your position but I understand and agree with your post.

My grandmother passed away just before xmas.
She has begged family for years not to put her in a nursing home when the time comes.
She was starting to lose mobility.

She was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour in August last year.
When the doctor sat her down to tell her the news she laughed. He told her it wasn't a joke. And she replied that she got her wish that she would never have to be put in a nursing home.

[overitand36]

i am totally for it

my husband is a nurse i now understand some of the horrid ways people can die or should I say live a vegetable, or siting in your own body fluids waiting to be changed like a baby not knowing what day it is or remembering your own husband

the horrid stories of nursing homes are not any better

we have a green needle policy (sorry if offends anyone) with a list of things that could possibly happen if any of these are to happen then i would want to be put down

yes given a needle and put to sleep if its cruel for animals to be kept alive then why people

[bronny-jane]

It is sad to watch people you love slowly crumble and become a shadow of the person they used to be :(

:iagree: my mum spent her last 6 weeks confined to bed, just breathing made her tired... however, she still wouldnt of chosen to end her life, just wasnt her, but it should be an option for those who do..