Do the Terminally Ill Have a Right to Die?

Everyone is focussing on physical pain. What if you were diagnosed with dementia? It's not all happy clappy la la land. Some sufferers suffer major personality changes and distress. Not to mention the terrible strain on the family. At the moment it is all downhill from the diagnosis. Drugs may be able to stave it off for a while but currently there is no STOP or REVERSE medication. I would not want to live like this and it is my choice.
I think you should be able to make a living will in the event of your getting a terminal illness. That would be properly witnessed and also re-assessed on an annual basis.

Originally posted by sugarcookie1

Originally posted by AllIsOne
reply to post by sugarcookie1

 

I believe euthanasia to be a human right.

www.exitinternational.net...

Blessings!

Thank you for the link it was a good read..one day the USA might consider this option i hope ..

You are very welcome. That "option" is available to any citizen of the world who is able to travel to Switzerland.

As another poster has mentioned before it is done in the US as well. Albeit under more cover.

Blessings!

reply to post by sugarcookie1


May I project a sense of gratitude and admiration for your posts. It warms my heart to see an individual taking time to read peoples post, regardless of length and responding with insight. I felt the need to let you know and acknowledge your contribution to this thread. So thank you.

In addition, I would like to state that we are all "terminal". All of our bodies have an expiration date, regardless of medical advancements. Your life regardless of how you view it, is yours.

From an openly spiritual perspective, life is more than flesh and bone, and the doors of imagination, and possibilities beyond this physical world out weigh all the fear and anxiety that can be fathom surrounding the death of the vessels; that are our bodies. Whatever may lie beyond this, if anything. We should be able to chose when to step through that door above all things.

They should. It is not our place or the Government's place to judge the quality of life of another. If you don't walk in that person's shoes you cannot see what they are going through.

Even my perspective on the mentally ill has changed after I met a woman that went through 15 years of

psychiatric care,
medication change,
released to the custody of another adult,
find new residence,
sickness from medication,
medication becomes ineffective,
breakdown.....start over.

She was emotionally exhausted and told me soon she would end this cycle. Which she in did last spring.

reply to post by sugarcookie1


It's cool, I wasn't implying your a quitter =)

My dog was very ill and I told the vet to end it, he wanted me to change my mind but I knew how much pain she had. I told him that I'm doing this for her not for me.

He was in it for the money, I simply wanted her pain to end.

If we are able to take that descision clear headedly about a dog why not a human? Why are people so afraid of death? It's almost not normal. Sure a human life has worth but living in itself has no worth it is how you live your life and how you feel. If someone is dead in his mind why torture him by keeping him alive for your own skewed delusion of life?

The people that arn't permitted to die are living because of our fear of death, and they suffer tremendously for the flaws of our society. No goverment should take away the right to live or die. It is an individual choice, we were all born on this earth free. We made institutions that binded us together under common princpiles which we adhear to, but this institution of the people has become the leader of the people and is going against majority's in some of it's laws and regulations. People have forgotten that they are free, free to live and free to die.

in one very, very simple reply
\
all men have a choice, women included

those under 18 aT DISCRETION

reply to post by starchild10


I appreciate your post. My husband has dementia. He is in a nursing home. I took care of him for years before placing him. I just couldn't do it anymore. I've wondered many times if he would want to live like this for a long time, or be allowed to end it all. It is so devastating.

reply to post by DrChuck


My friend, I am a retired nurse. Many times, in the hospital, terminally ill patients were given narcotic medication, frequently, to accelerate their death. Doctors do write orders for that, not all, but most. I had absolutely no problem with it. And for the most part, families wanted it.

reply to post by sugarcookie1


It's their life, they should be allowed to do whatever they want with it. I know for certain that if I ever become paralysed (or worse) I am booking a flight to Switzerland straight away.

Originally posted by Starwise
reply to post by sugarcookie1

 

As a nurse, I frequently work with death and dying patients. What you are describing is called COMFORT CARE. Often the patient is either sent home with a prescription or while in the hospital is placed on a IV PCA Pump with morphine or other medications to help *EASE PAIN and SUFFERING* But in reality it is a *TYPE* of euthanasia because it always results in death.

There are so many loop holes for the doctors to allow it so that it does not appear as true euthanasia. Usually if the patient is of sound mind, they can sign a DNR form for a Do Not Resuscitate order prior to prescription administration. If the patient has dementia for example, another family member who is the legal guardian can request the comfort care. Its all about letting the patient die without pain and suffering yes, but the meds actually cause the respirations to become less and less while keeping patient either asleep and unaware or asleep and unaware......

Howver I have seen so many times patients waking up for a few minutes when a family member has not been present arrives for a final goodbye.....It always brings tears to my eyes.....

Yes, absolutely. I am a retired nurse and I have seen the same. I had no problem with it at all. In fact, it was a relief to both staff and family.

We believe ourselves to be in free possession of our own lives. "Euthenasia" would legally solve the problem opened when a man cannot kill himself.

I think it's absolutely necessary to Euthenasia to be legal. While it's not (altough it may sound quite a paradox) we wont be in full possession of our own lives.

The truth is that everyone can choose to end their own life at any time they chose to.

The legal crap rears it's ugly head when those that wish to end it all are not physically able to carry out the deed on their own and require assistance from loved one's or professionals.

The one's that lend assistance are ironically the one's that loose the quality of the rest of their lives, having to endure lengthy prison time, because the person they helped had no quality of life either.

We wouldn't hesitate to allow an animal to die if it was suffering miserably and had no chance of recovery or a meaningful life...do we care more about the unnecessary suffering of animals than that of human beings?

The evidence says that we do.

People should have the right to choose. Life is unbearable when you are terminally ill at times (I know as I am) and I am grateful that I live in a country where the right to choose is an option which I have taken. I will choose my moment when I no longer have good days but only pain. No body knows how long that will be and it makes life so strange but definitely precious. Life is precious and we should therefore give people that KNOW that this is a fact the power to choose.

Originally posted by DrChuck
I can get dismissed from medical school for what I am about to post. In fact, this subject is almost nonexistant and certainly not condoned in med school. It is quietly accepted that no doctor will do such things. We are to learn, practice, graduate, go out into the world to improve the quality of life, curtail pandemics, heal the wounded and soothe the troubled mind.

Primum non Nocere, probably the most emphasized idea in medicine. First do no harm. That is a given, a physician with their accumulated knowledge has the power to prolong, enhance, improve, debilitate, complicate and terminate life. And with such potent knowledge, it must be ensured that those who possess it must use it for the benefit of his fellow man. A noble and extraordinary position.

But we tend to forget the "improve the quality of life" part. We tend to be so blinded by the sanctimonious nobility of saving lives, that we set aside those who suffer unimaginable agony that cannot be helped. We have no answer for them, other than making them comfortable. But what if that isn't enough? Isn't it also our duty to extend compassion and empathy?

If all else fails, and there is absolutely no hope, I would rather a man go peacefully with dignity and respect. But that decision is certainly not mine to make. If the patient decides that he/she cannot bear the pain and wishes to no longer extend their agony, they have every right to make that decision. To deny them that, is no different from denying treatment to a curable patient who is capable of living a beautiful life.

edit on 4-4-2011 by DrChuck because: (no reason given)

I am an RN and almost daily,(which makes my life pretty hard sometimes.) experience death of a patient who has been placed on comfort care prescribed by the MD after speaking with the patient and family. It is well known in the hospital environment that the physicians help end life in a dignified manner. No its not written in the notes that this patient was euthanized. It is written, *Patient is comfortable and without distress, respirations even and unlabored*
....just like nursing school, I imagine medical school is the same, ONCE YOU ARE IN THE REAL WORLD......You see the truth and how the medical field truly works.....
HARM NONE is Correct, so letting a patient suffer is causing harm.....When faced with a terminal disease DNR is their OUT..........
Good Luck in School

mom told me to get her euthanized if she ever gets hemiparesis (runs in the family(.

I didn't read the other posts, just the opening question.
To me the answer is clear (it's over 20 years old as I wrote a dissertation on the topic - in dutch and in the pre-pc era) :
every person has the right to end his or her life, without any other condition (so to me you don't even have to be terminally ill), as it's your life and there's no authority entitled to take that right away.

but than again, I'm a liberal, a sociologist and an atheist with pretty strong anti-catholic tendencies.

"Ni Dieu Ni Maitre"

thanks for raising the question.

Originally posted by NeverSleepingEyes
"...but than again, I'm a liberal, a sociologist and an atheist with pretty strong anti-catholic tendencies."

All that you wrote is how I feel and think in regards to a person's 'right' to life/death. What is not the same is the following.....Some would call me "conservative", I don't buy into the soft sciences and I am hardly an atheist (more in line with a deist.

Labels are just that. They do not determine such larger questions ask these unless we allow ourselves to be clumped into the larger masses.

Originally posted by Starwise

I am an RN and almost daily,(which makes my life pretty hard sometimes.) experience death of a patient who has been placed on comfort care prescribed by the MD after speaking with the patient and family. It is well known in the hospital environment that the physicians help end life in a dignified manner. No its not written in the notes that this patient was euthanized. It is written, *Patient is comfortable and without distress, respirations even and unlabored*
....just like nursing school, I imagine medical school is the same, ONCE YOU ARE IN THE REAL WORLD......You see the truth and how the medical field truly works.....
HARM NONE is Correct, so letting a patient suffer is causing harm.....When faced with a terminal disease DNR is their OUT..........
Good Luck in School

edit on 4-4-2011 by Starwise because: (no reason given)

Thanks for letting me know how the real world works, your post is actually a relief. I honestly had pondered upon this subject as well as had debates with my fellow classmates on it. The foundation of my side of the debate was always patient autonomy, while others pushed preservation of life at all cost. As long as the patient is able to make a competent informed decision, whatever he/she chooses to do with oneself is their God given right.

Originally posted by abaraikenshi
I agree, euthanasia should be legal. If I were terminal and less than 6 months, I'd do it, I wouldn't subject myself to the pain and torture. Those people who are terminal, are in more pain than we will ever know.

As far as family is concerned, if one of my parents were in those shoes and decided they wanted to end it all, I'd be upset, sure, but I'd see the bigger picture and be content about it and rejoice in my belief that, I'll see them sometime later.

ETA: S&F!! (Perhaps my first star and flag, ever!)

edit on 4-4-2011 by abaraikenshi because: (no reason given)

Thank you for your post and lets hope you never have to face that decision with a family member and thanks for your frist S&F but it really wasnt needed