Should active euthanasia be legal?

**TheGreatSombrero** · Joined: 29 Jun 2007 Posts: 612 Location: Bloomington, IN

I think that if the state has the right to take my life, then I should have the right to make the same decision.

Whether someone else has the right to get involved is a sticky issue, how exactly do you define the boundary between assisted suicide and first degree murder? If you place an add on the internet wanting to be cannibalized, and someone takes you up on it, is that assisted suicide? While I do believe that assisted suicide should be legal in a free country, I don't know where I would draw that line.
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**altairian** · Joined: 25 Jan 2008 Posts: 593

**Archang3L** · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 2:39 pm Post subject:

As long as the person is able to make that decision, or they've written it in their will before falling ill or being injured, I think that forcing someone to keep on existing in a life of pain is a horrible thing to do.

It's their life. It's their decision. Simple as that.
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**twistedoak** · Joined: 06 Sep 2007 Posts: 1152

If a person still has full facilities of their mind or has it written in a legal document (i.e. will), they should be able to have the right to die.

If I have a form of terminal cancer which will absolutely kill me in a very painful way that will cost my family tons of money and put them into debt which they might never recover from, I would rather die.
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**OnionPowder** · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 4:09 pm Post subject:

**thegibbonator** · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:42 pm Post subject:

I think it should be legal given that the circumstances demand it. When people are terminally ill it seems far more cruel to deny them an easier way to end their suffering. I do agree that it should be agreed upon by at least two doctors though; it shouldn't be possible for people to pass off murders as active euthanasia or to get euthanasia when it isn't necessary.
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**sedron** · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 8:26 pm Post subject:

I think as long as the circumstances are unusually painful and there's a general concensus amongst doctors that this may be allowed, it should be legalized. However, it must be handled very, very carefully. I think most precautions have already been dealt with, but if the substance being injected for the suicide is used for no reason other than death, then it must only exist in very limited quantities within hospitals. It would be a bad idea for much of the stuff to be lying around. The doctors allowing the procedure should have their backgrounds as doctors checked very carefully to make sure it isn't possible for murders to be passed off this way. Forced signatures could be a problem, though. It may be better to just have people in these predicaments opt out of life support and such, but I don't know exactly how painful or peaceful that is.

**MisterMcLov1n** · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 8:32 pm Post subject:

It most definitely depends on the circumstances. If someone has absolutely no chance of becoming healthy and are in constant pain (physical), they have the unalienable right to request being put out of their misery. However, if it's someone who's just fallen under tough times should not abuse the system.
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**Oyoefpoefpoef** · Joined: 15 Aug 2008 Posts: 174

Well no, because then how do you differ between assisted suicide and murder? It's just a technical problem, but a big one.
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**this1neguy** · Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 5444 Location: Flint, MI

I guess I'm going to have to (fuck, why did Pandora just start playing "Attack" AGAIN??? I hate 30 Seconds to Mars) - anyway, I'm going to have to go along with general consensus. If circumstances dictate that death is indeed a preferable alternative to the reality in which a person if being forced to exist, then by all means they should be granted the option to end it painlessly.

However, the point where the line blurs is an interesting one. The previous "forced-signatures-legalize-murder" argument is definitely one to worry about. Patients at the point where they would be willing to take their own lives are often so far gone that it doesn't much matter anyway - where is the point where legal documents could clearly say "This person is sick enough that taking their own life is a fair option"? And if that line's not defined well enough, who's to say that someone might not forge a signature and have the person killed - that's murder, no ifs, ands, or buts.

It's a difficult conundrum, but I think that as long as the law specifies clearly enough the point at which assisted suicide is an option, then by all means those terminally ill patients should be able to be granted a dignified death.

I do have some perspective on this as well. My grandfather on my mother's side never took care of himself well - he had diabetes and never treated it, he drank and ate far too much. Almost two years ago he was hospitalized with a variety of symptoms that essentially added up to old age and ill health. After being released from the hospital, he was alright for a few months before relapsing into deep sickness. This time, he never regained health. He was placed in hospice care, which is where I saw him for the last time last October. His life had degenerated to the point where all he was able to do was breathe: he slept, could not eat or use the restroom on his own. The entire weekend I was there he didn't wake up, nor did he so much as talk in his fitful sleep. The day after my mother and I left he died.
For the months my grandfather spent in the hospital, he did little more than what I just described. Was this any sort of life worth living? Did the fact that he held on for as long as he did give any solace to my mother or grandmother?
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**brad16752** · Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 770

My personal opinion..........

Assisted suicide should be legal in all cases as long as both people are willing and the person who is asking, is of sound mind. (It is debatable depending on the case)

I think it would be much less painful to fall asleep and have someone kill you while you slept then to jump off a building, or hang yourself.

**Klaww** · Joined: 01 Mar 2008 Posts: 1296

yes.
I mean, if i ask my friend to kill me, i sure dont want him to go to jail for something i wanted.
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**tantanman** · Joined: 16 Mar 2008 Posts: 272

**cdylan13** · Joined: 14 Aug 2007 Posts: 5828 Location: Richmond, VA

I dont think it should be legal. Its just not right.

**Erodyne** · Joined: 15 Dec 2007 Posts: 1493

To end the suffering if you are going to die of a horrible disease is questionable. I would want to say my last goodbyes, then die without being put through enormous amounts of pain that is incurable. Then I would want to be put down.

Suicide in the term that life isn't going fine and dandy and you want to "end your suffering" should never be made legal. It puts so many people through a bunch of shit processing legal forms and stuff like that, and you are hurting the emotions of everyone that knew/knows you. It's just immoral.