> Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Argument against assisted suicide by a member of Not > Dead Yet: > > http://www.ragged-edge-mag.com/0598/d598ft1.htm
I'm going to excerpt a bit from this; my personal bias is that a competent adult, who is not suffering from acute depression or some other temporary mental impairment, has the right to choose to die, if their medical condition/prognosis is terminal or completely incapacitating. I faced the probablity of such a choice years ago -- fortunately for me, the diagnosis was incorrect; also fortunately for me, I did not accept the 'long shot/only option' treatment advised, which would have left me permanently damaged. (OK, you jokers, more damaged than I am anyway. <wry>) "...Arguments for the legalization of assisted suicide typically build on the Freedom Premise by identifying the claim that people should be permitted to commit suicide with the claim that they should be able to commit suicide. But these two claims are not the same. Moreover, they typically include the assertion that assisted suicide harms nobody. But that's not true..." Nobody I know would claim that assisted suicide harms nobody; after all, someone *dies*. We pet owners suffer when we must make the decision to euthanize our cats or dogs; how much more grievous must it be to accept a loved person's death choice? How agonizing it it to have somebody look at you and say "Please help me leave?" That last is not a rhetorical question, BTW. "...The move from permitted to able seems clear enough, but it isn't. "Anne should be permitted to do what she likes," the way it's normally taken, is not the same as "Anne should be able to do what she likes." If Anne should be permitted to do something, then Ben shouldn't be allowed to interfere with her doing it. If Anne should be able to do something, then she might reasonably demand of Ben that he help her out..." No one should be _required_ to aid anyone die; AFAIK, no physician in Oregon (where there is a law in effect) is so required. Someone posted that law/link here previously; as I recall, it requires 2 physicians to certify the terminal/permanent or deteriorating condition, has a waiting period (2 or 4 weeks?), and a mental competency determination. It cannot be done on a whim. "...But when people with disabilities are routinely denied those things that they need to live their lives in ways that they value, offering easy access to death is a form of pressure. Anyway, suppose society does decide that it has a responsibility to help people die if they're bad at suicide. Who would that be? Not just disabled people. Women. Men are responsible for the vast majority of actual suicides, but if you take a look at the statistics on total attempts - both successful and failed - that's mostly women..." ??? Blurred vision a bit? No doctor I know thinks they are obligated to "help people die if they're bad at suicide." Or that disabled folk don't deserve to live the fullest lives they are capable of, or that women are less deserving of mental health care (IMO women attempt suicide more often as a badly misguided cry for help) than men. "...Not Dead Yet has an analysis of the situation that demonstrates pretty clearly that it's not just the people choosing to die who are harmed. It's all of us...When our doctors, many of whom already believe that our lives are not worth living, are offered a chance to do something about it at the same time that the HMOs are punishing them for giving us access to the treatments we need to live, when our families are punished for having us as members but our relatives are excluded from the laws against killing us, we are all at risk. And when our very lives are at risk from those closest to us, we are harmed. So we can counter claims about Freedom with demands for Justice..." This is over the top of Hoover. And a little confusing to me in that 3rd from the last sentence; maybe I'm just being dense about the punishing and excluding. I didn't see the Frontline program on Growing Old last night, but I suspect they addressed this as well. Debbi who has faced this issue from multiple angles, and believes that each person has the right and responsibility to decide how to live their own lives - or end it ____________________________________________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. http://new.mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
