What's your view on euthanasia?
 

In the Netherlands the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act took effect on April 1, 2002. It legalizes euthanasia and physician assistance in dying in certain circumstances.

Last week, a good friend of mine had to go through something I hope to never experience.
His mother was terminally ill with cancer and she asked her doctor for "assisted suicide" which she personally had to sign for.
The doctor discussed it with her and they both eventually decided to go through with it on Tuesday 8th august at 16:00PM in the afternoon. In the days after that, the whole family gathered together at her bedside to pay their last respects and farewells.
The doctor arrived at 15:50pm on the Wednesday and at 16:00PM she was administered the first injection to let her calmly fall asleep. The second one stopped her heart.
I'm dwelling with the thought of it for a few days now thinking that it could have been my mom in that bed. What bothered me the most was...
what do you say the best mom in the world in those last moments before she prepares herself for the big sleep?
I thought about it hard and long and realised that the only thing that would matter to her the most would be to say, "I love you mom".

That incident broke my heart and left a permanent scar in my mind...

Firstly, I think it's important to realise that doctors and family members take part in euthanasia on a very regular basis by giving patients too many painkillers to end their lives. In that respect, I find it strange that our country happily accepts euthanasia already, yet rejects the idea of legalising it.

Secondly I would say that despite finding it in some ways an unsettling concept, yes I agree with it. I believe in liberty and the freedom to make one's own decisions; I'm therefoe compelled to accept that people should be trusted to know when things are simply too bad for them. The overriding issue that should be taken into account is the quality of life of a patient from the patient's viewpoint.

My mum died following a stroke. She was in a coma for two weeks after the stroke, and after about three days of that coma we knew she wasn't going to come out of it. For those few days she would react in small ways to our voices, squeeze our hands ever so slightly, stuff like that, but those reactions became less and less. To be honest though, we were all glad she wasn't going to recover. Had she come round there was little chance that she would be the same person that she was before the stroke, but I don't think we could have brought ourselves to actually ask a doctor to cause her death to happen. As the days went on, we were waiting for her to die, and we all felt terrible that we were more or less praying for the death of this lady who we all loved. We all knew that she knew during her life that we loved her, but nevertheless we were saddened that weren't able to tell her that one last time. Several times she seemed as if her death was imminent, but each time she rallied and fought on. On the night that she finally died, we seemed to in some way know that the end was near. I can't say how, we just felt it, the deterioration in her condition seemed different, but despite that I went home for some rest, because there had been so many false alarms. Before I went though, I hugged her and thanked her for being a good mum. Every time that I had gone home before then I had just kissed her on her forehead and said goodnight. To this day I don't know why I did that, I just did. Ten minutes after I got home the phone rang and it was the hospital to tell me that she had died. I'm always glad that before she died I had thanked her for her motherhood.

I haven't voted on the poll, because it's just too close to home, and I know that while euthanasia seems kind for someone whose condition is terminal, the decision just isn't as easy as that.

i would want it if i were in pain and had no quality of life whatsoever. that said, it is hard knowing that you have made a decision to end the life of another. something that has happened twice in my life.

What's all this I keep hearing about "youth in Asia?"

Huh... Oh... Well, that's very different. Never mind.

fuck, i'm so sorry. i was going to post a smartass reply and then i read your post. for the record, i voted "yes" to terminate my own life under certain circumstances. but knowing what happened to your family, i'll shut my piehole.

If I were a human vegetable, I would want someone to kill me. What's the fucking point of living in that state if you can't do anything?

i wrote a whole research paper in the 10th grade defending euthanasia, both passive and active (in a catholic school, no less!). the whole debate revolves around the question, who owns your life? if your existence is purely a "gift" from god or the like, than you have an obligation to remain on earth, and to take it, even in the most extreme of circumstances, would be patently immoral, as it would be "playing god" or "being ungrateful" or whatever. however, if you are master of your own destiny and your life belongs to you (as it does and should), then no other power may legitimately compel you to remain alive against your will. especially in situations in which someone is terminally ill and wishes to die (either by a DNR order or pressing a suicide button or the like), the fact that any government would deny one that right, generally citing religious authorities as justification no less, is utterly abominable; it's an absolute slap in the face to the whole "right to life" tenet on which virtually all of western political philosophy is based (for, if you have the right to direct the course of your life freely, and your death is obviously an integral part of your life, then it must follow that you have the right to freely direct the course of your death if you choose to do so). obviously, there are certain situations in which gratuitously offing oneself would in fact be immoral, but all that is outside any government's legitimate locus of control, because the government's only responsibility is to protect one's individual freedoms, not to uphold the collective moral fabric as it so often attempts (and almost uniformly fails) to do.

I had to write a paper that was against euthanasia. I didn't get to decide which side I was defending. Two people got put into a topic, and then a coin was flipped. My paper was total crap.

I say yes, but under circumstances, like has been stated by many people, in a very dire condition where there is essentially no quality of life, or in a persistant vegetative state, then yes. But i can only assume that it would be incredibly difficult for family to deal with that decision.