Euthanasia Should Be Legally Painless

[xchrom]

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-07-15/euthanasia-should-be-legally-painless



Ever watched a loved one die in a hospital bed, insensate from morphine, hands that made dinner, earned the rent, wiped away tears and raised a child bruised and swollen after one too many stabbings to find a vein?

If not, you probably will, ears straining for the final rattle in the throat and the skipped breath. And you'll probably wonder: Is this the way life ends, not with a bang, not with rage against the dying of the light, but only the prolonged agony of awaiting the inevitable? And you may also start to think: Maybe the folks at Dignitas in Switzerland are onto something with their assisted-suicide program for the terminally ill?

And maybe the U.K. has noticed. Later this week, the House of Lords will debate "a bill to enable competent adults who are terminally ill to be provided at their request with specified assistance to end their own life," which is only the second stage in a long parliamentary process before it even gets to the House of Commons to have a chance of becoming law.

The Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland allow some form of assisted dying, as do the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana and New Mexico. More countries, including the U.K., should follow suit.

[NaturalHigh]

1. I couldn't agree more.

The decision to end one's own life should be afforded dignity without judgement.

[RKP5637]

2. Definitely! Why prolong pain and suffering, who is that being done for, to what benefit. I've

had several family members die horrific deaths in late age, and several with cancer when younger.

[Dustlawyer]

3. My dad lived with the effects of Congestive Heart failure for many years.

The last two years were tough to watch. By that point, my dad, mom and all of us kids were in agreement that we wished he would hurry up and go, not because of the enormous expense, but because he was suffering horribly. He had zero quality of life and wanted to go. He was too old for a transplant (unless everyone signed organ donor cards, which for some reason they don't), so there was nothing they could do. No one wants to die that hard! He said he had lost his dignity having so many nurses and assistants bath him, help him pee and crap. He was weak, and in pain constantly, and towards the last couple of years he was slowly suffocating. He would have probably taken his own life but for the suicide exclusion in his Life Insurance policy.

Miss you dad!

[LisaLynne]

4. I'm sorry about your dad.

It's hard enough to lose someone, but to have to watch them suffer is just not right. This is really something we as a society need to address.

[Hoppy]

5. New Jersey legislature just gave up a feeble attempt to enact assisted suicide.

Last edited Tue Jul 15, 2014, 09:26 AM - Edit history (1)

This was followed in the Star-Ledger by op-eds from people worrying about heirs putting pressure on grandpa to pull the plug.

These people are really afraid of their own death and that Jesus won't be there for them. And guess what? They're right. There ain't no Jesus in the sky and he won't be waiting there for them.

They really piss me off.

[NaturalHigh]

8. You're pissed off at people afraid of their own deaths?

That's pretty common, I think.

[Hoppy]

9. What I am really cranked off about is when they respond to this fear

by trying to run everyone else's life.

[yellowwoodII]

6. So right

Here is another place where religions that we don't necessarily agree with are telling us what we can do with our bodies. So inhumane

[dembotoz]

7. legally AND physically painless

it may sound perverse but i really liked the scene in Soylent Green where to old guy went off to the place where he
died.

[whatthehey]

10. Hasten the day

In a civilized world even the terminally ill part should not be necessary. If we don't own our own lives, are we really free?

[smirkymonkey]

11. I am all for legally painless euthanasia. I hope to make use of it myself one day.

I would much rather have the option of a painless, peacefull, controlled death in a hospital than to have to choose an ugly, painful, lonely death where family members would have to find my body and deal with the aftermath. I think a hospital death is much more humane and rational.

[MindPilot]

12. Having to change dad's diapers kind of changes one's perspective.

I watched my dad die slowly and painfully over the course of about 18 months from complications surrounding diabetes.

My dog is afforded more dignity than my father.

[xchrom]

14. it does indeed. nt

[Warpy]

13. One thing I've noticed quite often among the dying

is that they start refusing pain medication when they're hours away from death. It seems to be something that they want to face with a clear head, even if it means all the pain comes crashing in. It's almost one of the signs that death is coming quickly.

I do know from the times I was close that pain becomes irrelevant, it's there but not important at all.

They have also had relatively few people take the chemical way out. My own mother didn't end up using it. Like too many people in Washington and Oregon, she felt it was sufficient to have it available in case things got too hard.

Everyone dying slowly should have the option. It's the only truly compassionate thing to do. Most will probably not use it as limited assisted suicide has already shown. It should be available because as soon as the fear of having it get too hard is taken away, people relax and enjoy what time they have left.

I suppose that's why the godly fight it. They seem to want us to wring every bit of misery out of a prolonged death that we can.