Doctor Assisted Suicide

[Zephyr]

Do you find doctor assisted suicide to be wrong and immoral or an act of mercy?

On one hand, is every life worth saving?

And on the other, if somebody proves that they want to die and test as a hopeless case beyond all doubt, should we grant them their wish to no longer carry on with life?

[Requin]

I think you can only come to a conclusion on this subject is to actually meet someone who has a horrible illness or paralysis and see what you think then.
You have to ask yourself, how would I feel if I was them? In constant pain and suffering?

I think if they want too, and their life is hard to live. Then yes, I think we should let them have it.
Why not? It's their life and their the ones who are suffering, not the courts, or doctors.

[INFERNO]

If the patient has some sort of illness that doctors cannot currently cure, meaning the patient slowly dies in agony and does wish for their life and pain to be over, then yes. Also, the doctors should check if the patient has a history of attempted suicides to ensure that this simply isn't the patient wanting to end their life for whatever reason other than due to some horrible illness. Before doctor-assisted suicide is done, I think all other methods should already be attempted and have failed.

My grandmother was in her retirement home slowly dying regardless of what the doctors did. One of the choices would've been surgery (for heart/lungs) but due to her extremely weakened state, the anathesia or surgery would've killed her anyways. So instead of watching her slowly die we proposed the idea to just kill her and she was begging before to be killed. She got "put to sleep" and that was that, the world kept on spinning.

[Atonement]

I believe that if the circumstances are right, such as an incurable disease, agony of life sure to come, and sufffering is pronounced, then I believe if is mercy. No, if there is hope for the person to live and live with the basic necessities of life, I believe its murder. But, I think if someone is going to not be able to have a life, like enjoy anything, be able to experience anything, then I support it. Well not even support it, but support the allowance of it.

But I believe that if someone is going to give up on life for that aspect, I believe that their bodies should be put to good use and studied to help PREVENT having to assist suicide later in another patient that is terminally ill. So, if they are going to kill one, they have to put that body to help save another. Personal opinion.

[Sapphire]

If a slowing, agonising death is inevitable and the individual wants to be put out of their misery then I do believe it should be allowed.
The only way that this could be effectively monitered and not exploited would be for it to be approved by the judicial system.

[Camazotz]

I believe the victim has a right to choose if they want to keep on living. If not, let them die.

[CaptainObvious]

I believe every capable adult should have the right to control all aspects of their life... including when that life ends. So yes, I support doctor-assisted suicide.

[Trickster]

Yes, if they have an illness, are in constant pain or is going to die and will just be depressed for the rest of their life then it ok to pull the plug. I wouldnt want my last moments to be in pain but surrounded by loved ones doing me an act of mercy. IF they have a possibility to live then i count that as a kill, if money is an issue then you can have a fund-raiser, care wash, a Strip show for gods sake! It get the money so they can live.
Also if its just a person who wants to end their life for some personal problem like boyfriend problems or "life is worth living anymore" or "God hates me" crap then no they should stop being a baby and live on.
They should ask the patient like 100 times or so "Are you sure?" because you dont want them to have regrets.

[INFERNO]

If the patient is determined to end their life due to depression or some other reason other than an extremely painful disease or such, asking 100 times is unlikely to give a different answer. I think doctor-assisted suicide would be particularly difficult if the person has a strong history of suicide attempts and has some horrible illness because it'd be hard to know for certain if it was the depression/suicide history talking or the illness.

[Sapphire]

To prevent this type of thing happening because the patient is depressed or the relatives are too greedy to wait for their inheritance a judicial proceeding should take place. This would see all the aspects of the individuals case and be able to judge clearly whether euthanasia (for that is what this is) is truly in the best interests of the patient.

If anyone from within the situation (including the doctor) were responsible for deciding/authorising this, they would be too involved to provide an impartial and unbaised opinion. A judge would be better placed to do this.

[nachtspiegel]

I am really tied when it comes to this, primarily because of cases like Terri Schiavo, as noted here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Schiavo). My main point about it is: if you wouldn't want to live in a painful state, or in a state from which you would most likely never improve, make sure you have it documented. And, I feel that if a patient is fully aware and medically sound to make a decision that he or she should be monitored, that there should be a waiting period, and that there should be psychiatric and judicial involvement.

[AutumnDae]

I don't think that it should be allowed. Most of us have had suicidal thoughts, correct? And usually after a few days/weeks you are over it. Imagine if you went to a doctor in that time, and you got help killing yourself.

I do believe every life is worth saving. If you have been depressed for a long time, there is some chance that you can come out of it. If you had killed yourself, well you aren't coming out of it anymore.

[Church]

I think the choice is yours, if you wanna die go for it