Shoutbox

Euthanasia is something I believe everyone has the right to... as suicide. However, suicide is illegal (before you pick me up on it - attempted suicide is illegal, performed suicide is equally illegal but they won't lock up dead bodies )... isn't euthanasia suicide? So if we legalise euthanasia, don't we have to legalise suicide? Because if we don't, people could be pretending to be in great pain, etc. and just as with abortion, it will become overused. The only other viewpoint is that euthanasia is murder, and we can't legalise murder.

I personally really don't see what everyone has against euthanasia. Actually, I feel as strongly as CookieRevised, although I've never been put in the situation of knowing someone in that condition before.

quote:

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Originally posted by thekid
If the patient is untreatable, he should wait until the time comes.
Everybody should wait...

The patient might not want to put more burden on his family. So he chooses euthanasia.
Back to my first point, he needs help, especially from the family.
I don't want to be rude, but, if the family doesn't want or is unable to support him and the patient choose euthanasia approved by himself, his family, the doctors and judge, then the family is the murder.

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Hold on - aren't you saying that euthanasia is simply an easy route to suicide? Euthanasia is not comparable with suicide in any real sense, because it only happens to those in great pain and suffering, not just those in mental trauma (although I admit that should be reconsidered too). Suicide is only for those depressed with life, and although the boundary may be fuzzy, there is a boundary between euthanasia and suicide.

My opinion: legalise euthanasia. Although there will be many debates about where suicide stops and euthanasia begins, and also maybe even court appearances for unsure cases, it is really the patient's right. Anyone has the right to do what they like. You could buy twelve bottles of vodka and get completely smashed, or you could buy thousands of cigarettes and destroy your lungs, or you could go and buy two bottles of paracetamol (two bottles is the legal limit) and overdose, or you could go and work with anthrax, or anything like that, legally (within age restrictions) - but as soon as you find an intended death by any of these methods it becomes illegal. Why?

The one thing that makes me unsure of euthanasia is the implications that we should legalise suicide following on from that. Suicide is different (but related), and we shouldn't really treat them as the same entity. Same with murder. As long as the patient consents (in writing, in front of witnesses, etc.) euthanasia should be legal.

Phew... long reply.