Assisted Suicide

[calgarydave]

So I gather watching the news today that Washington State during the election had a resolution on whether to legalize Assisted Suicide or not, and it passed.

 

Granted I know very little about the details of the resolution but I'm curious what people think about this issue.

 

Personally I think we are kinda messed up on the whole issue. I know its a slippery slope and all. But forcing people to endure great suffering in order to maintain the mantle of all human life is precious is preposterous. Never mind the fact that it is their lives and people should be able to decide for themselves.

 

But it goes deeper than that. One can be charged with a crime for prolonging a sick animals life. But yet the idea of allowing someone to make the descion to end their own suffering is deplorable?? Why is it human to end an animals suffering, but a crime to end our own??

 

(Last year a woman here was charged, not sure what came out of it, with animal cruelty, as her sons hamster had gotten really sick. Now I gather the human society will help put to sleep animals but it still costs money, and this women frankly couldnt afford the fee right away. When she finally could weeks after the hamster got sick and she brought the hamster in to be put to sleep, the human society started to raise a ruckus over the issue.)

[borntohula]

really? over a hamster? that's bizarre.

 

i agree with you on the assisted suicide issue. last year, CTV showed a really interesting documentary on the topic in specific relation to the elderly, and especially those who are terminal. they actually filmed someone doing the procedure, following through with drinking the concoction that the doctor had prescribed for them and everything. it was weird to see someone die on television (especially on CTV), but i think it needed to be seen in order to show the person's own agency in their death as well as how peaceful that death actually was. because they had assistance, they were assured that it would work, and that they would not feel a thing. you can't say the same about other methods of suicide.

 

i've often wondered what i'd do once i reach a certain age in my life. after seeing all of my grandparents suffer with some kind of cancer or terminal disease, and living with that ailment for usually 5+ years, i've definitely considered "leaving when i want to," so that i don't go through excruciating pain, and also so that i don't become a shell of who i once was. i think i've heard most of my grandparents plead with my parents to just "leave them be" and it definitely makes one contemplate the ethics of assisted suicide.

[calgarydave]

The thing about this whole issue that really irked me was a couple years ago, that women in Florida who'd been brain dead but kept alive with the feeding tube for all those years.

 

So it's okay to take the feeding tube out and then let the poor women starve to death. But it's NOT okay to give her a healthy dose of morphine and end it quickly?? I mean yeah its easier to distance yourself from the act of killing. Pulling the feeding tube could be construed as a negative (lack of) action leading to death as opposed to a positive action. But come on. Try starving your dogs and see what happens.

 

I'm young and god forbid I get into a situation where these sort of decisions need to be made, but I've let my family know that if I'm ever a vegetable to pull the plug, and if I faced with the prospect of spending the rest of my life trapped in my body having MS, or bed ridden with cancer or well there's a million such cases. I'm not sure what I would do. However I would like to know that IF I decided that it was time to end my life, that I would have the option to do so in a civilized, human manner.

[hum-an-ole]

i'm totally just going to go nuts before i get old and decrepit. i want to make a one way trip to the Bermuda triangle, possibly while on heroin or some unworldly substance. this may take some time to plan out, but oh is it ever going to be an adventurous way out.

[Crusader]

i'll assisted suicide you!connery voice>

 

* wave fist menacingly

[RicardoObviouso]

i'm totally just going to go nuts before i get old and decrepit. i want to make a one way trip to the Bermuda triangle, possibly while on heroin or some unworldly substance. this may take some time to plan out, but oh is it ever going to be an adventurous way out.

there's no adventure in heroin.

 

 

 

maybe acid or some other chemical based drug.

[Computer]

salvia....

[hum-an-ole]

clearly i haven't done all my research yet. i've got the main idea down, details will come later. i'm not sure that i need much adventure from the actual drug considering my destination. i thought heroin would just be pleasant? i don't know. i'm open to suggestions.

[bishopx]

This is such a touchy subject. I personally feel that for terminally ill patients, who don't want to suffer, it should be their right.

[RicardoObviouso]

clearly i haven't done all my research yet. i've got the main idea down, details will come later. i'm not sure that i need much adventure from the actual drug considering my destination. i thought heroin would just be pleasant? i don't know. i'm open to suggestions.

again, i dont think there's anything pleasant about heroin.

[Muran]

After watching far too many episodes of Intervention, I wholly agree with the above comment.

[hum-an-ole]

fair enough. i'm not very well versed in the effects of heroin to be honest. it just seems that it must feel amazing to be so addictive, but maybe that's a false assumption. isn't there a difference between heroin addiction, and doing it once to go to the bermuda triangle though? i was always under the impression that it's an ugly drug because of what comes from it over time. i don't plan on living long enough after to experience that part. although what do i know, there's no guarantee on where i will end up with this plan. maybe i'm overdoing the plan with adding drugs to mixture, i'm sure it will be an intense experience all on it's own.

[Who]

Assisted suicide and euthanasia should be legalized. The reason is quite simple: why do we keep humans suffering (in the case of terminal cancer, aids, etc) and yet we have mercy when our cat has terminal cancer.

 

If something is not curable and the person is suffering, then that person should have the right to ask to die. Period. In the case of serious illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, that person should have the right to have a helper.

 

And, let's not play fucking hypocrits, it already happens in hospitals and whatnot by giving huge amounts of morphine. It's something many know but pretend they don't. ;)

[Morglor9]

If your hamster gets sick, you put it into the garbage disposal... or something. Seriously, who goes to get a hamster put down?

[calgarydave]

If your hamster gets sick, you put it into the garbage disposal... or something. Seriously, who goes to get a hamster put down?

Hmmmm I'll remember that when you get sick.

[Who]

If your hamster gets sick, you put it into the garbage disposal... or something. Seriously, who goes to get a hamster put down?

Um yes :angry:...um no :angry:...um...;)

[bishopx]

Dave, I just snorted coffee on that one...*snicker*

 

Seriously though, it's a fucking hamster...it was sick...and if this lady couldn't afford to pay for it's care, any decent vet, would have asked her to make a small token donation, and taken care of it. The vet in this case was obviously looking to shit on someone.

[calgarydave]

Dave, I just snorted coffee on that one...*snicker*

 

Seriously though, it's a fucking hamster...it was sick...and if this lady couldn't afford to pay for it's care, any decent vet, would have asked her to make a small token donation, and taken care of it. The vet in this case was obviously looking to shit on someone.

;)

 

It wasnt a vet but the local SPCA. I'm fairly certain that they were doing less to actually punish this women but more to raise publicity about the issue of animal cruelty.

 

There have been some rather disturbing cases around here lately.

 

Kids put a cat in a microwave

some teenagers dragged the family dog behind their car.

 

Pretty sick stuff actually.

[RicardoObviouso]

Hmmmm I'll remember that when you get sick.

whoa, betsey.

 

 

a hamster is rodent.

[Moonlight_Graham]

clearly i haven't done all my research yet. i've got the main idea down, details will come later. i'm not sure that i need much adventure from the actual drug considering my destination. i thought heroin would just be pleasant? i don't know. i'm open to suggestions.

i have similar plans. I really want to shoot some heroin and snort cocaine right before i die. It must feel pretty fucking badass if people get hooked so bad to the stuff.

 

I also want to have like 50 lapdances in a row

[Computer]

cocaine's pretty intense in that of itself, I don't know if you'd need heroin as well

[hum-an-ole]

at least not at the same time

[calgarydave]

Its kinda like what the grandpa in Little Miss Sunshine says. When you're young doing drugs is stupid.

 

But when you're old you're going to die soon anyways, you're stupid NOT to be doing drugs. lol

[RicardoObviouso]

heroin and cocaine offer opposite effects. a lot of functioning & long-time drug addicts use cocaine to get high and heroin to bring themselves down.

 

if you're doing heroin for the first time, you'll feel an amazing rush through your body, which will turn to an immense feeling of illness, you'll puke then fall asleep.

 

you'll become addicted to that initial rush and that's what will keep you going back. the puking will subside eventually and the passing out won't happen very often again.

 

 

 

i would suggest doing something halucinogenic. at least it'll open your mind and it will be a fun experience.

Edited November 9, 2008 by BOHICA

[Muran]

i would suggest doing something halucinogenic. at least it'll open your mind and it will be a fun experience.

I don't know anything about heroin or cocaine (although, I've seen people high on cocaine, and it doesn't look very fun to me...)

 

But I concur on the hallucinogenic stuff tho. While I no longer do those kind of drugs, my days with salvia were either very fun, or very spiritual.

 

E was also a "can't explain how great it was" feeling, but I'm also more hesitant on that one.