Euthanasia

[w00t]

I have power of attorney! He certainly will not be resuscitated if he has another haemorrhage. But I am worried that it is possible he could be left in a condition where he is alive but unable to care for himself, the worst of all situations. I would be tempted to put him out of his misery.

 

[McBell]

Some other thoughts: In the absence of Advance directives, an individual's spouse holds medical Power of Attorney. She has the same power to direct medical intervention as the individual himself would have, were he communicative. It is her right to designate palliative care only, if that is her choice.

Unless of course there is a family member who takes the decision of the POA holder to court.

The whole Terri Schaivo fiasco could have been avoided had there been a living will or an advanced directive.

 

[logician]

There is no god, euthanasia should be the right of any person of sound mind.

 

[methylatedghosts]

Ok from an experience in my extended family

My auntie (Hermien) was diagnose with lung cancer a while ago. She was admitted to hospital for her final weeks. She was on morphine to ease the pain. Slowly, over her last week and a half the morphine dose was increase. She lapsed into a coma for 4 days. She woke up then and was able to talk to everyone. He breathing was VERY laboured. She wasn't getting enough oxygen and every breath hurt, even with the morphine. Then after a few hours she said "I'm going to sleep now and I don't want to wake up". A few hours later they really increased the morphine. That night her pulse weakened and weakened and then she died.

Had she not had the morphine treatement, she would have been in agony for another month and a half existing and being forced to live the end of her life. For 5 minutes, take a single straw and breathe through only that. It's very very hard. Now imagine that for 2 months. That's what it was like for her. I can think of no better way than to have let her die in this way.

 

[madhatter85]

Someone asked me about Euthanasia and i told them i didn't care about oriental schoolkids.

 

[Bathsheba]

Someone asked me about Euthanasiaand i told them i didn't care about oriental schoolkids.

I'm surprised you didn't whip out the book of mormon and tell them about the other flock.

Regarding euthanasia, I also support the Death With Dignity Act

On October 27, 1997 Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act (the Act) which allows terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose. The Act requires the Oregon Department of Human Services to collect information about the patients and physicians who participate in the Act, and publish an annual statistical report. These data are important to parties on both sides of the issue. Our position is a neutral one, and we offer no opinions about these questions. We routinely receive inquiries about the Act. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions. FAQs about Death with Dignity

 

[UnTheist]

It's their life, nobody else's. If my best friend wanted Euthanasia, I would still support him in his decision.

 

[CaptainXeroid]

I am really on the fence here. I have a great deal of compassion for those who are suffering but I can also see a great potential for abuse even with safeguards in place.

While most decent people would not even broach the subject, it is easy to imagine unscrupulous people trying to hasten their inheritances by convincing elderly relatives to take the 'easy way out'.

The fence hurts my posterior end, but I just don't feel strongly enough to vote it up or down yet.

 

[Valjean]

I am really on the fence here. I have a great deal of compassion for those who are suffering but I can also see a great potential for abuse even with safeguards in place.

While most decent people would not even broach the subject, it is easy to imagine unscrupulous people trying to hasten their inheritances by convincing elderly relatives to take the 'easy way out'.

The fence hurts my posterior end, but I just don't feel strongly enough to vote it up or down yet.

I can understand your concern, but in those places where physician assisted euthanasia is legal, these potential abuses have not manifested themselves.

 

[doppelganger]

I can understand your concern, but in those places where physician assisted euthanasia is legal, these potential abuses have not manifested themselves.

I posted a link to the Oregon "Death With Dignity" act. It has many safeguards to prevent this kind of thing, which is why there aren't any manifestations of this sort of improper pressure applied to people where assisted suicide is legal.

 

[kateyes]

My mother died 2 years ago-she had been diagnosed with lung cancer 11 months earlier, went through almost continuous rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. In the beginning she had good days and bad days. In the end she had good hours and bad hours. She and my father had always been very adamant on no extraordinary measures to prolong life. Some of my siblings were upset when she chose to discontinue treatment and go to hospice, but it was her choice. She died 6 days late at home as she chose. There were issues with some of my sibs (there are 6 of us altogether)--because we "just let her die"--but it was her choice to make not ours. If it had been necessary-I know I and 2 of my brothers would have been able to assist her--because it was a decision she had made years earlier and made sure we knew what she wanted.

I think that it is very important--to discuss issues like quality of life and make sure your wishes are in writing (you can have a do not resuscitate order on file at your local hospital, and with your primary care giver)-but you also need to make sure there is a family member or friend who is going to uphold those wishes.

We ran into this as an issue with my grandfather as well--despite our express instructions-he was revived once at his nursing home and once in the hospital. We had to move him to a different nursing home, because the 1st home would not honor the order--which was signed by him (in front of a notary)-6 months earlier when he entered the home.

 

[Ever learning]

What I find the most comical is the hypocrisy being played out with the whole "playing God' accusation that is so often heard in these type discussions.

It is playing God to remove someone from life support, but somehow placing them on life support to begin with is not playing God.


And I agree with the Oregon Death With Dignity Act

Good point you are making.

I support the Oregon death with dignity Act.

 

[w00t]

My father was terminally ill in 2005, he was obviously in discomfort so as a family we insisted his morphine was substantially increased, he died within hours which was a great relief to us all!

 

[madhatter85]

Ya'll sound like Stoics.

 

[Scott1]

Ya'll sound like Stoics.

Meaning?

 

[Valjean]

Apparently we remind madhatter of Zeno, or, perhaps, Marcus Aurelius.

 

[madhatter85]

Stoics -

A school of philosophers, founded by Zeno, about 300 B.C. They taught that the practice of virtue was the first duty of man, and that the only real things are those which the bodily senses can perceive. They were therefore what we should call materialists. So far as religious belief was concerned they were pantheists, holding that all things come from God and will be at last absorbed into him again. They were also fatalists, holding that the universe is governed by absolutely fixed laws, and that the private needs of individuals are of no concern to Providence. The way for the individual to be happy was to bring himself into harmony with the course of the universe. Suicide was held to be always lawful, and at times a duty. The Stoic tried to be proudly independent of externals, and to bear evils with indifference. There was much that was noble about their teaching, and stoicism represents a high form of religious belief attained to by man’s unaided efforts. For Paul’s encounter with the Stoics see Acts 17: 18.

 

[Francine]

Someone asked me about Euthanasia and i told them i didn't care about oriental schoolkids.

If you spin oriental schoolkids around in a circle, do they become disoriented?

 

[doppelganger]

If you spin oriental schoolkids around in a circle, do they become disoriented?

Not if you do it by occident.

 

[Francine]

Not if you do it by occident.

Frubals!