Euthanasia- Good or bad?
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Re: Euthanasia- Good or bad?
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Re: Euthanasia- Good or bad?
The key question here is whether or not the suffering individual is interested in prolonging his or her life. If such a person still clings to the hope of recovery and of leading a normal life regardless of the suffering he or she may be experiencing and in spite of medical science's helplessness in treating his or her illness, then euthanasia may be questionable in such a case.
However, if the individual has given up all hope of recovery and looks forward to death as a relief from his or her suffering and medical science admits its helplessness in curing that person, there may be an argument for euthanasia. But I think it should really be performed with the suffering individual's consent.
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- Mike A.
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Re: Euthanasia- Good or bad?
Hondo [played by John Wayne in the title role]
- BadgerBob
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Re: Euthanasia- Good or bad?
So why does a tiny minority of voters continue to influence government to ban voluntary euthanasia. As far as I can see there are three reasons given by that minority:
(1) The 'Right to Lifers'. An elderly relative of mine, mid-80s, blind and in agony, unable to eat, took an astonishing two months to die. Her doctor, who had promised to ease her out with morphine was reported - by a 'Right to Life' nurse - to the medical authorities as prescribing doses of morphine that could be fatal, rather than upholding her right to die in immense suffering. What a terrible thing to have done. The patient managed to save up her painkillers and sleeping pills to kill herself (on the third attempt). What are we thinking of? If we have a right to life, we must have a right to die. Both are rather inevitable.
(2) The religious mob: 'Jesus wouldn't like it'. Well, Jesus committed suicide and I am sure that given the choice he would have preferred a 'peaceful pill' to being nailed to a cross. But then, he wanted to be a martyr; most of us don't.
(3) Legal aspects. People might use a 'peaceful pill' to bump off elderly relatives. Voluntary euthanasia might be used to murder people. Let's get real. We have lots of very unpleasant murders in society ... knives, guns, ropes, cars ... you name it. And we have courts and penalties (inadequate though both may be). If we were to ban every item that could be used to kill somebody, what would we have left? Not even our hands. Anyway, given the choice, I would rather take a pill than be suffocated by a grandchild after my deposit account. So why is this one way of dying singled out from all others for special treatment, high penalties and public condemnation? Should we not legalise voluntary euthanasia - with whatever legal and medical safeguards are reasonable - and allow life, death and occasional legal processes to run their normal course?
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Re: Euthanasia- Good or bad?
The Pope was in idiot who was in imminent danger of turning into a vegetable himself. Furthermore when he still had most of his neurons communicating with their next door neighbor he was a master of hypocrisy whose acting abilities - in which he was very well trained - served to convince the brain paralyzed which is most of the population.Lily_Alex wrote: ["A man, even if seriously sick or prevented in the exercise of its higher functions, is and will be always a man ... [he] will never become a 'vegetable' or an 'animal,'" the Pope said. "The intrinsic value and personal dignity of every human being does not change depending on their circumstances." ... Pope John Paul II, 2004]
- Mike A.
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Re: Euthanasia- Good or bad?
You can learn a whole bunch if you keep your eyes and mind open, I suppose.
But back to euthanasia... It seems to me fear is a root issue when discussing all things euthanasia. I've known people so fearful of death - that they could actually die - that any mention of the end points of life are harshly and angrily met. I wonder if such of a vision is a commentary on self awareness or ego, or simply fear? Fear of being wrong.
In truth, euthanasia requires trust, perhaps even love. Unfortunately it is discussed much as six blind men describing an elephant. The Buddha - 'O how they cling and wrangle, some who claim For preacher and monk the honored name! For, quarreling, each to his view they cling. Such folk see only one side of a thing.'
It is later than it was early. Only one full mug of strong black coffee ingested. The second, two gulps down.
Hondo [played by John Wayne in the title role]
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Re: Euthanasia- Good or bad?
So is euthanasia good or bad. It's good and eminently civilized when justified would be my reply.
- Mike A.
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Re: Euthanasia- Good or bad?
So is euthanasia good or bad. It's good and eminently civilized when justified would be my reply." - Jklint » Sun Sep 15, 2013 11:33 am
Interesting. One might argue that [a personal] contemplation requires an objective assessment of the status and prognosis of one's life, perhaps in the context of one aspect such as the steady or irrevocable deterioration of one's quality of life.
Splitting a hair, I'm not sure one's life is really a commodity. I do think it wise for the individual - any individual - to consider one's state and future. Practice being old, perhaps. And a debit and credit, or asset and liability approach to a continual evaluation of one's state - if not obsessive [an opinion] - can be an objective way way to look at one's future.
To live or die? To live in health or pain? To live alert or less so? Degrees of pain? Degrees of alertness? Is a vegetable a human being? What is life? What is to be human?
Another hair to split... The core issue remains: when is euthanasia justified? Who justifies? The individual or society? Is society well equipped to make such a decision for an 'incapacitated' individual, and what constitutes 'incapacitation''?
Dimensions of an issue... Perhaps more coffee will help.
Hondo [played by John Wayne in the title role]
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- Mike A.
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Re: Euthanasia- Good or bad?
I was going for a pre-op interview, and one of the questions was 'Have you ever contemplated suicide?' I said "sure. haven't you?" Not the right answer, I guess. Apparently, if you answer "yes" you have to be watched as unbalanced or unhinged, and the answer is a flag of some kind. I don't understand the question, really. I presume that an active mind used by a rational individual considers and thinks through many life scenarios. We learn from the experiences we are confronted by, and the learned lessons fashion opinions or positions.
Euthanasia might be defined as a mercy killing, and might be considered an act of putting to death a person painlessly or by being allowed to die by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animal suffering from an incurable, especially a painful, disease or condition - painless death.
Such a definition seems to imply that the individual is not a part of the decision-making process. Euthanasia - differentiated from suicide - seems to set the stage for others or society to determine what is/are the conditions falling under the cover of mercy.
If a living will, complete with health care proxy, arranged in the clear light of sanity by a person looking to the end game of life sets a definition for end of life care, who is better equipped to determine the limits of that care and what triggers 'mercy?'
So, if one has the right to life, liberty and he pursuit of happiness, then one should have the liberty to determine when happiness is no longer achievable, and the right to dictate how to live or not. Not very elegant. Hmmm...
If I have the right to life, do I not also have the right to death. If so, society is haggling over the right of the individual to make personal decisions. Need more coffee.
Hondo [played by John Wayne in the title role]
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Re: Euthanasia- Good or bad?
2024 Philosophy Books of the Month
2023 Philosophy Books of the Month
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