Monday, March 12, 2007

Euthanasia

Is life so precious that we should preserve it at any cost?
Is life with chronic pain and no hope of a normal existence, bedridden, unconscious, comatose really life?
Is quality of life irrelevant?
Are we governed by religious values that are irrational and inhumane and embedded in dogma and mumbo jumbo that = life is sacred? Whatever that means.

In Switzerland euthanasia is legal. What do the Swiss know that the rest of the world doesn't?

Why is euthanasia illegal?
Who are we protecting?
What costs to sustain a life that has to meaning or purpose to an individual that exists only because machinery keeps their vital organs pumping away whilst the brain is dead?
Is such a state really life?
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Euthanasia and pulling the plug on a brain dead person are different acts. Living wills allow a person to opt out under certain circumstances before the situation arises and have the family discontinue fruitless life support.

Euthanasia is having someone put to sleep like a sick pet. It's either murder or suicide. Neither is legal or moral. It may be unfortunate sometimes, but it's really as simple as that in my opinion. If life is so painful or lacking in acceptable quality, the person should simply commit suicide. It is never anyone's right to kill anyone else for any reason and legalizing it only opens a door for abuse...I for one don't want anyone else deciding if it's time to put me to sleep.

Again...just my own opinion on the subject.

8:41 am
none said...

The way kevorkian did it was right. He took applications, interviewed, looked at medical records, examined and if he determined the candidate suitable he would attach the machine for the sick person to activate themselves.

Once you put euthanasia into someone elses hands it's going to abused and misused.

9:01 am
Jeannie said...

DNR - Do not resuscitate - orders are as close to euthanasia as I'd want to get.
Actively killing someone because - geez - they're almost gone anyway - isn't right to me.
Actively killing someone because they can't commit suicide is also not quite right

As far as I know - brain dead gives the family the right to pull the plug any time. The body is being kept artificially alive until the next of kin have had the chance to come to terms. I have never heard of anyone brain dead coming back (at least after say 20 minutes or something). Coma is another thing altogether. People have come out of it many years later. Others don't ever.
But euthanasia? I don't wanna go there - it might be just a wee bit too convenient for some.

11:37 am
Lexcen said...

JP, many chronically ill patients don't have the means or ability to suicide even if they want to.

Hammer, Kevorkian is certainly on the right track.

Jeannie, it is a subject that is full of moral and ethical dilemmas isn't it? I've read Peter Singer, the moral philosopher who is a good read if anybody wants to explore this theme.

12:51 pm
Kirsten N. Namskau said...

I have written a living will, but if it will be taken account on if something happens, I doubt...

I find it scaring that we have come to the point where we have to apply in 3 samples for our human right to die.

5:56 pm

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