Should voluntary euthanasia be made legal in the UK?

[JustABadger]

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[Pleng]

Assisted suicide should be available for anybody, regardless of their reasons.

Nobody agreed to be born in the first place. We've had this world and society imposed of us. By being born we, most of us, are essentially forced into accepting that we will have a life of misery, and not only that, we will be forced to work, making other assholes rich in the meantime, simply to survive. It's bullshit. It's barely a few steps away from slavery.

In law you cannot be held to a contract if you were misled into signing it. Yet we are supposed to just accept a life of pain and suffering into which we were given no choice? Seriously?

Fuck that.

 

[CMDreamer]

If it weren't voluntary it would be a murder.

There are some "special cases", where the subject can't give express and direct consent to apply euthanasia on them, how do you think those cases should be treated? Should those cases be legal too?

And now a subject that has been on my mind just recently and I can't take it off my head: Should suicide be considered voluntary euthanasia?

If so, should it be "legal"? Not just in UK but in the world as a whole?

As you can infere from these questions, euthanasia is a very complicated concept that its not easy to define as legal or not legal, voluntary or not voluntary. While the main idea behind it is to provide a well-dying way to people that for any given reason decide not to continue living their lives.

And the most important part of the latter is decision, so a person with suicidal behaviour should be considered a valid -and legal- subject of euthanasia even if it was self inflicted?

 

[JustABadger]

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[Marc_LFD]

So what happens when someone manipulates someone else into agreeing to this?

And people are easily influenced/coerced today.

I'd never support this, but there are a lot who genuinely need mental help and aren't getting it. Killing them off isn't the solution.

You only live once so cherish it.

 

[Pleng]

So what happens when someone manipulates someone else into agreeing to this?

Then that person is tried for murder, just the same as in any case where a life is taken, via deception or any other means.

You only live once so cherish it.

Do you honestly think that comments like this are helpful to people who are actually going through serious shit? Lines like this you use on your mate if they're feeling down after losing a job or girlfriend. They don't work on people who have been systematically been let down by the people or the society around them, or people who have tried yet failed in everything that they do. A stupid fucking "quick-fix" line that shows absolutely no empathy for the plight of the person you think you're "helping" is probably more damaging than just saying nothing. If nothing else, it's certainly more insulting than saying nothing.

 

[JustABadger]

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[Pleng]

There are online groups who believe that we're too many in the world and that it would be easy for everyone if we killed ourselves to leave some space. Are we going to put on trial all of them? Even though they can defend themselves by saying that they didn't directly tell someone to kill themselves (and trust me, that defence works with people who simply commit suicide)?

If they're doing it already, then what evidence do you have to suggest that providing a safe and legal, regulated opinion would make the problem worse, rather than better?

 

[PrincessLillie]

This is sort of a double-edged sword. I would say it should be available for people who are terminally-ill or debilitated and are suffering endlessly because of it, but if it were available to everyone, some people could seek it for temporary curable problems like depression. There's ultimately no correct answer, and if it were made legal, I would say one or more trained professionals should be required to sign off on it.

 

[Pleng]

temporary curable problems like depression

Depression isn't always a "temporary curable problem". How many days, weeks, or years of waking up in pain must one go through? If an animal was suffering so badly, you'd put him down.

 

[PrincessLillie]

Depression isn't always a "temporary curable problem". How many days, weeks, or years of waking up in pain must one go through? If an animal was suffering so badly, you'd put him down.

Most forms of depression are curable, it was simply an example. In the majority of cases, therapy and a low-dose SSRI can resolve it. In a case where it isn't curable and can cause endless and debilitating pain, voluntary euthanasia should be an option. I do still think trained professionals should be required to sign off on it.