Legalised Euthanasia: for or against ?

[GreenFish66]

There are already laws in place that allow doctors/family member/(patient?) to pull the plug on terminally ill....Always depends on the circumstance...

To have Options and choices is alway the best idea

 

[lone wolf]

In late May, 2006, my wife's cancer came back. Ironically, we found out the very day she did the survivor lap in our local Relay. She knew the chemo, the radiation, the surgeries. Over four years, little parts of her died every time. She knew the sickness from treatments that are sometimes worse than the disease. She'd had four years as cancer-free. The decision was hers ... and we stood by her when it was not to go through it all again. I really believe she willed herself to stay alive for my daughter's wedding because a week later - less than three months after the cancer came back - she left this world. There wasn't even a monitor in the room - at her request.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

ha ha! Excellent point SJP, love how quick you are..

was just thinking the same as you and if it were legal why do insurance companies not cover you if you commit suicide? (in NZ that is)

They do in North America, Kiwi, after two years. Two years after you take out the policy, you are covered for suicide. I assume the two years waiting period is to prevent abuses. It was the same situation in Britain as well.

Are you sure they don’t cover suicide in New Zealand? I find it hard to believe that the policy there would be so different from Britain or North America.

 

[earth_as_one]

ha ha! Excellent point SJP, love how quick you are..

was just thinking the same as you and if it were legal why do insurance companies not cover you if you commit suicide? (in NZ that is)

My life insurance policy also included suicide after a waiting period which expired years ago. I guess I'll have to see how I feel before I turn 65 and it expires...

Suicide is legal because you can't charge anyone. What are the authorities supposed to do? Arrest the cadaver? Then what? Put it on ice until they serve their time???

Assisting someone commit suicide is illegal, because you can charge someone.

 

[In Between Man]

Against obviously. It's part of the "culture of death", just like abortion.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Suicide is legal because you can't charge anyone.

But in the old days, suicide was not legal. So if you tried suicide and were successful, more power to you, you won’t be charged. But if you failed in the suicide attempt, you may very well be charged with a crime.

It was a ridiculous law, stemming from Biblical injunction against suicide (or rather, Catholic injunction against suicide, while Protestants frown upon suicide, they don’t think it is a mortal sin, enough to doom one to eternal damnation). I don’t know when it was nullified, but I assume it was repealed or nullified at some stage.

 

[TenPenny]

BTW, suicide is legal. Attempted suicide isn't....

Say what, Earth_as_one? You probably mean ‘assisted suicide’. If suicide is legal, it follows that attempted suicide is legal as well.

Attempted suicide was removed from the Crminal Code in 1972.
It is still illegal to counsel (aid and abet) suicide, though.

 

[Cliffy]

Attempted suicide was removed from the Criminal Code in 1972.
It is still illegal to counsel (aid and abet) suicide, though.

Up until they abolished the death penalty, attempted suicide could get you the death penalty. Go figure! If you fail, the government would do it for you. It was a win/win situation if you were serious about dying. That sounds like assisted suicide to me. The courts were breaking their own law.8O

 

[captain morgan]

People for euthanasia say that voluntary euthanasia will not lead to involuntary euthanasia. They look at things as simply black and white. In real life there would be millions of situations each year where cases would not fall clearly into either category.

In terms of your 2 scenarios, living wills (indirectly) address the first scenario that you've painted. There is the opportunity for an individual to pre-determine certain the conditions under which they want to exist.... Commonly, some individuals have stated that if they (their body) can not function without the presence of technology (respirators etc), that they wish to be unplugged.

I believe that these living wills have some force of law behind them as they are prepared well in advance and the arrangement is considered to be made while the individual has their objective presence of mind.

The second scenario you present describes one who may be heavily influenced by their current circumstances and the legal position would certainly incorporate a theme of diminished capacity.

 

[winniethepooh]

I'm worried about the slippery slope, I think if you research what is happening in Holland you'll find that there have been problems. I'm not against the idea per se but I think it could lead to abuse.

 

[JLM]

You're on a slippery slope with this. I doubt if it could ever be accomplished satisfactorily in all cases. It would have to be with the consent of at least 3 independent doctors (not practicing out of the same clinic) and it would have to be solely on the basis of physical and mental condition, not on the basis of her/his financial position>

 

[Niflmir]

Of course attempting to commit suicide is proof enough of clinical depression to put you in a mental institute.

Anyone ever watch "The Event"?

 

[Risus]

Against.

 

[In Between Man]

Against.

Thanx for the insight.

Maybe people want to legalize suicide because deep down in their heart's they like death. They think its dark and cool, and they wish to play with it, be in charge of it. i.e. This person is terminal, if they so wish to end it, I wanna stick the needle, or at least watch... Or maybe people just don't have hope that things can be better than death.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Maybe people want to legalize suicide because deep down in their heart's they like death.

For you information alley, suicide is already legal in Canada (and USA). And rightly so.

 

[In Between Man]

Maybe people want to legalize suicide because deep down in their heart's they like death.

For you information alley, suicide is already legal in Canada (and USA). And rightly so.

Uh... it is? Then how come my best friend will get arrested for not stopping my suicide?

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Uh... it is? Then how come my best friend will get arrested for not stopping my suicide?

He will not get arrested for not preventing your suicide, I don't know where you read that.

 

[In Between Man]

He will not get arrested for not preventing your suicide, I don't know where you read that.

What the heck are you talking about!!!!!????? If I'm sitting in a house alone with him, and I tell him I'm going to kill myself and he watches me do it, its considered aiding a suicide (unless he has no time to attempt prevention and witnesses the act suddenly).

Why? Because no fool just does it. He tries to get things off his chest, he mentions suicide as cry for help and attention -- and the one not preventing it(talking him out of it) is the one who counsels him into it, the end result being him watching the act. AND anyone who counsels someone into suicide:

2. The Criminal Code and Aiding Suicide Under section 241 of the Criminal Code, it is an offence to counsel or to aid suicide, although suicide itself is no longer an offence:

241. Every one who

1. counsels a person to commit suicide, or
2. aids or abets a person to commit suicide, whether suicide ensues or not, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years.

Not preventing is aiding.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Not preventing is aiding.

I don’t think so, alley. Not preventing is just not doing anything, aiding is actually helping him commit suicide. So if somebody tells me that he is going to commit suicide, and tells me how he is going to do it, that doesn’t mean I have to physically prevent him from committing suicide.

At least not according to my interpretation. If somebody commits suicide in front of me and I don’t do anything to stop him (but do nothing to assist him), I am not guilty of any crime.

At least that is my interpretation, and the criminal code you have mentioned tends to support me. Nowhere does it talk of preventing suicide, it only talks of assisting suicide.

Otherwise the law becomes total nonsense. Suppose I am having a beer with somebody. He has cyanide in his beer. He drinks his beer and dies. Does that mean that I can be charged for assisting him in committing suicide? Prosecution could argue, that we were good friends, and that he told me there was cyanide in his drink. But that I did not lunge from my seat and try to knock the drink from his hand. And I get 14 years in prison for that?

The whole thing is ludicrous. Not intervening is totally different from assisting. Suppose I see one man beating up another man in the street. Now, I should intervene but I don’t. Does that mean I can be charged with assault, with assisting in assault? Or say that I see a bank robbery in progress. I don’t intervene; I don’t try to stop the robbers. Does that mean that I will be charged with assisting in the robbery?

Not interfering is not he same as assisting, at least in my opinion. If you watch somebody commit suicide, I don’t think there is any way you can be changed.

 

[TenPenny]

Not preventing is aiding.

You surely won't get very far in law school with that sort of understanding.

Not preventing is .... not preventing. It is not aiding. Aiding requires a definite action on the part of the person doing the 'aiding'. A lack of action does not equate to an action.