WHAT IS YOUR VIEWS ON LEGALISED EUTHANASIA

[THE FUGITIVE]

my post from our sister forum

We sometimes see on the news cases going to the high courts where very ill people are pleading to be allowed to die in a dignified way WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS
I will speak my views on this although i respect everyones opinion
The law should in my opinion never interfere with a persons wishes IT IS THERE LIFE not the courts and the medical staff should be there to help the passing be peacefull
If we have a animal that is suffering and dont take it to vet  then we are fined rightly so yet we have to endure illness right to the very end
My beliefs are this if a person is told they have 6 months to live then they should also be told at what time the pain may be unbearable and it should be up them to make a date to end it at that point if they desire
On the other hand and betty always points things out to me you could get hospitals finish people off just so they want to use there organs so im not exactly cast iron in my thoughts im open to any thoughts

Life as ive said many times here is very precious gift but ive witnessed cancer sufferers at its worst and its horrible when morphine no longer works this is why at this moment i believe people should have a choice on there own life
There is another side to this and we have heard many times of people who were given 6 months to live go on to live 5 years so as ive said im open to your thoughts because its such a delicate subject

We on satbox discuss many subjects that other forums dont its good to know how others think we dont disagree with one another but give our own opinions and we respect other cultures beliefs and faiths

piopats reply

i dont believe that hospitals or their staff should play any part . im talking now about what fug said about use of organs etc . organ donation should only be a decision of the person in question or their closest family member . what i mean is that some times a person dies leaving no instruction organ donation wise , i dont believe in anyway that a hospital should have any right in such a decision to remove a persons organs without express permission . it should be solely down to the person in question or their nearest and dearest .

regarding euthenasia , if a person is of sound mind and capable of making that decision them selves then yes in that sense i would agree with it in principal . i know a lady that had cancer and she suffered greatly , i dont know the entire ins and outs but i was told that morphine had little affect such that surgeons had to sever  nerves in her spine one at a time untill she died to ease her suffering . if that woman said to her family I COULD BE PUT THROUGH THIS AGONY FOR ANOTHER 3 MONTHS BUT I DONT WANT IT , I WANT TO GO NOW in that sense i couldnt disagree because she was suffering greatly with no hope of a cure and she could make that decision her self because all tho sick she was of sound mind . in that case if thats what a person wanted i would agree .

i know of course for other family members that might be upsetting , i mean naturally we dont want our mother our father or brother or sister to die or to suffer , i can understand in that sense maybe being a little selfish and not wanting a person to go . but this is why i say as long as a person is of sound mind and with little life left and a life that would mean only suffering then i would agree and say yes its their choice and we need to respect that choice even if it hurts us to let them go .

as fug rightly says if you took your dog to the vet very ill to find they had incurable cancer with just weeks or months to live , weeks or months in which they would have no quality of life and be suffering i think any good and reasonable person would with a very heavy heart say we should help the poor dog and not prolong its suffering . they say this is HUMANE , but its funny that the word HUMANE seems not to apply to a human in the same circumstances . ok there is a difference in that the animal cant say i want this or i dont want it , we humans have to make that decision as i say with a very heavy heart . but a human can decide and can say what they want . however i think if a person is incapable of deciding for them selves then that would be different and i wouldnt agree .

but i am talking about an incurable deadly disease like cancer with a person facing or having unbearable pain  . but then i know there are different aspects to be considered . some people paralyzed from the neck down might say they want to die , should this be considered ok ? . i dont know that i would agree in such a case OR NOT , its a tough one , i mean i can only imagine what it would be like to be trapped inside your own body and im sure to say it would be terrible would not be near sufficient .

i know in some cases hospitals go to court to let someone die , i would never accept that . all doctors / nurses take an oath to protect and save life . a case in point was a woman who suffered i believe locked in syndrome . essentially all she did was move her eyes if i am correct . she was not dead , she was alive and could move her eyes , and her family wanted her to continue being treated . yes they had to help her to stay alive feeding her through a tube etc but she was alive . the hospital went to court to get a court order to allow them to remove her feeding tube and let her die , in effect starving a weak person to death knowin she wouldnt last long . her family fought this but the court decided for the hospital . they stopped feeding this girl and starved her for several days untill she died despite the protestation of her family . is that right ? no never , it disgusted me then and now . i would say this is court enforced euthenasia and for what ? so a hospital can free up a bed ? , this is something i will never agree with .

im sure as with any discussion area in this discussion there are different aspects and different areas that could lead people to disagree with euthenasia , the case above is one such case for me  all tho i know its probably not what fug was referring to when he started the thread .

my reply

Great post piopat and i agree totally with you
The reason i wrote this topic is it is very strange how the law can interfere with a persons life as i said we have seen many cases go to court where people have literally begged to die because of illness yet they have been refused yet on the other hand we had that little lad recently who was clearly brain dead and kept alive by machines but his parents wanted him to live and the hospitals wanted to turn off the machines it had to go through court to turn off the machines so what im saying is hospitals will end life if it involves machines but wont if a person is suffering this to me is strange.

I can understand even if it were legal to make a decision on your life in the circumstances we have mentioned that your loved ones would be terribly upset if you ended your life on a certain day but i do think if they saw you crawl up the walls in pain they would wish for your suffering to end.

It is such a difficult subject because some faiths believe we should be kept going till our last breath and its a subject that can carry varying views but im with piopat in his post if a person is of sound mind then they should be allowed to make a decision it is THERE LIFE not the courts

We live in a country where its viewed humane to end a animals life painlessly if that animal is suffering from a incurable decease yet ARE WE HUMANE TO HUMANS SUFFERING
To me if we can be humane to animals then we should be given the choice of dying painless if we had a illness that was deemed incurable and unoperable and of course a illness that would cause death.
So i totally agree with piopat and while a person is sane he should be consulted on what he wished to do

My grandmother suffered a terrible stroke but survived and lived another 11 years but in her last months she got a form of cancer of the neck but it spread to every organ --she never ever complained about her paralysed lifestyle due to the stroke yet when the morphine would not work with the cancer she said "i pray to god to die every day now" the pain was too much for her so this is why i believe people should have a choice dealing with illness and there own lives to me it is wrong that COURTS DECIDE

It is not just cancers but as piopat points out people who are locked inside a body that no longer works some want to die and a few have gone to Swiss clinics to die peacefully but our laws dont allow it in this country and the laws have been challenged many times my thoughts are IT IS THERE BODIES AND THERE LIFE

There are of course several other ways to look at things one point maybe that medicine is getting better all the time and cures are found fairly often so waiting sometimes may mean that a cure is just around the corner but we all know in certain cases like cancers there is very little hope.

I also take the view onboard that some greedy relatives may persuade a ill person to end there life just for insurance reasons and at this moment in time im not sure if insurances would actually pay out if someone ended there life.

Life as i always say is a very precious gift but none of us live forever so i believe it would be peaceful should a better approach to ending someones suffering was adopted

piopats reply

i mentioned a case recently , i cant remember which thread now , sorry its a bit off topic but i think it may be relevant .

the case was of an asian girl in hospital here in ireland . she was pregnant but there were serious problems with the pregnancy sufficied to say the baby had no chance but the mother could live . she was i believe also in great pain .

given the sad and unfortunate circumstances that the baby would not live and in fact it was killing the mother to keep the baby inside her common sense should have prevailed . when we are faced with a choice A VERY DIFFICULT AND SAD ONE like this i mean as hard as it is there was no hope for the baby , but the mother could easily have been saved , so what was the right and humane thing to do ? save one ? or leave both die ? .

well in ireland abortion is illegal (mainly because ireland is a catholic country ) , the doctors / nurses knew they could save the woman but could not act and do what had to be done to save a human life , and that poor woman died .

im sorry i know its not a story about euthenasia but i guess its sort of atleast the other side of the coin . i dont think or believe for a second that religion should interfere in the saving of a human life. i know some religions believe their god will save them OR NOT what ever his will is i guess . im not having a go at anyone or anyones religion , i just think that hospitals should be religion free and free to do what they are supposed to do SAVE LIVES .

but we have cases here now on this thread where a person who is incurable and in agony wants to die BUT IS NOT ALLOWED , and another case where a young woman was allowed to die because the church / government wouldnt grant permission for an abortion of a baby that sadly had no hope of living .

im sorry i mean no disrespect to any religion , im just speaking from a view point of being humane and easing terrible suffering if it can be done and helping people to live if an operation can make it so . i by no means am saying that i agree with abortions , but i can see certain circumstances such as the above case where it is and was the only option to save a human life .