LV, I'm secular...should I suffer needlessly for somebody else's religious views? And aren't we allowed free will? And above all, what kind of God would want us to suffer, here, instead of being w/ Him in Heaven ?
The same God who offered up his Son on the cross for my sins.
But your two statements don't mesh...one says you would give every type of medicine available, and the other touches on how the medical profession often gets it wrong and actually causes the suffering! No matter what kind of sedative or pain relief offered, the patient isn't living at that point, are they?
You're assuming that I meant doctors aren't giving enough and therefore if they did it would put the person past being aware. That's not correct. A friend of mine died from cancer. She was able to control the amount of pain medication she received and had several extra months with her children before she died. To see her up until the end was to hardly be aware she was dying--she still went about her day but only because of the pain meds she had. She was grateful for it as was her family.
Mr. Infinito, Kevorkian never, ever took anything upon himself. Ever. People sought him for relief that other doctors couldn't provide, for whatever reason, and he never actually killed anybody. He set up the apparatus and patients administered the drug themselves. That's why it's called assisted suicide and not murder, though I can understand the complicit role he played.
Sounds like slick willy's way of distorting words and actions. Criminal law recognizes responsibility on the part of accomplices even if that person took no direct action in the act that resulted in the crime. I'm sure more than one felon has uttered "I didn't know he was gonna do that! I can't help that he did that!"
You probably know the first line of the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm.
Drugging somebody to the point of incoherence and putting them in a vegetative state, prolonging any pain, suffering or heartache is extremely harmful and to do so is unrealistically attempting to cheat death. Dr.s can't win, only prolong the suffering in cases like this.
Ah, but I would guess that far few instances of harm is done by any doctor "prolonging" life unneccessarily with pain meds than the thousands of abortions performed everyday. And according to my family members in the med profession it doesn't happen like that most of the time. Generally, the family, the med staff and often even the patient knows when the time is near and accepts it. In those cases where the patient is aware and is in extreme pain they want those last few precious days with their loved ones. (Curious--are you saying someone in a vegetative state is aware? My friends who condone pulling the plug on such individuals always argue that the person is basically dead anyway.)
Lastly, and most importantly, if you truly believe in Liberty, you understand that it ismy life, from beginning to end and I live how I want and can certainly die how I want if the situation presents itself.
Of course, you have the power to act in any manner you wish no matter what the rules say. I, on the other hand, believe that it's right for members of a society to publically declare what their policy and beliefs are. As legalizing abortion has shown us--what is supposed to be reserved for the "hard" cases becomes routine. As in my own life when faced with a risky pregnancy the docs asked first if I wanted an abortion. I said no. I would have rather been cared for by docs who were more inclined to think of life first rather than "well, okay, let's see what we can do." Attitude colors actions. Doctors and hospitals who don't wish to do abortions face consequences for not wanting to. So you may kill yourself but when you ask society to accept additional people into the act you aren't far from
forcing me to accept it and maybe even paying for it! Liberty isn't anarchy. It's also not liberty
from as we've often said about
freedom of religion. Liberty to me means living as I chose relatively unfettered but recognizing some fences "(rules") protect me as much as others.
Respectfully, don't tell people how to live and don't tell people how to die.
Respectfully, I can. I'm entitled to my opinions and have a Consitutional right to express them. You, on the other hand, can choose to ignore them or disagree. But you can't stop me from expressing them.
If it's not the choice you'd make, that's your choice. Don't take that choice away from me.
I haven't taken that choice from you nor would I ever be able to. As an individual you can do whatever you wish. I, however, do not believe in an ethical code that condones assisted suicide and doesn't respect life in all its forms. That's not a place I want to live or pass on to my children.
My religious beliefs do inform my thoughts on assisted suicide BUT my personality is such that I am one who holds out to the end. I don't like seeing anyone giving up -- accepting death when it is near is not giving up.
Being tough in death or witnessing any long term challenge is a valuable lessons for those who wonder how they'll get through less traumatic events.
My daughter was complaining one day how her back hurt till she saw a gentlemen in a wheel chair without legs. She said "I guess I'll shut up now."
For me, I can't separate the right to life (in all its forms), my belief homosexual acts are wrong, marriage between a man and woman, etc, etc from the way in which society functions successfully. Society to function requires a collective understanding, which is often codifed, on what is acceptable. Socirty used to accept the family unit as necessary. Now everyone sleeps with whoever, kids grow up without fathers or same sex parents while others willingly accept government handouts while they procreate indiscriminately. Homosexuals have successfully argued that no one has the right to tell them what to do. That shut a lot of people up. Now we have laws and federal programs and school programs promoting their agenda.
I prefer to let God or nature to decide. Nature, despite what man thinks, does what it wants any way.
