Euthanasia

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
i think the rationalisation of suicide might lead to unpleasant results
Waking up every day leads to unpleasant results for some people. "Life is suffering" is the first Noble Truth.

My attitude is that forcing someone to stay alive who wants to die is as serious an infringement of human rights as killing someone who wants to live. The ethical difficulty lies in distinguishing a person going through an acute and potentially reversible depressive episode - a person who is likely to one day say "I'm glad I didn't kill myself", if they can be dissuaded or prevented from doing so at the time - from a person who is depressed for reasons that are very unlikely ever to change.
 

vimothy

yurp
Waking up every day leads to unpleasant results for some people. "Life is suffering" is the first Noble Truth.

My attitude is that forcing someone to stay alive who wants to die is as serious an infringement of human rights as killing someone who wants to live. The ethical difficulty lies in distinguishing a person going through an acute and potentially reversible depressive episode - a person who is likely to one day say "I'm glad I didn't kill myself", if they can be dissuaded or prevented from doing so at the time - from a person who is depressed for reasons that are very unlikely ever to change.
its not a question of forcing someone to be alive tho, ppl are neither alive or they're not. the question is whether you want the state to rationally manage suicide. that seems extremely dystopian to me, irrespective of the underlying motivations of the ppl involved
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
its not a question of forcing someone to be alive tho, ppl are neither alive or they're not. the question is whether you want the state to rationally manage suicide. that seems extremely dystopian to me, irrespective of the underlying motivations of the ppl involved
"Manage" is a weasel word. Brings to mind schedules, quotas, that sort of thing. That's very different from helping to make it a bit easier and less painful for someone who has already made that decision for themselves.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
To be honest, arguments against it tend to rely on the prospect of state-employed Existence Termination Agents going around bullying people into submitting to their own disposal, which is the same sort of slippery-slope bollocks you hear from the sorts who say "Well if gays can get married then pretty soon you'll have people marrying animals/trees/inanimate objects."
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
its not a question of forcing someone to be alive tho, ppl are neither alive or they're not. the question is whether you want the state to rationally manage suicide. that seems extremely dystopian to me, irrespective of the underlying motivations of the ppl involved
Anyway, who says it has to be state-run, if that's your main beef with the idea? Dignitas is an independent non-profit. Last I heard, Switzerland isn't rounding up its sick and elderly into cattle trucks.
 

vimothy

yurp
"Manage" is a weasel word. Brings to mind schedules, quotas, that sort of thing. That's very different from helping to make it a bit easier and less painful for someone who has already made that decision for themselves.
"manage" is precisely what it is. the state cannot recognise pain or ease or even, ultimately, ppl. it's an abstraction.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Seems like your objection is to the state - perhaps its very existence - rather than to euthanasia, per se.
 
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