In my previous post, I wrote about couples who committed murder-suicide as a last, desperate act to stay "independent" and out of nursing homes. A New York Times article by Daniel Bergner, ti...
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Mercy death???
ninamarczynski
Friday, March 07, 2008 at 06:22 PMre: Mercy death???
Carol Bradley Bursack
Saturday, March 08, 2008 at 07:13 AMYou're a smart woman. I know I don't want to be kept "alive" artificially. But that doesn't mean we should determine someone's life isn't worth lving because they are old or disabled. There's a big difference. Thanks, Nina.
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assisted
ninamarczynski
Sunday, March 09, 2008 at 05:29 PMThis is a controversial issue. To be honest, if it is true assisted (100% the patient's wish.) then I would not mind it. However, these days lots of doctors are biased even in the hospital. One example is that the doctors all wanted to let this guy go (brain-dead or coma) but his family refused and went to court to win the case for now. Here it says the doctors don't have a right over the family. Often it can be misused once the concept is accepted as legal like Europe. I would say it is safe if the person/patient can write down some document to allow this to happen. Otherwise, it is like a gray area.
replyre: assisted
Carol Bradley Bursack
Sunday, March 09, 2008 at 07:25 PMThat's why it is so important to have health directives drawn up. Actually, even young people should have them, but few do. Certainly people later in life should. Then their families don't have quite such grief over making decisions. It can still be hard, but you have an idea of what the person wanted.
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Carol, your post is touching.
You know, at times the society has this thought of quality life. This seems to imply that if your health or lifestyle is "below standard", then you don't deserve it or that you won't get the maximum benefit so you "need to go". This includes disabled people and bed-ridden patients. Even I myself sometimes may wonder if I want to die with peace instead of dying with extreme suffering.
One thing I know for sure is that we have no right to help people to kill themselves. I know it is complicated but to my simple mind, I don't do that. But if the person chooses not to suffer, it is his/her choice and I don't really think it is a sin or that he/she will go to hell.
That is, we have no right to tell other people how to live but we are free to do it ourselves. Not that people should not help you to keep living. e.g., the police has to help someone to prevent him/her from jumping into the river.
Just my 2 cents.
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