In most states, the only way to kill the comatose or those in a permanent vegetative state is by withdrawing nutrition and liquids.

If you do that to a conscious person they will literally be screaming as they die.

How is that right?

The problem with letting professionals do it is the scope for misuse which varies from place to place. In places like Belgium or Scandinavia where misuse is hardly heard of and corruption very non existent, it is okay as of now. But try putting it in some place in Africa or Asia or the middle east where there is so much corruption and you have a recipe for passing off countless murders as euthanasia. So it is pretty much dependent on the place and since it is not an ideal world, what works in one part of the world will not necessarily work in another part of the world since not all places are alike nor do all places work in the same manner. As they say 'one mans nectar is anothers poison'.

"But try putting it in some place in Africa or Asia or the middle east where there is so much corruption and you have a recipe for passing off countless murders as euthanasia"

Who cares? We don't influence law or society in those countries anyways.

In parts of Africa they rape babies to cure AIDS, euthanasia is too humane for barbarians.

"gravelly ill" teens. Note it doesn't say terminally. I remember being a teen, and thinking all SORTS of things made life unbearable. A willing and perhaps overeager Dr with a needle at my side would have been a recipe for ....death for no reason.

When a Dr decides they aren't interacting with the outside world, even if they seem vigorous and happy at the time? I can't fathom giving someone power over my life that way.

And I am pro euthanasia, for competent adults who choose it.

So, is anyone else fucking sick and tired of catholics weighing in on "moral" matters?

Child rape, child abduction, claiming condoms cause AIDS, all of these thing are perfectly fine. Letting someone dying escape a single moment of pain early unacceptable?

Seriously what the fuck is wrong with these people?

"We are humane to pets in a way we are not to humans."

Well said, Amy. My own personal opinion is that the decision to end one's own life should be included among the inalienable rights of mankind.

Our policies are ridiculous. The last time I was in the hospital, I was asked to sign a DNR. I told them that if I had a chance for a good recovery, then yes, I want to be resuscitated. After all, I was resuscitated at the age of 12 and went back to school the next day. If I cannot be resuscitated quickly, then I want to be let go. The nurses told me that they had to follow orders. They had to follow the treatment that my papers indicated, no matter the circumstances and asked me to sign them because I have suffered several strokes. Btw, I am "fully functioning" and work full time.

I am all for putting people out of pain and misery. I have mixed feelings about some quality of life issues and worry about pressure to end a life. I also worry about doctors being unwilling to provide pain relief from both a quality of life standard and from the perspective that it might cause someone to take their own life unnecessarily.

My old client, comedian David Feldman, has a joke (paraphrasing)...

"We treat our animals better than people. We need a human society for human beings. And when they get lost we should round them up, and if they haven't been claimed in 7 days....."

Safeguards? with the NSA on the job, after pouring over you banking, phone, internet and health history, will be well equipped to make the determination.

No safeguards needed.

One reason the case for Euthanasia is so compelling is due to our War on Drugs. Thanks to that wrinkle, a terminal patient cannot use heroin or cocaine for relief, for example, if conventional painkillers fail to do the job. But perhaps the right to die is inalienable and should be a personal choice, no matter what drugs are eventually legalized.

But be forewarned: combining Obamacare and euthanasia could be hazardous to your health. For example, a few years ago, a patient in Oregon's state-run system had a grievous case of cancer. Oregon, which allows assisted suicide, offered to pay for the suicide, but not for cancer treatment. Thanks, big nanny government!

We are humane to pets in a way we are not to humans.

I think you are looking at this backwards.

The more human-like a life, the more humans value that life and, consequently, the higher the barriers are to death.

Dogs suffer more at the end of their lives than goldfish. Are we humane to goldfish in a way we aren't to dogs, or is it that we value the lives of dogs more than goldfish?

I think are misusing the concept "humane" by restricting it solely to the alleviation of suffering.

To be humane requires being human, with all that entails, which is far more than just pain.

People will put an elderly dog down rather than pay for a knee replacement. Yet we would not make that calculation for a human, because the valuation on human life is far higher than for dogs.

Presuming you agree with that, then you end up contradicting yourself.

Turning around and arguing that it we are more humane to pets by willfully ending their suffering is having it both ways: on the one hand, we value human life more highly than pets, but on the other we shouldn't.

I'd still rather have an injection and leave some type of small fortune to my relatives than wear a diaper for five years and suck up money that is wasted because I'm not there.

Jim, I'm not disagreeing with that.

Rather, my point is that laws are general, not specific. Since societies value human life more highly than animals (and some animals more highly than others) the price we will pay in suffering to exit life will be much higher.

That is not inhumane. To the contrary, devaluing end of life decisions to the point where they are the same as those for pets would be.

"But be forewarned: combining Obamacare and euthanasia could be hazardous to your health. For example, a few years ago, a patient in Oregon's state-run system had a grievous case of cancer. Oregon, which allows assisted suicide, offered to pay for the suicide, but not for cancer treatment. Thanks, big nanny government!"

DO NOT MISS THIS.

Look what you got when someone wished for "Affordable Health Care".

SOMEONE ELSE, NOT YOU will determine when to flip that switch.

People put goldish "to sleep" all the time. You just add clove oil to their tank. If they have something incurable or have received a terrible injury (broken back) and you just wait, the other fish eat them alive.

"I'd still rather have an injection and leave some type of small fortune to my relatives than wear a diaper for five years and suck up money that is wasted because I'm not there."

You might feel differently when the diaper becomes reality but yet you find that living with it wasn't quite as hard to take as you imagined.

I think it is easy to talk about euthanasia and the reasons it should be available. It is also something that would extraordinarily open to abuse and I am not sure that the benefits would outweigh the abuses.

I am of value as a person because I have a mind and intent and do things that reflect what I value. I don't want to live as a lump of flesh.

Posted by: Amy Alkon at June 16, 2013 11:16 AM

Good luck calculating that exact point in time, and planning accordingly. Those of us, who lack prescience, are usually way past it, when we finally realize we are way past it.

Maybe you will get lucky, and get hit by a bus, or die suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage before you are faced with a decision, since I am sure the government bureaucracy in place to make sure, you want what you want, will ninety percent of the time, schedule your demise, about four to six weeks after you are past caring about it.

Good luck calculating that exact point in time, and planning accordingly. Those of us, who lack prescience, are usually way past it, when we finally realize we are way past it. -- Isab at June 16, 2013 12:31 PM

That is why you have someone you trust that has a medical power of attorney. My sister is mine. She knows that if I end up comatose with no expectation of recovery after 30 day or perm vegetative -- pull the plug.

And I won't blame her if I'm wrong and there is an after life. But if the brain waves are essentially flat, I'm already gone.