I'm split two ways over this. Anyway just for info.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8330724.stm

There has been quite a lengthy discussion on 'assisted suicide' here
Daniel James - No prosecution charges for assisted suicide in CH

Personally, I think that the biggest part of the problem is the lack of clarity of the law in other countries. The UK has been sitting on the fence over this issue.

I don't thing the problem in other countries is about the law, it's about the lack of courage of the governments to take a real decision about "assisted suicide".

Death is such a taboo in our nowadays *civilized society* that it's just a shame.

I think the business model looks pretty good.
No returns or customer complaints.

No doubt they are making a killing.

Erm..I'll get my coat....

Cheers,
Nick

Yes but no repeat business.

No repeat business indeed........ but with an element of truth. I wish that people would look at end of life health care, and provide some changes there, so that some of these active suicide issues might not be so pertinent.

We consider death to be such a failure. Health care providers, family members, patients don't know how to switch gears from saving to letting go. Except it's the natural end of life. Legal systems enhance this too - the ability to sue for what is sometimes just a failure of a human system, for example. And the whole issue of assisted suicide and its legality.

The thing is that there need to be more health care providers who specialize in palliative care. Many people intent on suicide are in pain or depressed - if those issues can be alleviated, then they may not be so intent on dying. I guess there need to be places where people can die, too... my parents were lucky, one died at home and the other died in hospital under hospice care, and we were able to be around in both cases.

On the other hand, if the situation is hopeless, then helping someone with death should not be an issue. But, health care providers are trained to save lives, not end them, there is the religious component (is it wrong to let someone go), and then there is this weird thing about pain control - can't give someone too much morphine, or else they will get addicted (which is rather crap if one is going to die soon anyway).

I have a hard time with assisted suicide, although I did ask my father if he wanted to go off of the ventillator that was helping him breathe (the palliative care doc was with me), and he declined, but said he'd like to be able to change his mind later on. I guess that would have been somewhat like assisted suicide in a sense.

I don't know... do people talk about this stuff with their aging parents or other relatives? We did, a lot.

I have an opinion on this because someone fairly close to me chose to say goodbye on her own timetable rather than waiting for nature to take its natural (killing) course.

There is nothing that can really prepare you when you get to say goodbye to someone the day before they have chosen to depart their life. You try and be yourself, be understanding, but this is not something that is natural when you know that this is the last time that you will ever see this human alive.

In retrospect the only thing that I could compare this experience to is how I would imagine an execution would take place without the violence of the act itself. Knowing that you will be dead in a few minutes is very heavy on your thought process to say the least. I'm fairly convinced that most people don't have the ability or character to make this call.

Back to the idea of banning foreigners from coming over here to end their lives; at the time of my family member's departure, I couldn't possibly imagine why she chose that option and I felt the whole process to be abhorrent. Since that time my opinion has changed. If the person concerned has lost their ability to live their life in their chosen way and the illness they have is deemed terminal, who else other than the person themselves (if they are conscious and mentally aware of their situation) should have the right to choose how they die? Allowing someone to make their own choice is not only right, it is granting them their absolute born right of giving them their own freedom to make that final call. It shouldn't be about legality as the subject in Switzerland tends to be, it is respecting your own human right to make a choice for yourself. The ultimate case of freewill you could say.

I really can't see how anyone unaffected by this subject could possibly understand the chain of events and torturous process that accompanies any decision to consider euthanasia. Organizations such as Exit and Dignitas have to be remarkably restrained in their public statements when they are attacked in the media.

Let me to say somethig:

Nobody have chosen to come to this world by themselves...


.... nobody should have the power to say when to die and leave this world.


Both The birth and the Death are not yours.... only what is in the middle.

Our breath is determined before we are born, And we sould not change this.

I respect your opinion.

The right are thinking of slapping a death tax of SFR 50K

http://www.smh.com.au/world/death-ta...0123-mrva.html

If the laws were clarified regarding this, there would be no need for people to travel to other countries. I feel sure that most people would prefer to die close to their family and friends.

'Assisted suicide' needs to be clearly defined as legal, or illegal.

I wanted to add my two pennyworth to this thread, having watched my father suffer with the pain of cancer a few years ago.

He was dying of liver and throat cancer, and was on a morphine drip for 30 days before he died. I watched him suffer through the pain until he went into a coma 5 days before he died.It was ever so tempting, really tempting to help him stop the suffering. It would have been so easy simply to push the drip and feed him a full dose of morphine . The only thing stopping me helping him , was the fact that i would have been prosecuted by british law.
He wanted to die, and for him it was a case of the quicker the better. I wish i could have had the courage to help him through his pain. Yes the law needs to be changed in some way, at least to protect the ones who live on through the suffering, and the ones who suffer. It was the most traumatic and intense period of my life and took me and my family a long time to get over it. If the UK had had the assisted death laws they have here, i know my father and my family would have had no hesitation in using them. I agree there has to be some form of legislation on this, and i also think its a very grey area, which only the ones watching loved ones suffer can comprehend.
Its easy to say no its against the law, and no one has the right to take a life in this way, but there are always arguments for and against every controversial law, but what about the people who suffer through the death of a loved one , or the person dying. I know myself, that if i was in such a position , where there was no hope of survival , and only pain and suffering until your body ceases to function, I would without hesitation opt for an assisted death .

__________________
www.soul-healing.ch

Thanks for sharing this story. I think this is the perfect example why I think it should be legal. But the British athlete (forgot his name) in the media that found a life in a wheelchair not worth living is the example why it needs to be clearly regulated: When is it legal and what medical conditions should be met.

My dad does it. (psychiatrist and euthanasist(sp))

He says it is amazing how grateful patients are. He did it to my aunt who had terminal cancer and lived each day in severe pain.

Respect your opinion also but when you make the choice you are still alive...and therefore according to your reasoning it would be your choice.

I am gonna assume you are a religious person who has a whole different take on this, but me as a non religious person....other story again. My life, my choice.

Im consider myself to be a spititual person, not religious. But i also beleive that if there s a God out there, and lets face it nobody knows if there is or isnt, that he/she/it wouldnt want us to suffer in this way. We have freedom of choice, freedom of speech, so why not the freedom to live or die as we wish ? If we are religious, and respect the laws of the bible then, we wont make the choice to die.
Everyone should be free to make the choice, within set guidlines. The grey areas are where do we set the lines? At what point do we allow someone to make that decision. From my point of view its when there is zero chance of recovery from our affliction., and that quality of life is so far impaired that we are left with no other choice other than suffering and pain. We do not let our pets or animals suffer like we let humans suffer do we ?

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www.soul-healing.ch

It's an old post, but a good subject, so I'll jump in.

This last sentence, "I respect your opinion," is so important. So many of our major societal issues today are roadblocked by fundamentalists of opinion who misuse this sentence. "I respect your opinion, but you still have to do it my way." Euthanasia, abortion, gay marriage - these issues and more are practically stalemated because some believe that their decision to choose No is more valid than others' freedom to choose Yes.

I can respect the religious point of view (although I am absolutely not religious myself), but there doesn't seem to be an outpouring of reciprocation coming from the other side. More than just frustrating, this is a real pity.

There has been a murder trial local to me in England for a woman who assisted her daughter to commit suicide. She was found not guilty today

BBC News

I totally agree with you. What I hear people saying is, "I respect your opinion, but you are not entitled to act on it." This is true for euthanasia. It is just as true for other items that society doesn't want to deal with such as abortion and gay rights and so on.

I don't think that anyone who hasn't had a loved one pass away in a horrible and lingering manner can understand this issue in more than a superficial way. My father died of a degenerative neural disorder. He was literally drowning in his own drool and finally died of pneumonia from aspirating his saliva and mucus. I can say that I would have been OK if he had died on his own schedule.

Since no one on this forum is God, last time I checked, no one is in a position to say that it is inappropriate for one to end their own life on their own schedule.

Brian.

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Many men, of course, became extremely rich, but this was perfectly natural, and nothing to be ashamed of, because no one was really poor -- at least no one worth speaking of. - Douglas Adams

Swiss vote could call time on 'suicide tourism'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13380557