Assisted suicide: For or against? Is it moral? Would you help a suffering person end their life if they needed your help to do it?

The short answer: I support physician assisted suicide.

I’ll be very candid. In my late wife’s last months, she begged me to kill her. She suffered from a genetic metabolic disease, the management of which developed into an eating disorder. She also suffered from profound mental illness. Crushing agoraphobia, generalized anxiety, OCD.

One of my spiritual and philosophical confessions is non-violence. I could not kill her. I could not aid her by helping pushing her over the edge. I could only try to help her.

I tried to take the path of saving her. I tried to get her in patient care. She would not participate, and I could not Baker Act her. I set up an appointment with a new psychiatrist. She died alone in her sleep a few days before we made it to that appointment. I founder her dead in bed a few days after mutual friends visited (she rejected seeing them).

In retrospect, I wish she could have just been able to leave her life on her own terms. When she wanted. Not alone, but with me. With medical support for pain and anxiety. With psychosocial support for both of us. Instead she died while I was at work.

You go to your consultation. You tell the social worker there your name, driver's license number (or SSN), and home address to verify your identity. The social worker talks to you for a few minutes about the permanence of your decision, and you tell them a little bit about the reasons why you're making this decision. Perhaps you have terminal cancer, or you can't cope with having just gone blind in one eye. Perhaps you suffer treatment-resistant depression or are bored beyond belief with life itself. The social worker signs a slip verifying that you know what you're doing.

Thirty days later, you take a light rail line just outside the city, to a facility run by the federal government. Several members of your family and your friends meet you outside. They hug you, offer reassurance, tell you what a joy it was to have you in their life. You reciprocate. At your leisure, you walk through its gates. The sergeant sits down with you, verifies your identify, and once more confirms that you understand what's going to happen. You and the sergeant record a video of yourself, confirming your decision for recordkeeping purposes.

You're escorted to a spacious steel room with thick walls, ventilated from the ceiling only, and with one side open to the outside room. The floor is lined with a huge, thick biodegradable plastic tarp, and in the center, there's this padded wooden chair with straps and buckles, and a cord lying on the ground. You sit down in the chair and grab a device resembling a bicycle brake at the end of the cord; you know that if you squeeze it, this whole thing will be called off.

One of the recruits at the range walks up to you, fastens the straps onto your body, and puts the hood over your head. You can hear their footsteps as they leave, and you know the time is nye. There's another recruit sitting at a table with a .50 caliber rifle. He rests the rifle on the table and uses his iron sights to train it on your head. He feels this wave of anxiety and horrible power flowing through him, imagining your whole life to this moment and the horrors you faced that drove you to this point. There is no challenge for him except relieving the burden placed on you... to snuff out a life for the greater good. He lines up your head between his sights and slowly squeezes the trigger. Nobody knows quite when the bullet will come out -- not even him. He's dying from the anticipation, but he knows he mustn't be hasty, for your sake.

---

As soon as the medical staff on-site hear the shot ring out, they rush in with coolers, scalpels, and other medical equipment to extract all of your organs. Perhaps your death can bring life to those who actually wanted it. Once the medical staff are gone and start heading out, the remaining soldiers come to wrap up your body. It's a gruesome task, as nearly your entire head was blown off and is splattered everywhere. But they all know that in their line of work, they're liable to have to deal with much worse. The makeshift bag is buried shallowly in a field in east Texas, earmarked for this specific purpose for its high rate of decomposition.

one thing that's odd is how we don't hesitate in helping an animal die, and its not on the bases that they're less valuable, we actually do it because it's perceived as immoral to just watch them suffer and slowly die but we find it so hard to aply the same compassion to a human and I suspect that its for more selfish reasons, its just harder to let go when its a human, its not about compassion. I've always said that for life to make sense we must have the freedom to leave whenever we want. that way the very act of living becomes an expression of our will and our passion rather than just something we endure. we can leave whenever we want but we choose to stay.younger I was suicidal and realizing deeply how I am not trapped here and can leave anytime actually cured me and my suicidal tendency disapeared.

No one but you owns your life. You have body autonomy. If you choose a time to end your life, you should have a dignified way out that doesn’t endanger others.

I saw a suicide where a man threw himself in front of an 18-wheeler. He died but the driver has certainly been traumatized for life plus his driving record now includes a vehicular death. That’s unnecessary.

Personally against assisted suicide No I could NEVER do it

If they were terminally ill, I’d help however I could and support their decision. Outside of that, I’d strongly recommend against it and try to help them in another way.

Yes i support it .

But it really depends on many things...it's not that simple ...I don't think people should suffer at the end of their life and if it's asked ...then it should be a right of theirs

Of course, it is a sacred right to be able to choose to die at an appropriate time and in a dignified manner.

i would not want to be personally involved in their decision, i'd rather try to help them live. but i don't judge them or shame them in any way for making that choice & they should be able to, in the right state of mind. but that's a difficult thing, how do you know if someone's suffering from mental illness, if they truly want to end their life or just in an emotional storm? it seems a better idea to restrict assisted suicide for incurable medical issues only. like for example, if you were riddled with cancerous tumors and you knew without a doubt the last few months would be excruciatingly painful, then yes. things like that. i mean i'd do it for my cat, why not a family member? you know.

i'm for people who are terminally ill having the right to die safely and legally.

it's not only moral, it's humane

I think there is times and circumstances that may make it more humane to do it. If an animal was suffering and there was nothing that could be done, do we just sit back and watch them suffer days, weeks. Does not a human deserve the ability to die with a little dignity if there is no other way. If I was faced with no hope of getting better and suffering I would want to be able to decide what I wanted. ( I already have it in writing in case of an emergency)

I think there are times when it would be the right thing to do.

By definition, suicide is "the termination of life by one's own hand." However, when it's the "termination of life by the hands of another," then it's defined as murder. Ergo, it is my considered opinion that this so-called "assisted suicide" is just another form of murder. And I am against murder.

I think there are situations where im for it and ones where im against it. I have met people in so much pain whose quality of life will get so much worse and nothing could help and i would say if they wanted to die then they should be able to. I am however against situations like the link below as so much could have been done to help her https://righttolife.org.uk/news/elderly-woman-opts-for-euthanasia-to-avoid-another-lockdown

Only for really sick people.

Definite yes.

Yes I'm for it

For

For

For

I think it's fine, and moral.
A couple years ago, I assisted an SW user make his transition.

I don't know. It depends on the situation.

I couldn't do it

i wouldn't do it, but i don't blame others who want to.

Not sure.

I abstain. The answer to your second question is no, but maybe depending on context.

I am for

I wouldn’t be able to do it but I certainly would support someone in doing this if they were palliative.

Where I live we have MAID (Medical Assistance I’m Dying) so you have to be able to consent to this and meet the guidelines but I would support a loved one in doing this.

If somebody is suffering from a fatal illness, I support speeding it along painlessly.

For. Nobody else’s business if it is moral or not. The only person’s opinion that matters is the person involved and yes provided it didn’t seriously risk me landing up in jail unable to care for my kids