What is the argument in favour of euthanasia for people who are not about to die?

Perhaps if people had the option to end their lives freely, more attention might be paid to what's causing these decisions. Right now, nobody seems to care too much.

 

In a way it is “man made” and again this is a highly complex field. What happens is people with COPD (chronic lung disease - often from smoking) slowly get used to less oxygen in their system and the body resets itself lower and lower. When we ventilate someone, even if we reduce the amount of oxygen we are giving them it resets that level upwards and removing them from that support suddenly does not give time for the body to reset again hence the respiratory distress (there is more to it of course up to and including the fact that within 2 hours of ventilation the body is resorbing muscle mass from the main breathing muscle - the diaphragm.). This is why we discuss end of life requests with patients often on admission - here it is called an ARP Advanced Resuscitation Plan. Often they are called “living wills” and can be written as a guide to what YOU want as end of life care I.e. if you say came down with Meningococcal disease and we were forced to do a quad amputation (not unknown) would you want to live?


But coming back to end of life care there is not a lot between palliative care and euthanasia. Euthanasia literally means “gentle death” and in cases like meningococcaemia I would have no issues either way if the relatives gave me a living will that stated the person did not want to live as a quad amputee EVEN THOUGH WE COULD “save” them. I have also seen the opposite - a family so deep in denial of the inevitable that they would not allow palliative care even though the patient was unresponsive and terminal - he……… no you do not want to know - let’s say hey did him no favours

 

People DO have the option to end their lives freely regardless of assisted suicide laws. People are free to kill themselves any time.

 

The "same outcome" being what?

 

Where it is not their choice. And please stop calling it being “killed”. The young man in the OP - you have no idea what his life was like. The article states he lived with an aunt and smoked weed constantly- that suggest two things to me - first it is highly probable he was not compliant with his diabetes management and second that he in all probability had diabetic neuropathy- which can be hideously painful

 

Unless they are a quadriplegic, slipped to a state where they need full assistance etc etc etc

 

Apparently it's a lot easier to imagine doing this than actually doing it.

 

nope, if a parent starves her children, is that nature?

now, I 100% support pulling life support when it's time, but to say it's nature doing it would be incorrect, unless you also want to say nature is doing it when you inject something to do the same thing, still nature right

in both cases the patient passes away due to the actions of others, ad the bodies response to that action

 

I thought you were against assisted suicide?

not everyone can on their own, think of someone paralyzed from the neck down

 

removing the life support kills them

but by your logic, the shot doesn't kill them, their natural body response to the drug kills then... thus nature

 

No, the shot is man-made.

 

removing the life support is done by man

 

Administering the life support is also done by man. If it was not administered in the first place, then a natural death would have occurred. It's really not complicated.

 

I am. What did I say which made you think that I had changed my mind?

True.

 

It is for some but usually when it is time it is time

 

It certainly is, via neglect. This is why the parent would be charged with neglect and not murder.

No, there is nothing at all 'natural' about inserting a drug into someone.

 

Exactly, so some people only choose to end their life with assistance. Which is hardly an exercise of bodily autonomy.

 

True.

 

Well I won't, because that is literally the definition of "kill." Maybe you're thinking of "kill" as 'murder.' Is it a murder? Absolutely not. Is it a killing? Absolutely. By definition actually.

Is there significance in living with the aunt?

 

Please do NOT I repeat NOT claim until you have worked in health care.

 

Well thanks for the informative post. You start it by saying: "in a way it is 'man made'", but I am left wondering: how?

 

I was under the impression that people who require life support in order to stay alive would die if they did not get life support. I have to say, I would be QUITE surprised if I was wrong.

 

No it is not and legislation does not agree with you there. Just as there are degrees within killing and murder so are there degrees within end of life situations.

“Killing” does not incorporate the participation of the person whose life is to end which is why these laws are called “assisted” suicide/death

I suggest you watch Terry Pratchett’s excellent documentary on Euthanasia “Choosing to Die”

https://documentary.net/video/terry-pratchett-choosing-to-die-medically-assisted-death/

 

Depends on your definition of “life support”. CAPD can be considered life support as it replaces the non functioning kidney

 

yep, but removing it does the same thing an injection would