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Spiritus_Raptor · 11-02-2011 06:37 AM

What are your views on euthanasia, sometimes known as mercy killing?
For example, a patient with an incurable disease begs for the doctor to unplug the life saving machines. Or a man fatally wounded in war ask for his buddy to end his suffering.

There was a case where four nurses in Versailles, France killed seven incurable patients, after being ordered to retreat from the hospital, as the patients couldn't be evacuated.

Opinions?

Absnt · 11-02-2011 06:40 AM

I see nothing wrong with it if it's better than the alternative, or if the patient is asking you to do it. Assuming the patient isn't just experiencing a moment of weakness, that is.

HeartofShadows · 11-02-2011 06:42 AM

(11-02-2011 06:40 AM)Absentinsomniac Wrote: I see nothing wrong with it if it's better than the alternative, or if the patient is asking you to do it. Assuming the patient isn't just experiencing a moment of weakness, that is.

This right here.

UnschoolShqiponjë · 11-02-2011 06:44 AM

(11-02-2011 06:40 AM)Absentinsomniac Wrote: I see nothing wrong with it if it's better than the alternative, or if the patient is asking you to do it. Assuming the patient isn't just experiencing a moment of weakness, that is.

Agreed.

Efs · 11-02-2011 06:44 AM

This has become a debated topic in my class a while ago, most people were for euthanasia - just like I, it's a right to death if things are becoming increasingly overwhelming or painful and the person is in the right state of mind or at least in the right mind to speak or think.

The tough part is, what if the person becomes a vegetable? What do we do then? Is it up to the family, or do we leave them, euthanize them?

But I'm generally for it.

.Manicrose. · 11-02-2011 06:58 AM

There was this case I once heard of a man called Dax Cowart:

Quote:After being burnt to a crisp, doctors treated him for 13 months despite his repeated pleas to be allowed to die. As part of his treatment, he was placed into a large vat of chlorinated chemicals to fight infected burns; upon his removal, so many nerves would register pain that he'd scream at the top of his lungs until passing out from exhaustion. It was so horrific to go through that Cowart maintains to this day that he should have been permitted to choose death rather than endure it. For more, read that wiki page.

So yeah, I agree with Absent.

HeartofShadows · 11-02-2011 07:13 AM

(11-02-2011 06:44 AM)Efs Wrote: The tough part is, what if the person becomes a vegetable? What do we do then? Is it up to the family, or do we leave them, euthanize them?

But I'm generally for it.

Ugh dude if I were a vegetable I would hope my family had the balls to put a bullet through my head and put me out of my misery but knowing my family that won't happen.

**SoulRiser** · 11-03-2011 12:17 AM

Forcing someone to stay alive against their will is just as bad as killing them when they'd rather be alive.

My grandmother had Alzheimer's and was in some shitty old age home. She thought she was in WW2 in a concentration camp or something. (Actually, sometimes she thought she was in boarding school, she kinda alternated between those a bit... kinda makes you think).... Anyway, she refused to eat, so they fed her with a drip. She thought she was being tortured every day. They fed her and made sure she stayed alive far faaar longer than she should have been. And the saddest part is they thought they were helping... I don't even want to know how desensitized someone would have to be to be able to work in a place like that. Noo

.Manicrose. · 11-03-2011 04:19 AM

(11-03-2011 12:17 AM)SoulRiser Wrote: Forcing someone to stay alive against their will is just as bad as killing them when they'd rather be alive.

My grandmother had Alzheimer's and was in some shitty old age home. She thought she was in WW2 in a concentration camp or something. (Actually, sometimes she thought she was in boarding school, she kinda alternated between those a bit... kinda makes you think).... Anyway, she refused to eat, so they fed her with a drip. She thought she was being tortured every day. They fed her and made sure she stayed alive far faaar longer than she should have been. And the saddest part is they thought they were helping... I don't even want to know how desensitized someone would have to be to be able to work in a place like that.

Most people who "think they're helping" don't actually think they're helping. They were probably worried her family would sue you if she died in their care. I mean old people die eventually (no offense to her) but they want to establish that WE DID EVERYTHING WE COULD SO IT'S NOT OUR FAULT YOUR GRANDMOTHER DIED PLEASE DON'T SUE US

**SoulRiser** · 11-03-2011 04:29 AM

Well, this is South Africa, so I kinda doubt they were overly worried about the suing. I haven't heard about stuff like that happening here. I dunno. They did seem pretty insensitive when I went there the few times I went there (it was kinda depressing, so I didn't go much).

Spiritus_Raptor · 11-07-2011 02:49 AM

(11-03-2011 04:29 AM)SoulRiser Wrote: Well, this is South Africa, so I kinda doubt they were overly worried about the suing. I haven't heard about stuff like that happening here. I dunno. They did seem pretty insensitive when I went there the few times I went there (it was kinda depressing, so I didn't go much).

When my grandmother had cancer, near the end she was on so much morphine she wasn't even there. She'd be unconscious. We asked the doctors if it would be better to pull the plug.

"No no no. That'd be murder."

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