Re: Assisted suicide
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 2:31 pm
I thought people like that just worked in call centers?
or NI customer support
or NI customer support
Yeah for sure and it's not even just the type of illness, there's probably a list of factors and of coursemagma wrote:Well, obviously it depends on the illness. "Mental Illness" is a very broad term indeed. I expect it's slightly easier to trust the consent of a person with Tourettes than it is a person with severe paranoid psychosis.AxeD wrote:It's case dependent dudemen. There have been several cases of euthanasia for mentally ill people.![]()
Here's those two words again... common sense.
I think it's difficulty is related to the principle it helps establish, it's because there is no chance of a return to health and no possibility of giving assent that our answer to it goes someway to establishing our answer to the less extreme cases.magma wrote: That's definitely the most difficult judgement call to make... all I know is that I've got a signed bit of paper in my files at home saying I'd want my machine switched off if it came to that. If somebody's never expressed a preference, I personally think you've got to leave them be. The whole thing's torturous though, I wouldn't wish that situation on anyone.
not even healthcare just gov fundingI don't think they will just keep people in a 'permanently' vegetative state alive btw. If there's no people coming for that person, will his/her healthcare just keep paying?
Depends where you are, I guess... one of the episodes of Louis Theroux's last series LA Stories visited a facility that was almost entirely full of people in PVS just being tended by nurses for years on end as if they were fleshy shrubberies.AxeD wrote:I don't think they will just keep people in a 'permanently' vegetative state alive btw. If there's no people coming for that person, will his/her healthcare just keep paying?
because you can't reliably determine that they truly want to die because of their terminal illness if they also have depression - it would cloud their judgment. in one word, what magma said - consent.m8son wrote:What, so if they are terminally ill but also judged to be mentally ill then they shouldn't be offered this option? Why does they mental health of a terminally ill person matter? I expect most terminally ill would fit the diagnosis of depression.jags wrote:they should go through a serious process where they have to convince multiple docs/judges etc that they aren't mentally ill
i didn't mean "I'd rather" as in it affects me. it has no effect on me. i'm not ethically opposed to suicide. i would just rather we first tried to utilize euphoriants before jumping to the suicide option. i mean if suicide is a last resort, then surely we should try euphoriants - drugs that FORCE you to be happy - first. that would be so typical murica - let people die because we're so scared of someone "getting HIGH" (omg). i think society has waaaaay underestimated the value of drugs like ketamine, opiates, mdma, etc for mental illness. and i bet you most of those people with treatment-resistant depression would choose low dose oxycodone or methadone over dying if given the chance.m8son wrote:jags wrote:for mentally ill people, hell no. i'd rather they were treated with serious euphoriants like ket or something than allowed to commit suicide (now there's a thought).
This is often what i notice about this kind of discussion, it usually boils down to selfishness. 'I'd rather' why would you rather, how does it effect you? Is it just because it fits into your ethics and morality? If someone wants to die it should be up to no-one else apart from them imo, obviously it shouldn't/wouldn't be as easy as walking into somewhere and in an hour you would be dead, it would/should be a decision made over several months. In my experience, suicidal thoughts and feelings are rather fleeting and although feel so strong and insurmountable at the time days/weeks later you realise how ridiculous they may be, so obviously this should be a prolonged decision.
read what i said - they are not primarily life-threatening, i.e. they can lead to death through secondary causes like suicide or poor nutrition. again, it's the issue that a mentally ill person cannot consent to euthanasia and i think they can be treated with more aggressive options and they might live to see a cure.m8son wrote:Depression and similar mental illnesses are incredibly life threatening, the suicide attempt rate for people with BPD is around 60-70%. If people are going to kill themselves why not allow for it to happen in a comforting environment surrounded by family instead of forcing these people to spend their last hours on earth with intense feelings of guilt and isolation. Also with the risk of a suicide attempt going wrong and leaving the person even worse off than before?jags wrote:i think anyone can get better with time, and since depression isn't primarily life-threatening, there's a chance researchers might come up with a cure/treatment for it within the patient's lifetime.
uhh what? again my "morals" are not opposed to suicide. i just think that stronger drugs could be used to successfully treat TRD and that our society has a ridiculous fear of pursuing that option because of the war on drugs etc. and i don't think they'd need to be on a dose where they're "doped up to their eyes, unable to live anything resembling a normal life". anecdotally, lots of people talk about things like tramadol being very effective for TRD. they're probably people who also have "fibromyalgia" (same thing really amirite?) and the tramadol happened to fix their depression. i don't know any good studies, i'll leave that up to you, but i personally think some sort of low dose opiate would be the most effective thing, if they've tried everything else. mdma and ketamine don't seem feasible long-term. maybe they could help for acute episodes.m8son wrote:Better than dying for who? For the patient who would live doped up to their eyes for the rest of time, unable to live anything resembling a normal life. Or for you, as it would better fit your morals?jags wrote:if someone's truly treatment-resistant, treat them with fucking oxycontin or methadone or whatever if you have to, better than dying
go-to crew when everyone else is being a wetty thoughmagma wrote:There's a much wider discussion to be had about people in persistent states of call-centre employment. There should be a cyanide pill with every contract.
Hmm. Well, yes, but not exactly in ideal ways. I'd rather a medical professional gave me a cocktail of drugs that were assured to be speedy and painless than slash my wrists in the bath or risk a botching hanging. I'd also rather not clean up after a loved one who's blown their head off with a shotgun.sd5 wrote:Most people are capable of suiciding without assistance.
Take a picture and put it on an album cover imomagma wrote:Hmm. Well, yes, but not exactly in ideal ways. I'd rather a medical professional gave me a cocktail of drugs that were assured to be speedy and painless than slash my wrists in the bath or risk a botching hanging. I'd also rather not clean up after a loved one who's blown their head off with a shotgun.sd5 wrote:Most people are capable of suiciding without assistance.
That's a difficult one right!!??nobody wrote:….he's been tied down for like 3 years or something...and he just spazzes out all day every day