Assisted Suicide (Not Euthanasia)

[gzagee]

I have no problems with folk opting for assisted suicide. No-one wants to live the rest of their lives in an undignified state. And relatives would see it as an act of mercy.

[Trina]

Do you think laws should be changed?

[gzagee]

That, I dunno. The govt would have to ensure stringent guidelines were in place, I spose. But I'm no lawyer.
However, i don't think the laws will change.

[Trina]

I also think the laws won't change.

I do think people should be able to go to court for it though and depending on circumstances get it granted.

[gzagee]

I find it interesting that only Oregon in the USA has legalised assisted suicide. When you imagine some of the stuff some states find above board, i wonder why only one allows it.

[Jimmy Clarke]

I agree it's a tough situation, but my belief is each person's life is their own and if they choose to take it, it's not my right to prevent them.

Especially in the case of incurable terminal conditions. We'd instantly put an animal down when they're suffering in that fashion, why do people have to stay alive and suffer if they don't want to?

[liam_cork]

i think it should be legal, some of the people on the news looking to do it aren't helping the cause, a couple have just been paralysed. ok i knows its bad to say just paralysed. but just their legs are gone, i know that must be bad but they were people who had it later in life an its no reason for it an i think they are detracting from people with a genuine case

[absolutely_fabregas]

im sure it happens a lot more than people think, just people dont broadcast it and people dont find out

[Jameel46]

If they wanna go then in truth they should have the right to go but I don't think I'd be able to 'assist'.

[gzagee]

Right-to-die: UK woman wins historic case

A UK woman with multiple sclerosis has made legal history by winning her battle to have the law on assisted suicide clarified.

Debbie Purdy wants to go to Switzerland to end her life but she was worried that her husband would be prosecuted for helping her when he returned to Britain.

Since 2002, 117 people from Britain have ended their lives at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland where assisted suicide is legal.

But helping a friend or relative to die is against the law in the United Kingdom and those who accompanied their loved ones to die in Switzerland faced criminal charges and a 14-year jail term when they returned to Britain.

Despite scores of police investigations, no-one has been charged. The DPP has said prosecutions were not in the public interest.

But Debbie Purdy wanted the law clarified.

She feared her husband could be prosecuted if he helped her end her life in Switzerland and she took her legal battle to the highest court in the land.

The Law Lords unanimously agreed that the Director of Public Prosecutions issue a policy setting out when those assisting suicide can expect to face prosecution.

Debbie Purdy emerged with her husband jubilant.

"I think people are beginning to realise it's not a right to die, it's a right to live," she said.

"It's a right to live with dignity, it's a right to live with choice, and it's a right to live to know what your choices are."

Lord Falconer, a former Labor attorney-general, has campaigned for a change in the law.

"I think it is a significant judgment," he said.

"What they're saying is: it's part of your human rights to know how you will conduct yourself in the last days of your life, in order to know what you can and cannot do, you need to know what's criminal and what's not.

"He can't give an immunity but what he can do, is indicate that he wouldn't prosecute in the case of compassionate assistance."

Edward Turner was with his mother when she took her own life at the Swiss clinic.

"It was a big worry," Mr Turner said.

"I think we as a family took the decision that it didn't matter what the law was, we had to do what was morally right and that was to be at our mother's side when she was dying.

"But we did have to make preparations in secret and I think also for my mother, she wanted to die knowing that we were going to be OK.

"She had in the back of her mind this fear that we might come back to the UK, be subjected to very intensive questioning, maybe arrested and maybe even being prosecuted and also the threat to our professional careers as well if we were convicted of breaking the law."


Pressure on the vulnerable

But some are worried about the ramifications for the aged and disabled

Andrew Ferguson is from the organisation Care Not Killing.

"Any move toward a green light for assisted suicide puts pressure on the vulnerable," he said.

"Emotional pressure, financial pressure. I might as well end it. A choice becomes a duty. This is really surprising and bad news for the vulnerable."

The Law Lords made it clear their judgment is not a change in the law to decriminalise assisted suicide in Britain.

They said that move is up to Parliament.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009 ... tion=world

[gzagee]

After her acquittal the judge asks why Kay Gilderdale was put on trial.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/ ... ed-suicide

[damo1583]

They call it humane to put an animal out of its misery, yet manslaughter if you do it for a human!!! Go figure!

Personally i say kill em all and let god sort em out.....

[Gordon Bennit]

There was something on GMTV this morning, about a woman who assisted the suicide of her daughter - she was in so much pain from ME, she had to use morphine. It's such a massive and controversially grey area. I don't even know if I'd have the courage to do it myself, and I hope I never have to find out. But surely, when life becomes a punishment of existence, and offers nothing more than pain, suffering and no hope, a person has the right to say enough's enough.

[damo1583]

Mate trust me, If your child was in absolutle agony and despair and no-one would do anything to eleviate their suffering you would do it!!!!!! doubt I could live with myself after! but i would have to end the pain!

[Gordon Bennit]

I actually meant have the courage to take my own life not my child's, but as you say, if it's your flesh and blood, then love would overcome law. What a horrible, terrible situation to be in.