[johnbeller]

It's a good decision.

[DoctorDulitlBest]

This woman is lazy. All she needs to do is set up a gun-firing contraption that she'll be able to operate even after her condition deteriorates. I have no respect for people who'd rather cajole their loved ones into murdering them rather than take care of the thing themselves.

[praboobolbode]

I vote "Yes".

Obviously the system is open to some potential for abuse. (Fraudulent doctors' claims to euthanize people against their will, etc.) But then again organ donations are open to the same danger, but we allow that to happen because of the benefits outweighing the harm.

I think this is similar. You'd need checks and balances in the system to make sure the person's wish to die is: A) genuine and rational, and B) justified - i.e. the disability is likely to be lifelong and to create a substantial impairment of their ability to appreciate the rest of their life. But assuming that the court could objectively decide this, I think it's merciful to allow a person to choose to die assisted. Not everybody has the strength to pull the trigger themselves, metaphorically speaking.

But there needs to be careful oversight and regulation of this, otherwise we'd be better off without it.

[arrendabomnem]

It's a good decision.

[DoctorNelsonOnten]

This woman is lazy. All she needs to do is set up a gun-firing contraption that she'll be able to operate even after her condition deteriorates. I have no respect for people who'd rather cajole their loved ones into murdering them rather than take care of the thing themselves.

I prefixed this with Serious Thread because I do believe it to be an important step in UK law. If you disagree with the decision then post an adult reply as to why and not just dismiss the near 2 years this lady has spent going through the British legal system to protect her husband. Prior to this verdict her husband could have been convicted of conspiracy to murder and jailed for 7 years just for helping her onto the aeroplane. The last thing in the world that she could be described as is 'lazy'!

[sleepergun]

Yeah, she could just get one of those at Tescos...

WTF is Tescos? Learn to speak American, you limey virgin. Try Google, yankyboy

[pIp83Uns]

Do you not understand the impact of Multiple Sclerosis? It is not a matter of courage it is a matter of physical inability to do anything at all at the end.

The article made it clear that she would be able to kill herself at the moment. As such, she could also set up something that could kill her later, at the time of her choosing.

****ing Westerners even turn suicide into a self-absorbed cry for attention. Be more like the Japanese, you selfish ******; if you want to die, just ****ing do it.

[Anaedilla]

The fact ... she's going through these exhausting legal procedures is a telltale indication that it's not a cry for attention, but rather the opposite of selfish, narcissistic and lacking in compassion.

She could've killed herself at home any number of times by now. Instead, she decided to stage a public fight in the courts so that her husband can accompany her to a high-profile clinic in another country to kill her. This is a transparent cry for publicity and attention.

Simply pulling the trigger and letting the heirs sort it all out afterwards actually sounds a lot more selfish than the accomplishments she has pulled off!

Wills are perfectly capable of resolving this issue, you moron.

[AgindyMinnife]

You may not realise this, Drake, but there is assisted suicide that goes on in hospitals on an (ir)regular basis. I mean it happens frequently, but it is not above board and any given patient cannot assume that sympathetic nurses and medical staff will facilitate a brief end to a tortured existence, like say by allowing patients to order their own dosage of morphine.

It is far better that this issue be out in the open. Abuses can then be brought to light, and noone need fear being left to endure in a useless shell of a body.

[MannyLopez]

Why should she have had to?

Because murder is wrong.

You may not realise this, Drake, but there is assisted suicide that goes on in hospitals on an (ir)regular basis.

I think the Canadian healthcare system has warped your sense of what goes on in the rest of the world.
I think you are naive, on both counts.

[TodeImmabbedo]

I don't think that an adult who is facing certain conditions and who has assistance in ending their suffering at the point when life no longer has any positives has been murdered, no.

[Crundaangerge]

Drake in this thread:

[ibiDb4uu]

Wills are perfectly capable of resolving this issue, you moron.

You really don't understand do you? Simply killing yourself just like that, without involving your relatives is -to me- the cheap way out.

[Loonerisav]

On another note, the Wikipedia page makes Dignitas sound extremely sketchy. Seems like they're out to profit on human misery.

edit:

Next: Assisted Suicide for Healthy People

...

However, most compassionate individuals, once they embrace the legitimacy of assisted suicide under some circumstances, would have little difficulty permitting these brave souls to die together. But what if one partner had been dying while the other had been in the full bloom of health? This is no longer an abstract philosophical inquiry. For George and Betty Coumbias of Vancouver, it has become a pressing matter of life and love and death.

As reported in the media, George Coumbias suffers from debilitating and potentially-deadly cardiac disease. His wife, Betty, also in her early seventies, is in good health. However, according to human rights attorney Ludwig Minelli, the director of the Swiss suicide-assistance organization, Dignitas, Mrs. Coumbias wishes to die alongside her husband during simultaneous suicides. ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-..._b_236664.html

Dignitas

Canadians
What do you want? Global warming is eliminating the ice floes.

[Assauraarguck]

As a side note, only Europeans would have the gall to associate a glorified gas-chamber with "dignity."

says the guy who thinks other people should be forced to endure needless suffering to satisfy his own twisted morality.

Bullshit. I've said several times that people should kill themselves if they want to. I have no problem with someone who has a terminal illness deciding to end it all; it's their decision. What I do have a problem with is attention whores who choose to involve their families, their country's legal system and sketchy Swiss crypto-Nazis in what should be a private moment between them and a gun/car exhaust pipe/toaster in bathtub.

[fedordzen]

They should use the shots as are used in US prisons to murder healthy individuals?

Or a USMC bullet?

[Vcwdldva]

Or a USMC bullet?

The bullets the Marines use aren't any different than those used by the rest of the U.S. military and NATO. You could even use a Canadian Forces bullet if they still have some.

[ticskebasse]

Or a USMC bullet?

The bullets the Marines use aren't any different than those used by the rest of the U.S. military and NATO. You could even use a Canadian Forces bullet if they still have some.
Not everyone who receives one had a choice, Captain Oblivious.

[kHy87gPC]

There seems to be some disagreement over what constitutes murder.

I would suggest that someone who did not cry over a few Iraqis, or the inmates of the cells on American death row(s) is the last person on Earth for whom we should give a **** over his objections to euthanasia, hysterical theatrics or no.

[penpizdes]

There seems to be some disagreement over what constitutes murder.

Only in the eyes of morally bankrupt people like yourself.

the inmates of the cells on American death row(s)

I'm against the death penalty, you desperate, strawman-building twit.
Why? And can you direct to an earlier thread where this was discussed?

Also, I notice you have omitted any comment on the loss of life due to your nation's foreign policy.