Have you guys seen this story?

[Guest]

This guy was unhappy with the results of his trans-sexual surgery in Belgium, so he asked for and received a lethal injection from his doctors in Belgium!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2440086/Belgian-transsexual-Nathan-Verhelst-44-elects-die-euthanasia-botched-sex-change-operation.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

 

I cannot for the life of me imagine being a doctor and administering a lethal injection to a healthy patient. Totally unimaginable!

 

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/05/20803178-painless-death-or-precipitous-cliff-transsexual-chooses-euthanasia-after-failed-operation?lite

 

It seems his mother wasn't bothered by the suicide. What an answer to bad parenting:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2441468/Mother-Belgian-transsexual-chose-die-says-death-doesnt-bother-me.html

[Bargara Leatherboy]

I imagine that the procedure to get the lethal injection, is a long and lengthy one.

 

If he had counselling and time to consider his decision, then I support his right to have it.

 

Better to have the injection in a safe environment, where his remains will be treated properly, than overdosing at home, or jumping in front of a train etc.

 

There needs to be more euthanasia available worldwide.

 

It is like gay marriage, or abortion - if you do not believe in it , don't have one, but not our place to judge the needs of another human being.

 

May he rest in peace

[Tighty]

I want to have euthanasia when the time comes.

[gallahadesquire]

I want to have euthanasia when the time comes.

 

When I got into medical school, my mother, who was always a free spirit, but had

a few demons in her life, told me: "When the time comes, you'll give me something

to end my life."

"Mom, I can't do that. But I'm sure that we can get you a prescription for something

that, if you take it all at once, will kill you."

"Oh, Thank You!" she said.

 

It made withdrawing life support so much easier when the time came.

 

RE: Euthanasia:

 

Sodium Thiopental (a.k.a. "Truth Serum") is no longer made in the USA.

Since it has been replaced in the Operating Room by Diprovan, a.k.a. Diisopropyl phenol,

the only indication for it was as part of a multi-drug regimen to create Lethal Injection.

A similar fast acting barbiturate is up to $1800 per gram, from like $0.25 / g,

so that it doesn't get used for lethal injection.

 

I doubt that diprovan (the Michael Jackson drug) will be withdrawn or otherwise

restricted from use in lethal injection. But you never know.

 

Reasonable alternatives for euthanasia:

Increased nitrogen in inspired gases

Carbon Monoxide in increased doses

Hell, any of the anesthesia gases. Induce the anesthetic,

and then leave the circuit at the highest concentration.

That's pretty sure to kill someone.

[Tighty]

I haven't researched it well yet. But dignitas Switzerland seems attractive. There are some YouTube documentaries about them. Disturbing and not for faint of heart. But for me it bolsters the case for euthanasia even more.

[+ purplekow]

I have difficulty putting my dog to sleep, but there are more than a few people I would not mind euthanizing.

[Frequentflier]

I have difficulty putting my dog to sleep, but there are more than a few people I would not mind euthanizing.

 

+1. Especially about losing a pet.

[Frequentflier]

I imagine that the procedure to get the lethal injection, is a long and lengthy one.

 

If he had counselling and time to consider his decision, then I support his right to have it.

 

Better to have the injection in a safe environment, where his remains will be treated properly, than overdosing at home, or jumping in front of a train etc.

 

There needs to be more euthanasia available worldwide.

 

 

My opinion is the same as yours. As long as the decision making process is transparent, includes appropriate counseling and involves the right people (so people aren't getting knocked off) people facing what they believe to be catastrophic obstacles to a satisfactory life should have the option to end it with dignity and as they see fit. If the debate here ever happens it will be interesting when in particular the "acceptable reasons" are defined. Poor finances, depression, broken heart, no "good reason", etc. would seem tough to allow. Sure, some people take their own lives over those issues now but making it "easier" or seemingly "more acceptable" is something I'd take some time getting used to.

[Guest]

As long as the decision making process is transparent, includes appropriate counseling... Poor finances, depression, broken heart, no "good reason", etc. would seem tough to allow. Sure, some people take their own lives over those issues now but making it "easier" or seemingly "more acceptable" is something I'd take some time getting used to.

 

Well, the appropriate counseling is a bit of an issue. This guy wasn't having physical pain, but was clearly deeply depressed and having issues of low self-esteem. This was obviously a learned behavior, having been rejected by his own mother since birth. The fact that she expressed relief at his suicide is atrocious. What he needed was good counseling. The doctors who killed him didn't just assist him in committing suicide, they actually carried out the task themselves. Would any of those who expressed feelings that this action was OK actually be willing to say that you would be willing to kill someone yourself--someone who was healthy but just unhappy with his life? Can you actually picture yourself doing that? If not, why is it OK for a doctor to do it?

[Steven_Draker]

France aims to allow euthanasia despite ethics doubts

 

(Reuters) - President Francois Hollande reaffirmed his aim to legalise voluntary euthanasia on Monday after a majority of France's national ethics committee advised him not to let doctors help the terminally ill take their lives.

 

Hollande said France would hold a national debate on the issue in coming months and his government would submit a bill in parliament by year's end that would go beyond the current law that bars doctors from providing assisted suicide.

 

Nearby Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Switzerland allow voluntary euthanasia in some form and Hollande included a pledge to legalise "medical assistance to end one's life in dignity" among campaign promises for his election last year.

 

Another campaign pledge to allow same-sex marriage prompted several mass protests before it was voted into law in April.

 

Some of its opponents, who have been strongly supported by the Roman Catholic Church, have suggested launching a new wave of street protests against legalised euthanasia.

 

Asked about the ethics committee's advice while visiting a hospital in the western port town of Lorient, Hollande said his government's proposal "will complete and improve the (current) law which was already a step in the direction of human dignity".

 

That law, passed in 2005, lets doctors end extraordinary means of treatment if terminally ill patients request it and encourages palliative treatments to ease their pain.

 

French public opinion polls show widespread support for legalised euthanasia in late terminal cases. Hospital staff convicted of helping patients die in recent years have often been given suspended sentences in view of this approach.

 

The ethics committee said a majority of its 17 members thought it was "dangerous to society" to legalise assisted suicide because vulnerable patients might see it as a threat that their lives could be ended before their natural deaths.

 

But that majority was slim. Eight members registered the dissenting view that assisted suicide should be legalised to respect the individual choice of ill patients who request it.

 

The board's report said the record of euthanasia policies in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands was not reassuring and there appeared to be little effective monitoring of such cases.

 

"These countries legalized euthanasia for patients in the terminal stage who are able to decide for themselves, but in practice the target group has progressively grown broader and been extended to vulnerable groups in society," the report said.

 

In Switzerland, it added, a fifth of patients helped by an assisted suicide association between 1990 and 2000 "did not suffer from any mortal illness".

 

Four states in the United States - Washington, Oregon, Montana and Vermont - also allow assisted suicide.

 

The report, which is not binding, said open debates should be held around France to involve civil society in the decision.

 

"The National Ethics Committee wants to have a national debate - that is also my approach," Hollande said.

 

source: http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/07/01/france-euthanasia-idINDEE9600HF20130701

[Guest]

It sounds like Hollande wants to be a bit more like the Dutch. ;-) But seriously, there is a major difference between assisting the suicide of a terminal patient, and actively offing a healthy but depressed person (or one with merely low self-esteem). In my quarter century practicing medicine, I've actually never come across a patient for whom I either said or wanted to say "There's nothing more I have to offer. Would you like to explore the option of suicide?". While I have given medications that I and the patient/family knew might hasten the death at the expense of relieving pain, I would never consider assisting suicide, letting alone actively killing someone, terminal or especially otherwise.