Comments on: Death of Famous Conductor & His Wife Reignites Assisted-Suicide Debate

By: NicoleW

NicoleW — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:57:55 +0000

The most fundamental of human rights is the right to decide the time and place of one’s own death. Any discussion to the contrary is tyrrany.

By: Ravan Asteris

Ravan Asteris — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:38:53 +0000

Quite frankly, the anti-assisted suicide people are just control freaks, wanting to exercise the ultimate control over other people’s bodies and lives.

There are situations under which I will not wish to live. Assisted or not, I will find a way to make and enforce my choice for my life. Anyone interfering is just a controlling busybody.

My hats off to the couple who chose their peaceful end in the way that they wished.

By: wjv

wjv — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:27:24 +0000

I’d second Rho’s thoughts here. I also think this debate will involve the plea for better prostheses for limbs and minds until we’re a cyborg race. Nothing inherently wrong with that I suppose, but we’re extinct as soon as we lose the capacity for manufacturing (i.e. to little energy, skilled labor, raw material etc.). Also I laughed at your use of the term “meat-husk.” Clever and self deprecating, I like it.

I also would venture to guess that when this debate is settled (I suspect ultimately the right-to-die will be granted) those future people will look back on us and discuss how brutal and inhumane we were to deny an exit strategy from suffering.

By: Rho

Rho — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:54:58 +0000

You want to stop assisted suicides? Fund more cybernetics. If my shoddy meat-husk becomes incapable of the things I want and need to do, well, either my body goes or I go. We might never be able to cure the hundreds of various causes of cancer or other terminal illnesses (though gods know we need to keep trying.) But if I mentally start feeling trapped, and I’ve got no way to fix my body, get a better body or — to be even more futurist — to “download my consciousness” in a way that makes bodies irrelevant, then yeah, I’d just prefer to be dead.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:02:08 +0000

It’s not as if they were spring chickens. I’m glad their family supported their decisions instead of being selfish. If someone doesn’t want to live with a terminal illness and watch themselves slowly wither, they should be allowed to auto-terminate.
Paralysis would also be considered a terminal illness if we still had to hunt and forage.

By: JohnJohn

JohnJohn — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:04:57 +0000

The pharmaceutical companies will NEVER make any money with this as a legal (and humane) option. The only real question surrounding this issues (in my mind) is who is funding the “opposition” in this issue.

It’s time we all dropped the ridiculous banter and allowed people of sound mind to make responsible decisions regarding their lives and the ends thereof. You want to save lives worth fighting for… take up the fight to save whales, while there are still some to save.

My hat is off to Dignitas for their courage to provide such a reasonable and intelligent option to one of the most important decisions a human being could ever make.

By: Romeo Vitelli

Romeo Vitelli — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:18:58 +0000

This has come up before in other cases. Charges are almost never laid since prosecution would be a nighmare for everyone involved.

http://drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/2008/12/no-charge-for-parents-in-assisted-suicide-case.html

http://drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/2009/07/son-confesses-i-killed-my-mum.html