Assisted suicide: Washington legalizes, doctors rebel

I am adding this to the main, for those who are dieing, would not the standard DNR order work for this? In these cases, I believe they make the patient comfortable and let nature take it's course.

This goes against the oath doctors take. It will also make insurance companies less likely to pay for people who are dieing to be put on life support. Or anything to make living more comfortable, there will be pressure to "pull the plug".

Then, what about people like me who are in pain 24/7, have nerve problems and have been passed from one doctor to the next for the last 19 years? Yeah, I'm expensive! None can fix me, there is no cure, there isn't a decent treatment. Would they say that it would be better to "put me out of my misery" like you would a pet that is in constant pain, that has no cure or fix, or would I be encouraged to live, without promise or offer of medicine to even make me comfortable?

Interesting things come from such laws.

I say go for it, but I'm also for taking death row inmates and making them fight lions...

all of you people who are so set against it have no concept of what it's like to be in such a condition as to want assisted suicide. You would treat your dog with more respect than your fellow man.

You could be completely incapacitated unable to move, speak, or eat but still able to breath. Current laws in most states say that you would be kept alive indefinately, rotting away with pressure sores, muscle contractions, and macerated tissue. At the complete mercy of usually incompetent staff who might drop you, break bones while moving you, or worse.

The only way out is to stop tube feedings and die ever so slowly from dehydration and starvation.

Why doesn't this bother anyone? Most people don't see it. They're all locked away in nursing homes. Millions of people. A staggering fact that most are unwilling to face but still willing to judge those that do.

Self-rightious ignorance

I'm a nurse and I had to watch my mother slowly die in misery. It took 15 years.

Here's the interesting bit here: many people have said the hippocratic oath prohibits "harming people". It is not specific about death (from my research, if someone can give me some references that say otherwise that would be great)- so the question is, Is it possible that keeping someone alive is doing more harm than good?

This article was not particularly well written. It makes reference to an "exemption in the law" that Providence will take advantage of, but provides no details as to what is actually covered by the exemption.

My own take on assisted suicide is that it is (and should be) a private decision to be made by an individual. If someone chooses to end their own life, for whatever reason, it is their own choice (that is what is know as "freedom").

I also agree that no doctor, nurse, or organization should be forced to participate against their own will or judgment. I find it a bit perplexing that we would be looking to doctors to participate in this practice. A doctors training is focused on preserving life, not ending it, and their Hippocratic Oath pretty much prohibits them from doing any harm. It seems to me that someone wanting to end their life in this sort of way should be looking for some sort of assisted suicide technician, specifically trained in the process, and that such a person should exist outside the ranks of traditional medical professionals.

An interesting thing about this article is Providence Health Services is a "christian ministry". Obviously they have religious reasons not to want to assist in suicide, and they said they will prohibit their doctors from doing this and will "not support assisted suicide."

That implies that no matter what the Doctor actually thinks or believes, they will be prohibited from this as long as they work under a Providence Health Service group for religious reasons.

Hrm.

I think this is a good idea. My uncle died of a horrific lung cancer, and sitting in the hospital listening to him wheeze and die slowly and painfully, begging to go now, I think he should've had the choice.

All our freedom is based off of choice, and if we have none, then we are not truly free.

A doctor is suppose to save lives not take them.

If people want to die, let them...

We all will die one day

Death is another part of Life.

All people love God and believe in heaven, but no one wants to go there just yet... scared to die.

Since all doctors have to take the Hipocritic(sp) oath, they are morally unable to assist in killing someone. I see its good sides and bad sides. Can't say I wouldn't go to Oregon or Washington if I wished this type of death.

I had to endure pain once that my doctors agreed was probably the worst pain a human could possibly survive. Fortunately I had great pain killers, I healed, and the pain faded. If I had to live with even a quarter of that pain level constantly, I'm unsure of what choice I would make, but I would still want that choice to be available.

I think it is perfectly fine that some doctors are rebeling or institutions.

But I am also happy that people will not have the government getting in the way of peoples lives. That is how I see this topic, the government is stepping aside and letting people make decisions about their own lives for themselves.

I'm sure if people are in need to end their own lives they will be a doctor that will help them, im sure most doctors won't participate, nor should they have to if they feel its wrong.

My friends dad was a strong doctor leader for passing it in Oregon. He didn't want to kill his patients, just give them human rights and the choice.

A man my mom used to work with had cancer, and while going through treatments he had the pills 'just in case'. He says he felt empowered and just having the option made him fight twice as hard to get through it.

After seeing my aunt be on her deathbed for 3 years, slowly using all elements of herself, my family wishes (and so does she) that she could have the choice to join her husband or stay, smoke cigarettes and watch bad TV.

This is rather surprising.

In my Hospice Nurse days, we had a lot of suicides. Mostly by GUNS. Blew their brains out. No one else to help. We can take our dogs or cats in when they are "suffering"...no problem...I watched my 14 year old Akita go from constant panting and fear from a body eaten with Cancer to looking into my tear filled eyes with me holding her. Such peace and trust I could see.

Humans, that is a hard one. I think we need to somehow all have something to prepare us if we are indeed beyond hope and suffering. Because Society will never be allowed to do it for religious reasons mostly..."Murder".

Make SURE you have a living will, DNR (do NOT resusitate, and appoint a POA. Be prepared to pull your own plug...unless you have Alzheimers and you wont remember where the plug is or how to use it LOL

I would rather be unplugged and die than stay alive for a few more months in the worst pain, or as a drugged up vegi. Why do we keep useless people alive? It doesn't help us at all. Let death do it's job. Before you start tearing me a new one for calling comatose victims useless, think about, they just sleep. My tax dollars are already funding useless people in prison, why should i have to pay for someone who is too scared to die, or because they will wake up in six months and be severally mentally challenged. Death is natural, running from it is not. I always tell my friends to unplug me if something like this happens. You're no longer a human being, just a another hospital statistic.

Imagine being hospitaled for a simple surgical procedure of some kind and your file accidentally getting confused with an assisted suicide patient. This is funny at first thought, but horribly reasonable. Stephen King could have an absolute field day on this topic. haha Glad to be an Arkansas resident for once in my life.

assisted suicide is a dirty way to say you let someone go in peace. i hope those of you who are against this contract a bad case of lou gherigs disease and you can just start of with a paralyzed hand or limb and then it moves to your back and your eyes and mouth and your not in a coma by the way, you know what is going on, you cant talk, cant eat real food, cant breathe without a tube, and you just kind of sit there and wait (about a decade) to choke on your own phlegm.

My mom had a brain aneurysm that hemorrhaged in 2001 (Sept 12, actually, it wasn't a great week.) She survived, indeed she is a medical miracle considering the survival rate for aneurysm patients and the fact she retained her speech, motor skills, etc. Her quality of life is pretty crappy according to her; she has constant headaches (migraine level, sometimes worse) all the time and the docs don't knnow WHAT meds to give her- she's on a constantly changing cocktail.She also has a mirror aneurysm on the other side among other medical problems.

I bring this up because she has ASKED me NOT to keep her alive via feeding tubes, breathing tubes, etc. She doesn't want to live like that, indeed, to her it's no life at all. She also wanted me to understand why she would take an option like assisted suicide should her pain be unbearable and her quality of life decrease even more, and I do. I really do. When you have a loved one who is in constant pain, you understand this issue a little deeper.

As animalia said, we can't keep people alive just because we are uncomfortable with death. My mom does everything she can to make her life better (and I try to as well, even tho she lives in NC and me in NY) but I know that if something were to happen, the choice would be clear. She already told me what she wants. How can we disrespect people's wishes in regards to their OWN LIFE just because we are afraid of death?

No doctor should have to assist in euthanasia, but if they wont, and the patient truly wishes it, they should move aside and allow a doctor that will. For some, to live in unending pain isn't a life, and they should have options.

euthanization for everyone! if they can justify pulling the plug, they can justify assisted suicide. at least i can

there's a new job

suicide assistant

But what if keeping the patient alive IS doing harm?

No one is recommending suicide for "emotional distress"- this is in regards to terminally ill patients who's quality of life is practically 0 and WANT to die.

If doctors can help keep us alive, why not help us die peacefully?

Do no harm. Doctors shouldn't have to, they shouldn't want, and they definitely shouldn't do this.

I understand people are in severe pain or emotionally distress or whatever else. But the point of medicine is NOT to take lives. Just because it's possible to do it, does not mean it should happen.

Maybe they should create a new profession for this kind of stuff...just kidding.