(small intro to article)

>>I'm not afraid of dying - only of livingWhen he realised he could no longer read or write, 81-year-old Parkinson's sufferer Ernst-Karl Aschmoneit decided he no longer wanted to live. Two days ago, that wish was realised when he travelled to a Zurich euthanasia clinic.

by Carol Midgley

In a few hours Auschmoneit will have committed assisted suicide, lying on a single bed in a small suburban apartment. Tomorrow his body will be cremated and later his ashes will be scattered on Water, as he has instructed.<<

This is an article from 2003 so it is not recent but I watched a documentary about this man a few years ago and I've never forgotten it.

I'm interested in the opinions of others. Thoughts? Ideas? Remember, this is not euthanasia, this is assisted suicide.

I'm not afraid of dying - only of living - Times Online

BTW, the poll is private, nobody will know how you voted.

We humanely euthanize our pets. I want the same humane assist. And I don't want to be resussitated to be on life support. And I want my body donated to a medical school and for transplants.

We humanely euthanize our pets. I want the same humane assist. And I don't want to be resussitated to be on life support. And I want my body donated to a medical school and for transplants.

I completely agree with you.

However, you kinda have to decide on a medical school OR transplants, can't have both. :Banane10: Personally, I prefer transplants. But if that isn't possible for any reason a medical school would be totally doable.

My weird sister is afraid to donate organs. She's afraid if she does then in her "next life" (she's Catholic!) she will be born without whatever organ she donates.

Figure out that logic!

Totally for it. Think it should be assistaed by a medical professional or someone else who somehow knows what they're doing. Would hate for the attempt to fail and only prolong or increase the suffering.

I was for it even before having to watch 4 family members wait for cancer to do the job. It's hard to see something like that, and not think this is a good idea.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Chosen-Death-Confront-Assisted-Suicide/dp/0684801000]Good read[/ame] if you're interested in the topic.

Totally for it. Think it should be assistaed by a medical professional or someone else who somehow knows what they're doing. Would hate for the attempt to fail and only prolong or increase the suffering.

I was for it even before having to watch 4 family members wait for cancer to do the job. It's hard to see something like that, and not think this is a good idea.

Good read if you're interested in the topic.

Thanks, Wheetsin. I just ordered it. Couldn't beat the price. :Banane10:

I am for it in certain types of cases. I think some sort of safeguard should be in place so people cannot just kill someone and say that they wanted to die. Maybe people could put it in their living will that they would want assistance if needed.

I am for it in certain types of cases. I think some sort of safeguard should be in place so people cannot just kill someone and say that they wanted to die. Maybe people could put it in their living will that they would want assistance if needed.

I agree, get lots of people involved. Social workers to make sure it isn't for financial reasons, psychiatry to make sure it isn't depression that can be helped with meds, talk to the patient away from the family to make sure family isn't pressuring them for any reason. Get lots of people involved.

Assisted suicide happens every single day in the US, it's already here. It already happens. But now it's left up to docs and nobody else. It's a bad position to put a doc in and it's not fair all the way around.

I completely agree with you.

However, you kinda have to decide on a medical school OR transplants, can't have both. :eek: Personally, I prefer transplants. But if that isn't possible for any reason a medical school would be totally doable.

My weird sister is afraid to donate organs. She's afraid if she does then in her "next life" (she's Catholic!) she will be born without whatever organ she donates.

Figure out that logic!

I am catholic too but i don't feel that way - If they can use it go for it.

Anyway - "We" don't get our bodies back - it's our souls that go to heaven... dust to dust - has she forgotten her catheicism (sp)

Yes if I have a terminal disease - please put me out of my misery - I don't want to suffer and I don't want my family to see me suffer... I have been there done that with my parents...

This is a timely topic for me. My mother, who is 90, is in the hospital with a sudden onset of , well, everything. Systems are crashing and leading to heart and brain damage. Now, she and I had always talked about how she never wanted to be onlife support or be incapacitated. She has always had a Do Not Resusitate paper signed, etc, and I have power of attorney for healthcare decisions. It's always been completely clear what her wishes are.

And then they come to you with that last piece of paper... I was sitting with Mom and reeling from this rapid decline, and I was to check the boxes of all the things I didn't want done....and of course some of them could save her life and the same ones could instead prolong her life in a comatose state....and it all becomes so gray area and no longer black and white. I signed the best I could according to what I know her wishes to be, but real life is just never as neatly packaged as I hope it will be. I suppose that could make a case for having lots of interventions and evaluations before an assisted suicide, but it also might delay a process long enough for there to be considerable suffering and confusion. I'd vote for keepin the process very simple in most cases...if someone meets critria, then go for it. If it is a judgement call, then do a greater evaluation. If my mother were awake and chose an assistend suicide, I wouldn't want that decision to be as bureaucratic as, say, picking her Medicare drug benefit was.....

Well, you know God can't create organs twice...that'd be too difficult and tiring after creating the universe. *wink* Just like God made the mid-western flooding happen because he disapproved of river-boat gambling...like he just couldn't have hidden the dice.

I was in the hospital room when my grandfather died, but my grandfather hadn't been there for 3 days -- his mind was gone. He died of septic shock following a round of experimentally high predisone dosages. We knew he wouldn't leave the hospital, we just didn't know how long his body was going to keep fighting. It wasn't him fighting, it was the body doing what it's programmed to do. I took his body 4 days to die. We knew he was dying. There are things you can see and hear and feel that let you know someone is dying - things that happen as the body starts to shut down. We watched this happen for four days, and watched him slowly slip from delerious to unconscious to that pure state of the body trying to survive (if you've ever watched someone die, a death that took a while, you know what I mean -- the lungs keep trying to breathe in air even as the brain is shutting down so you get these almost desperate spasms, etc.)

If I could have given him a little poke & push with something to expedite the process, and it had been his wishes, I would have done it. He was already gone, we were just waiting for his body to figure it out, and the only reason he was around those four days was because we couldn't do anything else.

Sometimes we prolong death because we tend to hold on to those "just maybe..." thoughts. Bust mostly it's because we're selfish, and it's easier for us to have them around still. A little less final.

People have a hard time with brain dead relatives. I mean, they can see them breathing (even though equipment is doing it for them), the people twitch and such and the family believes it is a sign that the person is still there trying to communicate, they are warm, they look alive... very difficult to pull the plug for the family. They just don't LOOK dead even though they are.

I think ( not completely sure) that Oregon is the only state that assisted suicide is legal.

I am an Oncology nurse, and have been one for 6 years. I have seen many people die and every day I go to work, wonder if someone may die on my shift. We are all going to die. It is just when and how.

I agree that someone who is elderly and debilitated should not be subjected to a vent or some extreme measure. Especially if they have expressed their wishes in writing. But, on the other hand they should not be overdosed.

Wheetsin is exactly right, the body shuts down and basically the person is in a coma. They are not suffering (in my opinion).

God is in control, not doctors or families.

He will ultimately decide the time and place. We can make the patient comfortable. (Hospice)

If God is in control, then there shouldn't be a problem with allowing the overdose. If God is in control and wants the person to live, then they will survive the overdose. However, since we all know that is folly, then logic tells us he is NOT in control and never has been of individuals.