French panel recommends legalizing assisted suicide for terminally ill

[Redfairen]

Source: Deutsche Welle

A French public panel has recommended making voluntary euthanasia legal. The panel's endorsement comes amid a growing debate on the subject and widespread public support for assisted suicide in terminal cases.

The panel, which was set up at the request of President Francois Hollande, on Monday said it recommended voluntary euthanasia in cases of terminal illness, provided the person in question was of sound mind when requesting to die.

"The possibility of committing medically assisted suicide ... is, in our eyes, a legitimate right of a patient close to death or suffering from a terminal pathology, based first and foremost on their lucid consent and complete awareness."

.......

France has seen increased debate on the issue of euthanasia after the suicides of two elderly couples in November. One of the couples left a handwritten note saying they claimed "the right to die with dignity."

Read more: http://m.dw.de/english/mobile.A-17300805-9097.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Good for France. It's a gift to sober, sane, terminally ill people who believe they must. n/t

[KamaAina]

2. Define "terminally ill".

Lots of people have been given a diagnosis of a few months to a year to live and have survived.

[idwiyo]

5. Stage 3 lung cancer. Stage 4 cancers. Would that be enough?

Also, why does it bother you so much that another person might chose to end their life in a humane and dignified manner at the time that suits them the most?

[KamaAina]

7. Because that other person might be being pressured into that choice.

Especially if s/he has a disability.

http://dredf.org/public-policy/assisted-suicide/why-assisted-suicide-must-not-be-legalized/

Assisted suicide strikes many people, when they first hear about it, as a cause to support. But upon closer inspection, there are many reasons why legalization is a serious mistake. Supporters focus on superficial issues of choice and self-determination. It is crucial to look deeper. Legalizing assisted suicide would not increase choice and self-determination, despite the assertions of its proponents. It would actually augment real dangers that negate genuine choice and control.

The disability community’s opposition is based on the dangers to people with disabilities and the devaluation of disabled peoples’ lives that result from assisted suicide. Further, this opposition stems from factors that directly impact the disability community as well as all of society. These factors include the secrecy in which assisted suicide operates today, even where it is legal; the lack of robust oversight and the absence of investigation of abuse; the reality of who uses it; the dangers of legalization to further erode the quality of the U.S. health care system; and its potential for other significant harms.

In view of this reality, we address many of the disability-related effects of assisted suicide, while also encompassing the larger social context that inseparably impacts people with disabilities as well as the broader public. First, after addressing common misunderstandings, we examine fear and bias toward disability, and the deadly interaction of assisted suicide and our profit-driven health care system. Second, we review the practice of assisted suicide in Oregon, the first U.S. state to legalize it, and debunk the merits of the so-called Oregon model. By detailing significant problems with Oregon’s supposed safeguards, we raise some of its real dangers, particularly for people with depression and other psychiatric disabilities. Third and finally, we explore the ways that so-called “narrow” assisted suicide proposals can easily expand. This article focuses primarily on conditions in the United States, though much of our discussion also applies in other countries.

In short, we must separate our private wishes for what we each may hope to have available for ourselves some day—a hope that often fails to understand how assisted suicide actually operates—and, rather, focus on the significant dangers of legalizing assisted suicide as public policy in our society today. Assisted suicide would have many unintended consequences.

[idwiyo]

9. I am sorry, but "might be pressured" is pure speculation.

Google Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland for reports on euthanasia. Not a shred of evidence it happened.

What does happen again, and again, and again, is people kept alive against their wish. People who have to suffer because something "might" happened that has nothing to do with them.

I have ADRT, that states that I refuse any and all treatment unless I specifically ask for it. If I am unconscious, the default is not to treat, no CPR, surgery, life support, etc. I let everyone know exactly where I stand on this issue.

There are a lot of people like me. Why are we denied one last wish - to be able to specify how/when we want to end our lives?

There are enough safeguards that can be easily implemented to make sure everyone does it if and only if they feel like it.

[KamaAina]

10. Being told "I'd rather be dead than live like you" is not pure speculation

It happens to people who use wheelchairs far more often than you'd think.

And suppose the person saying it is wearing a white lab coat and holding a syringe?

[idwiyo]

11. So, we force everyone else to suffer needlessly just in case someone else

might be hypothetically forced into accepting euthanasia? Despite the total luck of evidence it actually happens?
Despite the fact that your scenario would be impossible with proper safeguards, as implemented in 3 countries I pointed to you?

[KamaAina]

13. No, we give them better palliative care

Docs are often afraid to prescribe adequate pain meds because of lawsuits.

[idwiyo]

14. And if they don't want palliative care? What if it's already to the point

where painkillers don't work, or where person can't breeze any more, or something similar?

[PassingFair]

16. What "palliative care" would you prescribe for my father? Medically induced coma?

He died of ALS. Trapped in his un-moving body for almost 2 years.

He had a supply of morphine that could have taken him away, if he
decided he needed to go.

It was his "insurance" policy. He never used it, but he felt better knowing
that he had the option, however "illegal" it would have been.

[awoke_in_2003]

15. Being told that one would rather be dead...

Than live like you is not a terminal illness.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

12. When I am appointed as the Obamacare Death Tsar,

I would hope we can discover exactly who it is that wishes for the death,
and that the patient's condition is indeed terminal or if the patient is indeed not willing/able to accept the level of disability.

Pressure from outside (relative caregivers, heirs, etc) must be excluded.

It's a program worth examining, especially as medical science can prolong the functioning of a collection of organs indefinitely.

This is just an extension of D.N.R. wishes.

edit to add: just kidding about the Obamacare Death Tsar appointment. I'm not qualified.

[The_Commonist]

3. Personally, I think assisted suicide should be legal for anyone.

Not just for the terminally ill.
Especially here in the "Land of the Free."
I suppose, however, that's a conversation for another day.

[get the red out]

4. I agree with you

Absolutely, if my life isn't my own then what is?

[idwiyo]

6. Agree. My body, my choice.