You said:
"I have no problem with artificially extending the life of someone who isn't in pain and/or wants to live, but to force life on someone in agonizing pain and no prospect of ever living with dignity seems crueler and more sadistic than helping that person on to the next world."
There are two completely separate issues - one is to keep someone alive artifially with machinery - heart machine, lung machine, etc. The other is to kill the person with drugs, machinery, or starvation.
Why are you equating the two? If someone is terminally ill, nature will take its course soon enough. Why are people so eager to kill someone if he is going to die anyway?
BTW, when talking about extreme pain, I personally have had times under extreme pain. I learned valuable life lessons at such times, and am grateful that no one thought to put me "out of my misery".
"There are two completely separate issues - one is to keep someone alive artifially with machinery - heart machine, lung machine, etc. The other is to kill the person with drugs, machinery, or starvation."
Right. As for pain, it would not take much research to create more powerful pain killers.
"Soon enough" for whom?!? Not for everyone. Spend some time with people who are terminally ill, and you'll find they are not clones. They are individuals, each with their own needs and desires and tolerances and views.
BTW, when talking about extreme pain, I personally have had times under extreme pain. I learned valuable life lessons at such times, and am grateful that no one thought to put me "out of my misery".
That's fine for you, and it's easy to say after the pain is gone, but would you deny relief to someone who wants it? What about someone who will never recover from it?
I know someone who ended her life when she'd finally recovered enough to get out of the hospital and take matters into her own hands. Unfortunately, she had to choose a very painful method, since she was stopped the first time. Does her experience merit any less consideration than yours?
There are many different aspects, as you point out, whether active or passive deliverance, or terminally ill or not, and whether the patient can give consent at that moment or not. I consider it an evil imprisonment, though, to force someone to live against his will, and we should have more civilized means available than dehydration, should a person wish it.