[wagglebee]

And the mere availability of assisted suicide as a medical option, Finucane said, would "poison every single conversation a doc has."

Besides, he said, suicidal thoughts are a function of depression. That means you treat the depression. You don't write a script for a deadly cocktail.

"In both genders, there is strong evidence to suggest that if you are considering suicide, you have major depression, and that's true even if you have advanced cancer."

However, the culture of death sees euthanasia as a "duty".

[wagglebee]

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[kinoxi]

Male suicide rates are higher. I don’t think that ‘encouragement’ would change the tendency.

[JimSEA]

I would anticipate that the rationing of health care in favor of “worthy” elderly patients will accompany euthanasia. No care beyond pain pills for smokers who get cancers, no care for elderly overweight diabetics, and so forth.

[freekitty]

The culture of death is sick.

[narses]

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[Cacique]

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[hinckley buzzard]

I have known a number of elderly who would probably sign up, both men and women. Certain circumstances can generate a very rational argument for it. The strongest major safeguard generally is religious faith.

[Oratam]

The vanguard of the baby boom generation has just reached their early sixties. Over the course of the next twenty years, as the majority of that cohort reaches genuine "old age" with all its infirmities, they will demand and get legalized, physician assisted suicide . . . and will exerise their right to an "early check-out."

Baby boomers have driven every other social and cultural trend of the last fifties years. This will be no exception.

[Popocatapetl]

As an aside to the euthanasia debate, let me present the horror as it exists today.

Institutional corridors full of aged, mostly mentally incapacitated women in wheelchairs, staring blankly at the painted brick wall opposite them, or sleeping. This is what exists today.

This is NOT to say that euthanasia does anything more than murder such women. Just that we desperately need something better than what we have, not to just argue whether a living death is better than a real death.

Isn’t there something better we can do?

Neither of those alternatives is acceptable. Both of them are so awful it would be worth it to run away while you still could, just so you won’t be trapped in that hideous either-or proposition. Either living death or euthanasia.

That is an intolerable choice.

[Jim Noble]

I firmly believe that euthanasia should remain illegal.

However, there is a reason that no physician has ever been convicted of a crime for administering narcotics or barbiturates to a person in the agonal stage of the end-of-life process.

wagglebee, do you understand why that is, and are you content with it?

[wildwood]

In Bergner's article, Wolf also talked about the literary and cultural traditions of suicides by women, going back to Sophocles' Antigone and Shakespeare's Ophelia.

does it say anywhere here that, though girls may try to "commit suicide" more often, boys are more successful? that statistically males are more likely to actually complete the act than females?

this is, once again, the same ole pity party for females.

[DManA]

World to end in 30 minutes. Women and minorities hardest hit.

Wolf did not limit her fears of vulnerability to women. She expressed concerns for minorities, too.

[wintertime]

However, the culture of death sees euthanasia as a “duty”.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^6

The right to control one’s reproduction has become a **duty**. Just ask any woman about the looks and comments she receives when in a supermarket line with 3, 4 or more children.

[G8 Diplomat]

However, the culture of death sees euthanasia as a "duty".

Just like Islam and suicide bombings. Scary.

[HangnJudge]

Physician-assisted suicide

Women and children hardest hit

[HangnJudge]

A Buddhist may find this very confusing...
Or just plain wrong minded

By tradition, the elderly and infirm are treated
as revered teachers, who by their physical needs,
teach the young how to love,
by themselves needing physical caring and love

Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother
takes on a very different meaning

By "removing" the elderly and infirm
The children never learn to unselfishly
give themselves in love

This condemns the young into a life
of selfish desires, and subsequently, suffering

The_Four_Noble_Truths

[BlazingArizona]

If assisted suicide were one of the options the doctor presented, as he would be obliged to do if it were legal, wouldn't a woman be unduly influenced toward that choice?

When single-payer healthcare gets here, this will be considered a public duty.

And even under our current "private"-but-absolutely-not-free-market scheme, I can see the day when our HMOs will impose the same requirement.

[Aglooka]

Legalized doctor assisted suicide coupled with socialized medicine. It’s not hard to see where that will go.