Author Topic: The Right to Die  (Read 123 times)

Ant

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The Right to Die
« on: October 05, 2005, 05:21:42 AM »
The Right to Die

The John Roberts Court will hear its first high-profile arguments today, when the justices take up a case involving doctor-assisted suicide. Oregon law allows terminally ill people to take lethal drugs to end their lives. But the Bush administration has tried to override this law by threatening to prosecute doctors involved in such cases. The Supreme Court should make it clear that Oregon can allow doctor-assisted suicide.

Oregonians voted in favor of the Death With Dignity Act in 1994, and three years later they voted against repeal. The Oregon law allows terminally ill people who are likely to die within six months to receive drugs to end their lives. When John Ashcroft, a longtime opponent of assisted suicide, became attorney general in 2001, he issued an edict that doctors who prescribe drugs that are used to commit suicide can be prosecuted under the federal Controlled Substances Act. The state of Oregon and a group of terminally ill patients challenged this Ashcroft directive and won.

This case nominally involves two hot-button issues: the right of terminally ill people to end their lives, and the allocation of power between the federal government and states. But the Court of Appeals was right to resolve it more simply, through a careful interpretation of the Controlled Substances Act. Mr. Ashcroft claimed that the law gave him the power to overrule Oregon's assisted suicide policy. But when Congress passed the act, it clearly intended to prohibit ordinary drug abuse, not to set out a federal policy on assisted suicide.

Opponents of assisted suicide have never been able to persuade Congress to outlaw assisted suicide directly. In the absence of a Congressional law, Mr. Ashcroft had no authority to interfere with the decision of Oregon's voters.

In his zeal to stop assisted suicide, Mr. Ashcroft, a self-described legal conservative, turned his back on two principles that are sacred to legal conservativism. First, he refused to strictly, or even accurately, construe a Congressional statute. Instead, he inserted meaning in it that did not belong there, giving himself power that he should not have had. Second, he ignored conservative dogma about deference to the states, especially on matters like regulating medical practice, a core state concern.

The impact of today's case will be felt beyond Oregon. The Bush administration's position has discouraged other states from enacting assisted suicide laws. But the Supreme Court should make clear that Oregon, and all states, have the right to allow terminally ill people to end their lives with a maximum of dignity and a minimum of pain.

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Anyways do you support or oppose a right to suicide?
 

7even

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Re: The Right to Die
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2005, 05:27:15 AM »
I support euthanasia. Everybody should have the right to end his life properly, I think. And I'd rather have it in a more civilised way than ppl jumping in front of trains in the subway while little kids are watching.
Cause I don't care where I belong no more
What we share or not I will ignore
And I won't waste my time fitting in
Cause I don't think contrast is a sin
No, it's not a sin
 

Low Key

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Re: The Right to Die
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2005, 06:25:36 AM »
I'd prefer to die naturally. But say for instance if someone was in a lot of pain and was going to die anyways, I see no reason why they shouldn't be able to end their own life.
 

Trauma-san

Re: The Right to Die
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2005, 06:51:33 AM »
I have no concrete feelings on it, it's a hard subject.  Do you really want Doctors having the right to kill people?  How long before they kill all the poor they're in charge or watching but aren't paying their doctor bills?  Think about that for a while. 
 

Low Key

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Re: The Right to Die
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2005, 08:42:14 AM »
I have no concrete feelings on it, it's a hard subject.  Do you really want Doctors having the right to kill people?  How long before they kill all the poor they're in charge or watching but aren't paying their doctor bills?  Think about that for a while. 

If a law was passed, things like that could be avoided if the patient had to get a judge's approval for a doctor to perform the assissted suicide. There has to be a legitimate reason why they want to be euthanised.
 

Don Rizzle

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Re: The Right to Die
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2005, 09:05:27 AM »
I have no concrete feelings on it, it's a hard subject.  Do you really want Doctors having the right to kill people?  How long before they kill all the poor they're in charge or watching but aren't paying their doctor bills?  Think about that for a while. 

If a law was passed, things like that could be avoided if the patient had to get a judge's approval for a doctor to perform the assissted suicide. There has to be a legitimate reason why they want to be euthanised.
i agree, i support it in theory but it could easily get abused by money hungry relatives so a judge could decide whether its in the patients interest or not, but the only problem with this is that it would probably take to long to get any judgement.

iraq would just get annexed by iran


That would be a great solution.  If Iran and the majority of Iraqi's are pleased with it, then why shouldn't they do it?
 

Sikotic™

Re: The Right to Die
« Reply #6 on: October 05, 2005, 10:17:32 AM »
Everyone has the right to choose when they want to die definitely. It's just the fact that it can be so easily abused that it's a very delicate issue.

Trauma makes a good point too. Docs arent suppose to kill people, it defeats their purpose. The creed of a doctor is suppose to be the Hippocratic Oath, which basically says that a physician will do anything in their power physically to keep a person alive. We'll have a bunch of corrupt docs unless there is a certain type of person with only a license to euthanize someone.

Then you can get into issues with children that have terminal illnesses. Does the parent have the right to have them euthanized because thy are the child's guardian or does the kid, who is too immature to make big decisions, have the right?

I have a bunch of detailed stats on this whole situation because I've done like 2 papers and a oral presentation on euthanasia lol. I'll put some up if I can find them.
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Trauma-san

Re: The Right to Die
« Reply #7 on: October 05, 2005, 02:18:43 PM »
Here's what nobody wants to admit, but you have to somewhere inside KNOW that it's true.


There's no answer.



Nobody likes to hear that, but this is a subject that there isn't a consensus on , and there will never be a consensus on. 

I'm kind of, of the belief as well that if someone truly 'wants' to die, they will die.  If someone doesn't want to live, no doctor's going to keep them alive... which leads me to believe that if people are in the hospital on a ventilator and shit, they probably still want somewhere inside to be alive, or they'd just give up the ghost. 
 

J Bananas

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Re: The Right to Die
« Reply #8 on: October 05, 2005, 02:20:56 PM »
^^^
Uhh, what if they're so fuckin drugged up and braindead they cant leave the ghost?
 

Trauma-san

Re: The Right to Die
« Reply #9 on: October 05, 2005, 02:27:52 PM »
^ You don't understand what I'm talking about, I'm talking about spiritual things and you're probably not a spiritual person.  Which I can understand.  If you're not spiritual you wouldn't believe or agree with my point anyways, which is fine. 

Here, I'll explain it a little more.  Next time you're at a cemetary, go around and look at all the double plots.  Not all the time, but MANY times, you'll see where a man and his wife died within a couple months of each other.  Now, what are the odds of that?  Was she really just as sick as he was, and just lasted 2 months longer or something?  No, she just got tired of living.  Something in her soul didn't want to be on earth anymore, so she lost the desire to live, and died.  People lying in hospital beds paralyzed and deathly ill and shit I think still have something inside of them that allows them to either keep fighting, or just let it go and die. 

There's no proof of that, of course, so I can understand if you don't agree. 
« Last Edit: October 05, 2005, 02:30:09 PM by I Want My Donation Back »
 

Sikotic™

Re: The Right to Die
« Reply #10 on: October 05, 2005, 03:47:55 PM »
I know what you mean. I saw that happen when my grandmother passed from cacner. She basically stopped cooperating and suddenly passed.

That of course will eventually happen, but it involves lots of suffering. Especially in todays society and mindset, people want a quick solution.
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Mr. O

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Re: The Right to Die
« Reply #11 on: October 05, 2005, 03:57:37 PM »
suicide is a selfish act.  Even though I don't agree with termination, I do agree that people have the right to do so.  It's their life.
It should be used when a person don't have any arms, legs, or have cancer that brings major pain.  And yes..they need to let the judge be notified so that way people won't think the doctor killed the person for money.
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