If we think about death...and dying.

I wouldn't want to cause upset to anyone else, but a word of possible positive side of a slower death rather than a sudden one. It is not something I would wish on anyone, whether myself or anyone else, having like most of us witnessed at close quarters the suffering entailed. However, it may give time for all to come to terms not with death, but to come to terms with one another, to bridge sometimes deep rifts which may have formed between people during their lives, to have the opportunity to re-establish connections while there is still time. I hope this hasn't caused upset to others, it is a deeply personal matter which can affect people in different ways, apologies if this was unwelcome.

I sympathise with all the previous posts but I personally believe that euthanasia or any organised recommendation towards such a thing would be a very dangerous step to take. Once the option to end it all for the terminally ill in pain becomes the norm... which can seem very reasonable...then (as is always the case with "humans") big ideas about other people with life ruining circumstances (in somebody else's opinion) ...are bound to follow.

How long would it be before some new avant-guard government think tank was recommending (albeit in a subtle way) that your Grandmother might be better off dead ? Imagine how the elderly will feel in a society like that if they don't think they can contribute anything more  (yet they desire to carry on living ?) and feel like they should do the decent thing and top themselves for the good of society as a whole.  

As Obiwan pointed out, doctors can already use their discretion to give too much morphine, they used to be able to do it without fear of punishment. Not now.

[Pollux]

Yeah Tim I know what you mean, but it doesn't have to come to that; that doctors say; `fuck'm I ,cant treat him anymore, just euthanise  him and free up the bed-space´.

Both Netherland and Austria, I think, has this right, for their patients, to decide when it's "enough", and it is not the doctor doing the final "push" so to speak - unless it is a patient that previously accepted to do this, but via circumstances of their illness enter coma or unconsciousness. They don't do this lightly, and it is a lengthy process, of sort, before doctor and patient agree.These rights, and procedures has been in the working in these countries for decades, and it hasn't escalated in to some; random euthanisa where doctors do this on random, without some rigorous procedures..

Yeah Tim I know what you mean, but it doesn't have to come to that; that doctors say; `fuck'm I ,cant treat him anymore, just euthanise  him and free up the bed-space´.

Both Netherland and Austria, I think, has this right, for their patients, to decide when it's "enough", and it is not the doctor doing the final "push" so to speak - unless it is a patient that previously accepted to do this, but via circumstances of their illness enter coma or unconsciousness. They don't do this lightly, and it is a lengthy process, of sort, before doctor and patient agree.These rights, and procedures has been in the working in these countries for decades, and it hasn't escalated in to some; random euthanisa where doctors do this on random, without some rigorous procedures..

Thanks, Pollux

I hear what you're saying but I don't have anything further to add other than I do not, nor will I ever...necessarily or automatically trust in the good intentions of human beings.

The clear and urgent need for doctor-assisted euthanasia brings up the problems of so many channeled New Age teachings regarding it. Many such teachings claim that a person needs to "tough it out" to the last gasp in order to squeeze the last possible lesson and learning out of a physical life. And that terminating a life prematurely in any way probably will result in the person having to come back to complete the learning of whatever the lessons were that they came here to learn. 

I think such teachings are perverse and extremely uncompassionate, and reflect a profound indifference to the inherent badness of human suffering. One interpretation (that is admittedly not very uplifting) is that this merely reflects a profound gap existing in consciousness between the human self, and the soul which presumably plans and manifests the physical life incarnation, a gap that seems wide enough for the two to really be two separate beings.

The clear and urgent need for doctor-assisted euthanasia brings up the problems of so many channeled New Age teachings regarding it. Many such teachings claim that a person needs to "tough it out" to the last gasp in order to squeeze the last possible lesson and learning out of a physical life. And that terminating a life prematurely in any way probably will result in the person having to come back to complete the learning of whatever the lessons were that they came here to learn. 

All 'death' is essentially suicide.