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Does a person have the 'right' to decide when one dies & should the option be legal?

Atheist3 7 July 15
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So who else should have that right, duhhhhhhhhh?

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Yes and yes, subject to the applicant being legally compos mentis

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Yes, we didn't ask to be here so we get to leave whenever we want. No, your chosen path need not be legal. For instance: You don't get to jump off a building onto other people. You don't get to blow up a building you're in filled with people. You don't get to damage someone else's property to cause your death. And having prosecuted the case of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, you don't get to have help killing yourself because the only way you really know if someone really wants to die is if they do it themselves. I can give you a great example of that but it will take too long. Happy to have a private conversation about it. Suicide being contagious in some countries and among young people, the State has a right to try and discourage it and therefore protect its citizens. Suicide is legal. You just can't harm anyone or anything while doing it. Sure there are states that allow for assisted suicide but you have to get the approval of 2 psychiatrists and a judge, so not your decision.

lerlo Level 8 July 16, 2020

Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland without mental evaluation, I believe, isn’t it?

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Your courts seem to already have that right. Everyone really has that right, but are you really asking if a person has the legal right to ask someone else to help them die?

Medical assistance in dying. Yes
Website: Dying with Dignity

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Your pronouns are confusing to me, but assuming you meant to ask, "Do we have the right to decide when we die?" The answer is most certainly, "yes." Whose life is it anyway? (I believe that was the name of a movie).

1

Do you mean "Does an individual have the right to decide when he or she should die"?

I hope that's what you mean, and we aren't talking about murder here! If so, then yes...with some caveats.

Care should be taken to ensure that, if possible, efforts have been made to alleviate the suffering from which this person wishes to escape. This person should be able to demonstrate that he or she is making a fully-informed decision. And, should this person have any dependents, he or she should have made provisions for their care.

Perhaps there are more caveats, but that's all I've got right now.

But what if you make a written statement that under certain circumstances you choose to die? Should that statement
be honoured, even if you're demented?

@Atheist3 That's a tricky question. I have often seen demented persons have moments of lucidity...and people do change their minds. Suppose a demented person, in a moment of lucidity, wished to change their written statement? Should we recognize this as a fully-informed decision?

Or should we honor the statement they made back when we KNEW that they were rational?

I would like to think that I can make good decisions for my future self. But...my future self may not agree.

@AmyTheBruce If a demented person has periods of lucidity then that situation should have been addressed in the living will or medical assistance in dying document so we would know what the individual would want in that case.

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. . . in some places yes, and IMO, it SHOULD be legal everywhere. 😮

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