riverrock wrote:Trying to stay on topic, around the world, the implementation of assisted suicide has been pretty poor. The last UK law change attempt was to try and replicate the "Oregon" model.
Its been in place for a while. See here for some details: http://www.patientsrightscouncil.org/si ... ten-years/
There are many issues with it just from that neutral website: no stats, no regulator, clearly a number of "advocates" bending the few rules that are there. A shocking zero psychological reports. Anecdotal evidence suggests the law is constantly being broken, but the police aren't interested. Interestingly - the UK parliamentarians who went to Oregon didn't speak to any naysayers about what happens there.
That link is an interesting read, riverrock. I think it is important to consider carefully the risks and the downsides, and they are rightly emphasised, but it is equally important to see the upsides. Unfortunately, as the data from Oregon is not comprehensive as there is no duty to report, the picture isn't really balanced. Having said that, I think this is acknowledged on that site, and there is a lot of thought provoking reading therein.
Interestingly, and a bit to my surprise, the matter of cost as a factor did get discussed. I'm inclined to feel that this should not be engineered in to play any part in the decision making process, but perhaps that notion is unrealistic. I was also interested to read about the old couple who wanted to die together from fear of loneliness if one were to go before the other. This is certainly a concern for me personally. I find the notion of life without my wife almost unthinkable.
Although our debate here has centred on the influence of the Church and religion towards this debate, I doubt it is a major reason why this topic isn't getting the attention it probably deserves. I see it as a bit of a political poisoned chalice, and suspect that there is little upside from that perspective in championing this cause.
It strikes me that there is a very good chance that there will be no such provision for assisted suicide in my lifetime, and a bit of careful thought, and maybe even more careful planning is needed. The irony is that the knowledge such help is not available if needed could well result in non assisted suicides happening earlier than would otherwise be the case.
Anyway, I commend the link to anyone. It might be a bit biased towards the downsides, but that is probably no bad thing. If we do, as a society, go down this route, there may well be no turning back, and, like most complex matters, there will inevitably be some unforseen consequences so the more forethought put into this matter the better.
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