Kevorkian paroled, did he deserve imprisonment?

[TanyaShevenal]

He is suffering from hepatitis c, not cancer.

[chefmike]

He is suffering from hepatitis c, not cancer.

I'm not sure what your point is, HC is a liver disease and not technically cancer as far as I know, but they can both kill you, and the issue being discussed is about how dying people choose to die.

[Jericho]

If there ever comes a time when all hope is gone, i hope there's someone like him around for me.

[chefmike]

Well, 24 votes is about average for an HA poll if it doesn't concern sexual matters or personal attacks...but our sampling on HA is consistent with national polling, the majority favor physician-assisted suicide.

[TheOne1]

i hope he continues his practice..... when people are on hospice, they never do an autopsy to see if someone (or themselves) gave them too much pain killers to end their suffering... its a "no questions asked" thing.

[LG]

i hope he continues his practice..... when people are on hospice, they never do an autopsy to see if someone (or themselves) gave them too much pain killers to end their suffering... its a "no questions asked" thing.

Another question we can ask is: Would you be willing to do this for (or against, depending where one stands) a loved one if they asked you to?

It's a tough call to make.

http://www.hungangels.com/board/view...=264962#264962

[ds5929]

Watched my father die from Parkinson's disease. Watched my mother die from Alzheimers. Watched my wife die from septic due to a perforated bowel.
I'm pretty certain that none of them would have wanted to go the way they did. My wife and are were both nurses with extensive ICU experience, so we talked about this stuff probably more than the average couple, but even with that, having to authorize the discontinuing of life support when everything medically possible had been tried and had failed- lets just say i NEVER want to have to make a decision like that ever again.

[Cuchulain]

I guess you never really know until the time comes, but I think most people would want an alternative to a slow fade out, hanging on in agony with a total loss of dignity. Chef mentioned HST - I miss his writing and his antics. I was a fan for many years and I doubt that those who really knew him were surprised at his final choice. I'll always remember those memorable lines from 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' -

"There was no point in fighting -- on our side or theirs," he wrote. "We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark -- the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."

The finest words he ever wrote, imo.

[Felicia Katt]

My observation: People who say they support the right to life generally mean their right to dictate how you live your life. Its the same zealotry that causes them to value a petri dish of discarded embryos more than a Parkinson's patient. Life is Sacred, witih a capitol S, meaning its a religious decision, rather than a rational one. They view life and death as God's providence. So no contraception to prevent unwanted lives, and no euthanasia to hasten wanted deaths. In a democracy, where life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness are its explicit purposes, questions like this should be about the individual's will, not God's. No one's liberty or happiness is advanced by being forced to live in prolonged hopeless agony. Assisted Suicide should be a right, and as soon we can get the religious right's grappling hooks off the wall between church and State, it will be. Hopefully before any of us have to watch a loved one suffer needlessly or worse, having our loved ones watch us do so.

FK

[LG]

My observation: People who say they support the right to life generally mean their right to dictate how you live your life. Its the same zealotry that causes them to value a petri dish of discarded embryos more than a Parkinson's patient. Life is Sacred, witih a capitol S, meaning its a religious decision, rather than a rational one. They view life and death as God's providence. So no contraception to prevent unwanted lives, and no euthanasia to hasten wanted deaths. In a democracy, where life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness are its explicit purposes, questions like this should be about the individual's will, not God's. No one's liberty or happiness is advanced by being forced to live in prolonged hopeless agony. Assisted Suicide should be a right, and as soon we can get the religious right's grappling hooks off the wall between church and State, it will be. Hopefully before any of us have to watch a loved one suffer needlessly or worse, having our loved ones watch us do so.

FK

I agree, although I think I'd rather suffer myself than see the ones I love die slowly and painfully. But then again I'm supposed to be a "liberal kook", according to one member here.

As for whether I'd have the courage to end a loved one's life myself, that's another matter.
http://www.hungangels.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=20527