The Right To Die? Do We Have The Choice?

10/7

                   The right to die ? Do we have the choice? ...Read this about
       this beautiful young woman at 29 yrs old...


http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/07/opinion/maynard-assisted-suicide-cancer-dignity/index.html?hpt=hp_c2


                                                              Joe

I do not believe government has a right to criminalize suicide. The choice to live or to die with dignity should be an individual choice. I oppose the state mandating the maintenance of life as strongly as I do the state deciding when to end it by rationing healthcare or other resources. The choice to maintain each person's life is for each individual to make in accordance with his/her conscience and religion (or lack thereof). My religion forbids suicide. I can envision circumstances under which I would nevertheless end my own life despite the prohibition and hope that God would forgive my sin. If as I have been taught suicide is a mortal sin, so is blind trust in dogma based on the interpretation of God's will by mortal men who are no more capable of knowing the mind of God than I. No one has the right to take that decision from me. No one. Only God would judge me. No earthly authority has the moral right to do so.

10/07

                   Victor...

                              BRAVO..................


                             Joe  ..................

What Joe said.

What  Victor, Joe and Abe said. 

As for me, when I am hospitalized, I wear a purple, DO NOT RESUSCITATE wristband.  
There is sound reasoning for this order.  
I have batteries inserted in my chest and wires running up to my brain.
I wouldn't want them dislodged.
Also my chest is cabled  from coronary by pass surgery

I think that a person who is ill (that includes mental depression) knows when life is no longer worth living.  If one loses their mental capacity, they are not always aware of this loss and therefore need pre-written instructions concerning their wishes.  When there is illness with much suffering and one cannot enjoy life, then I think it is time to pull the plug.  Allowing nature to take its course without life-sustaining mechanical means, is preferable.  When the condition reduces one to a vegetable state and one is mentally cognizant of their situation, I think they should have the right to call it quits. 
I realize that once in that state, I may have a change of opinion, but looking at it from the outside and seeing people in misery,my thoughts go with the person's right to decide.

I don't agree with the part about depression.  It is a mental illness, and part of the condition is that the patient does not know.  Suicidal  feelings are common and part of the illness.

Clinical depression can be treated and even cured.

Depression can also be a side effect of addiction, and the feelings of hopelessness  that often accompany the condition.

What we need in those cases is a better understanding of mental illness, and an acceptance that mental conditions are no different from physical illness.

The study on happiness that Abe linked said that one of the most important factors in those high-ranking countries was that they recognized that it  was a treatable disease and supported the means for effective treatment.

I do agree that terminal patients ought to have control over how their  lives end.

The treatment of mental illness in this "developed" country is abysmal.

dkchristi wrote:

The treatment of mental illness in this "developed" country is abysmal.

The truth.

Hope.  If there is no hope....but there always is hope.  Life really is the prize.  I would suffer much for that prize. 
Love,
Betty