"It seems that we really have a culture of death here in Australia".

Nah, not a culture of death, but we can hope for a culture of choice it's not here yet. I have family history of motor neurone disease. It's genetic though there a very high chance, I'll avoid the bullet. The problem with MN is that you become totally incapacitated. Trapped in your own body. So if you don't want to hang in for the bitter end (and others are braver and more accepting than me) you have to take the popping yourself early option, so you don't leave it to late.

I would be hoping to stay with my family for as long as possible, and if I develop this disease, then maybe I would never request euthanasia if I was comfortable with situation. But as it stands, I would have to make a decision early to avoid not being in a position where I didn't have a choice. Be nice if I develop the disease that I could indicate when I was ready to hop off the planet.

I strongly support other people's right not to be involved in euthanasia or abortion and think that legislation trying to coerce people into these things is disgusting, but I want people who want such things to have access to them, with full government support and services from willing people of a similar mindset.

The real problem is Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

I have seen one person die of cancer and another of Alzheimer's. Neither is a pleasant death but I'd take the cancer any day.

I have decided that at the first sign of dementia I shall kill myself while I am still able to form the necessary intention. I have selected a method and procured the necessary equipment.

Now I would far rather be able to leave instructions that I am to be painlessly killed when I reach an advanced stage of the disease. paradoxically the ABSENCE of a euthanasia law could end up robbing me of years of life. However, rather that than end up warehoused in an aged "care" facility. Rather an early death than let my children see me as a drooling shell.

The truth is that to all intents and purposes Alzheimer's victims are brain dead years before their hearts stop beating. Keeping their hearts beating - one can scarcely call it keeping them alive - is cruel to their loved ones. I shall not inflict that on those who love me.

A question for Rhys Jones

What does it mean to be a "live human"?

Is someone in an advanced state of dementia a "live human"?

Personally I don't think so. I do not think you are killing a person when you terminate the life of someone in the final stages of Alzheimer's because everything that made that person human is already gone.

Similarly I would ask at what stage in fetal development are we dealing with a live human?

Is a fertilised egg that has not yet started to divide really a human being?

What about when we have 2, 4, 8, 16 etc cells.

When has there been sufficient development for us to be able to say the fetus is now a live human?

My own feeling, based on the development of the brain and nervous system, is that in the first trimester the fetus is in a pre-human stage. I would only permit abortions AFTER the first trimester under exceptional circumstances.

That's right Steven, taking YOUR life should be entirely YOUR choice. No-one else's.

Joe

Face it guys, your arguments are perfectly logical for a normal person, but you don't realize is that the kind of people that oppose:

-Euthanasia don't understand the notion of "Free Will" at all- it's a tricky word used by merchants to open up the coercion to die in their eyes. The deal is, these are people who can only be TOLD what to do and how to think by somebody else- and they're so dumb that they feel if allowed they probably could be talked into offing themselves.

-Abortion is trickier, as it banks on their definition of life- but always ignore the social consequences of banning abortion- that is a person who WOULD kill the child if allowed, being responsible for its upbringing (most anti-abortionists parrot some line "most who consider it decide to keep it" without telling us what happens after that).

In short, people who hold the stance on BOTH tend to have some unhealthy mindset that "Life" (defined in the crudest term that you are simply not physically dead- eg still have a heartbeat- even if artificially induced) is more important than anything else- due to some crazy indoctrinated fear of DEATH, kind of like what a kid would have.
It seems the rest of us with more functional brains can actually weigh up just HOW sanctified life is.

What a load of rubbish!
Where is the author's evidence that we're "fixated on legalising killing of the elderly..."? as though we're all moral neuters actuated by nothing but expedience. Surely everybody recognises the tortuous dilemmas surrounding issues like euthanasia and abortion. But the author only agonises over the issues in a one-sided fashion. Much as I deplore reducing matters to economics (though that's what our lives amount to in the system we're obliged to embrace), why doesn't the author consider the sustainability issue of keeping mankind's broken-down wreckage (or unwanted babies) alive at any cost, beyond any usefulness they are to themselves or semblance of quality of life left to them. It's not only economically unsustainable, it's ethically unconscionable to go on treating humans as though they're entitled to a special dispensation among the other species they collaterally decimate with their proliferation and obstinate longevity.
Not so long ago it was undoubtedly common practice for a son to smother his infirm parent with a pillow--a tear in his eye perhaps--rather than watch her suffer pointlessly, or drain the vital resources of the household with the useless burden of a spent life.
I can only surmise that the author of this article is not disclosing a religious sensibility as enamoured with the sanctity of human life as it is indifferent to life in general. Why else would suicide be dismissed so coldly as a prerogative at anyone's disposal, with not a hint of compassion for its precipitous anxieties, or the crude methods the suicide is abandoned to.
We are far from being "a culture of death", at least not when it comes to ourselves. Why do we so obsessionally, neurotically treat death as the enemy and cling to life beyond reason and at any cost? Death should be seen as a blessed release from too long life. Longevity is definitely overrated!
I for one, should I live so long, plan to party with my family and say my goodbyes properly and cheerfully before I take my prescription poison, procured from the chemist earlier, and slip peacefully into oblivion--perchance to dream.