The author's misrepresentation of the current situation for those who choose to end their lives and the caviler dismissal of the suffering and risk involved in home made methods is telling.

People taking a mix of pill's without expert advice and no sure fire way of ensuring that attempts are not made to revive them risk increased suffering (and less capacity to end a life that they no longer choose).

Some who still have a greater physical capacity may choose stronger methods again risking failure and greater injury but also leaving a mess for someone else to clean up. All have to face the proposition that if they don't involve someone else in the process and potentially leave them open to prosecution that they person who find's them may be someone unprepared to do so.

People may have some options to end their own lives if they choose but for most they carry unnecessarily risks and potential trauma both to the person trying to end their life and to those who for whatever reason become involved.

R0bert

Rhys Jones

Are you being deliberately obtuse?

By the time someone with Alzheimer's was killed (I hate euphemisms like "euthenased") they would have lost the capacity to know what was going to happen. Any time before then they would be free to change their minds.

A simple test would be to get the doctor to ask them if they want to die now. If they are capable of formulating an intelligent answer then desist.

Have you ever actually seen someone in the final stages of Alzheimers? It ain't pretty.

Because of SILLY people like you I may have to kill myself YEARS before I would have to if I could give instructions to have the deed done for me when I'm completely gaga.

People like you DISGUST me.

"All Australians" can commit suicide, but even still, suicide should be kept a "private matter." Better to starve yourself to death than die with dignity. Women who choose abortion are greedy because there are many "childless couples" who could take their unwanted babies. Those evil mothers!

At best, Jones' argument is simplistic. At worst,it is insensitive. Jones may identify as 'pro-life', but he really seems concerned with patronising those in difficult and painful situations

Thanks Cornflower for articulating what I feel...the greedy relatives angle of this debate is the whole point!!
How many people are in debt?
How many parents are sitting in a house that has great market value?
Put two and two together and BINGO!!
I witnessed this situation of a family friend.
Parents sent to a nursing home (which broke their hearts and probably killed them) because the adult offspring has power of attorney.
Situations like this will be why I oppose euthanasia.
You don't have to actually be dying or suffering from dementia.

Abby refer to Grayzie's post. There shouldn't be a blanket rejection of euthanasia altogether because of the potential for abuse which can be offset by proper safeguards.

I can't see why I should have to kill myself weeks in advance of what would be a inevitable, natural, but lingering, unpleasant death from motor neurone if I develop it, because some people are worried that others might try and bump off Grandma.

It would be traumatic for my family to say the least. Then there is how I would do it - poison, gas, hanging, drowning, or launching myself off something tall. Some poor sod would have to clean up the body. It would also probably muck up my life insurance which is there to help my family in case of my death, if the company got difficult about a suicide.

I'd sooner hang in as long as possible, enjoy my time, and then with my family sorted, drift off with medical help.

I think many elders are more worried about being caught in a similar situation of being powerless and incapacitated and wanting to go, but not being able to achieve it. There is a family legend about a distant Great Uncle who was a doctor about 50 years back. He used to leave his terminally ill patients a killer dose of pain relief and told them 'not' to take it as it would finish them. Nobody apparently took it. They probably liked having the option though. The old boy himself at very great age suddenly went quietly and the family always wondered. Very organised if so!

"Rhys Jones

Are you being deliberately obtuse?"

Of course he is stevenlmeyer, all of these arguments have been debunked ages ago (not to mention in this thread- posts conviently avoided by the opposition) and are only parroted out to the ignorant people already against (and would avoid reading evidence to the contrary).
Hence why you, me and Protagoras are probably wasting our time, as the only people who actually buy into this stuff ARE the most parochial individuals on the planet, as Loudmouth demonstrated when he could only construct a logical assumption of the Greens from base stereotypes of Liberal and Labor.

Here I'll prove it right now by doing a quick rundown of some very basic flaws in the argument they keep upholding

Misuse of Euthanasia
1- people euthanised against their will- except they'd, you know, protest. I think if they do not protest and they have been proven to have endorsed the idea of being euthanised prior, it would be safer to say they still had no problems with it. If they never made such statements prior and were unable to protest now, assume they do NOT want to be bumped off.
2- the evil inlaws- really? You mean they suddenly had the last straw and couldn't wait any longer for that extra cash?
3- The numerous easy methods for a family member to bump off a relative and make it look natural or accidental (including in the hospital anyway)
4- Mental illness disqualifying 'acceptable' request to be euthanised. How does one define this- or for that matter, if someone who can't function properly wants to die, how exactly is forcing him to live 'humane'?

Now watch the empty space afterwards as people try to pretend it's a eugenics and money-saving thing. Also, a few people will construct a few more cases where the person's motive for dying is "wrong".

As for abortion, I already made one that Rhys pretended not to see (evident in the contradictory assumption), so I'll get back in detail later. I'm very alarmed that such a person is a psychiatric nurse studying law.