Hi Yuyutsu,

I guess I'm thinking of those limited situations in which:

* people are not - not even good friends - pets, and

* people are not dying, or in unrelievable pain.

My point is that - outside of medical situations with strict protocols enforced - nobody has the right to contribute to the death of another. Nobody has the right to play (a mythical) God.

As Jeff Kennett has pointed out so many times, a person in depression is extremely vulnerable. There should be vastly more effective counselling services, particularly in rural and remote areas, and a far better understanding of the causes and remedies for depression in, say, Indigenous settlements, where suicide, usually of young people, disproportionately female, is twenty times higher than for Australia generally.

To blithely offer to help someone take their one-and-only life is obscene, and deservedly criminal.

Joe

Dear Joe,

As I wrote, some fine details may need to be looked at, such as the case of depressed and/or indigenous people - whether, when and how they can prove that they indeed provide their informed and free consent.

Also, we seem to disagree on the concept of 'life'. That's OK and this is probably not the place to enter that discussion. It is alright to disagree on metaphysical issues, but it is not alright for the state to decide and force its view in matters of faith.

Setting aside the details of whether the "disadvantaged" are entitled to choose for themselves whether they keep or shed their body, let us focus for now on "normal" citizens, let's assume white, male and sane.

Should one who is not ill or depressed declare in advance: "If I'm ever to become ill or depressed, I would like to be assisted in dying", surely nobody has a right to stop them.

Or should for example two people (white, male, sane...) rationally decide to have a duel where one of them (50-50 chance) is to be killed and the other is to have their lady (which perhaps offered herself to marry the winner), surely their wish shouldn't be criminalised (unless the state endorses and enforces certain metaphysical assumptions, which is well and truly beyond its jurisdiction).

Personally, I wouldn't do such stupid things and I have no wish to be killed, but I would still sign such a declaration for a totally different reason: If I die, I don't want my killer/murderer to be punished and jailed and I do not authorise the state to do so. If I am ever murdered or killed by accident, I wish to accept it as the will of God and let no man suffer in jail on my behalf.

My reason is that I believe that life does not end with the extinguishing of one's body and that having another suffer in jail because of me would be detrimental to my karma. I say this while I am sane and healthy and under no pressure whatsoever.

We don't need any morphine. We just need Zyklon ZZZ.

Why are gulags better than hospices?

You don't have to die naturally in gulags.

The Andrews bill only passed because Australia has too many Cuntservatives in its Federal Government.