Dear Suse,

Thank you for just providing a perfect example for the state's inability to judge people:

Yes, there are people who THINK they are God (due to a psychiatric illness; and they likely also imagine themselves to be some powerful deity along the lines of the Abrahamic concept of God) and then there are those who actually REALISED that they are.

Since you cannot tell the difference - one cannot expect the state's representatives to tell it either.

Regarding voluntary euthanasia, we are generally in agreement, yet under the microscope we do not agree completely: you believe that it should be legal while I believe that it should not be illegal.

I also disagree that medical practitioners should have any special privileges. First, it gives their discipline and their cartel an unfair advantage over other healing practitioners. Second, the reason(s) for one's wanting to commit suicide may have nothing to do with a medical condition. Third, doctors can be saints or sinners, demons or angels just like any of us.

Yuyutsu, respectfully, if you think there are actually people out there who 'realise' they are gods, then I doubt there is anything more I can add to this bizarre debate.
The countries where euthanasia is legal require both psych and medical doctors to agree that a patient is eligible for euthanasia before they are considered.
And all legal aspects are checked first as well.

Unrelieved pain, vomiting, and incontinence may change your mind about allowing anyone other than a trained medical doctor with access to suitable drugs to treat you.
'Alternative' medicine practitioners leave plenty of people in dire situations, believe me...

NathanJ, I am sorry to read that you are unwell. Obviously you can handle what medical conditions you have without feeling the need to opt out of life. You are lucky.
That is why I think this country should have access to VOLUNTARY euthanasia, so people like you can choose to soldier on, no matter what awful things that life throws at you, but others can choose not to.

As usual, opponents of voluntary euthanasia throw the usual rubbish suggestions of how the 'state' will just kill anyone even vaguely unwell, or that non-palliative or non-severely disabled people will be given access to euthanasia.
These situations have not become true in the countries where voluntary euthanasia has been legal for years. Look it up for yourselves if you don't believe me.

If opponents of voluntary euthanasia want to fight out their own, or their loved ones, awful illnesses to the bitter 'natural' end, feel free to do so. Just don't force those of us who don't want this for ourselves. That is not too much to ask.

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Dear David (the author),

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You wrote :

« I plan to introduce a Private Senators' Bill before the end of this year to repeal the Andrews Bill and set the Territories free »

I wish you every success, David.

All the best.

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Dear Suse,

<<if you think there are actually people out there who 'realise' they are gods>>

Not "gods" in plural: we are all one, one God, only we have fallen under the illusion as if we were separate bodies. It is possible to wake up from this illusion and realise who we truly are and this of course is very different from psychiatric delusions of individual grandiosity.

<<Unrelieved pain, vomiting, and incontinence may change your mind about allowing anyone other than a trained medical doctor with access to suitable drugs to treat you.>>

This discussion is about assisted-suicide* in general, so it is not limited to euthanasia.

If and when you want a treatment, then you should be able to choose who you want to be treated by - whether that choice be for medical reasons or otherwise, one ought to be able to choose in accordance with their overall values. Talking of "suitable drugs", first your state denies access to all but medical doctors (more accurately, access is allowed only to those who are members of the AMA Mafia, excluding trained medical doctors who refuse or are refused membership for a variety of reasons) then you claim that only medical doctors can access them - well change that!

Now if you rather die (be it moral or otherwise is a different matter), then what's wrong with a bullet to the head? Do doctors aim better? A guillotine is probably the fastest and most merciful method.

* (caveat: the use of the term "suicide" is incorrect because the self never dies, so more accurately what we are speaking of are suicide-attempts)

A bullet to the head?
What if you are unable to lift a gun or pull the trigger?
Assisted suicide suggests someone who can't or won't do the job themselves doesn't it?

If an able person wants to commit suicide there is nothing anyone else can do to stop them if they are serious. Anyone assisting someone else to die when that person is mentally ill or does not have a palliative medical condition should be charged with murder of course.

runner,

I know what you are saying about abortion. When I indicated that I agreed with you except in a few instances, I really meant ony one - if there was a danger to the health of the mother. It should never happen on the whim of someone who doesn't use contraception or someone who is tart who gets caught.