I have a problem in people expecting others to do the killing in euthanasia.
I am also not satisfied that there can be sufficient safeguards to stop misuse of a system of legal killing.
I believe that the decision to intentionally take your own life in the event of terminal and painful illness can be an issue that is between a person and their god.
But besides the moral issue of taking anothers life, there is still the possibility for pressure by family members or benificiaries to encourage the shorter alternative.
Another issue is that life itself is terminal, so does mental pain get included, and if so at what age would the cut off be? An 18 year old in extreme mental pain. or an 80 year old that just wants out (but demands that someone else should do it for them).
I think the issue is sensitive but I do remember a well know Victorian pollie that said that euthanasia would help solve the nursing home demand.

The author and the respondents are confusing the issue with emotion. Everyone at the moment has the right to life . You do not need euthanasia - You can take your own life any time you want. Euthanasia is the same as a murder contract. You are asking someone else to kill you.

Usually when I read an article about euthanasia I feel despair, sadness, irritation and impatience: why does it take so long to change this law- it’s so simple, so important, why wait any longer, people are suffering…

By the end of John Töns’ compassionate article I felt quite angry also.
Angry because I’m reminded of the influence religion still has on people’s personal choices and freedom.
Angry because people without hope, without a positive outlook on life, and who do not want to suffer any longer are FORCED to continue to suffer just because of other people’s faith.
The religious, again, are allowed to impose beliefs onto people they don’t even know.

Fractelle,
Yvonne and others have already spoken kind words. I too would like to wish you and your family the necessary strength and hope your mother’s suffering can be eased and if she desires, shortened.

Foxydude,
Not everyone can take their own life at any time they want. Some people, like the bedridden or the paralysed, are physically incapable to take their life. So they need help.
Also, suicide is a very lonely and scary thing to do. It means you will have to die alone, too. If you involve anyone you’ll make them a criminal.
Besides, not all suicides are successful. You might well end up worse off after surviving a suicide.

Euthanasia, in contrast, is guaranteed to be a soft, painless death. You don’t have to be alone. A woman in her thirties I know, suffering from terminal cancer, has had euthanasia a few months ago. Her family was able to sit at her bed. Her little daughter was able to be with he when she died.

This discussion is so full of hypocrisy, so mealy-mouthed:

* there is suicide, where a person takes his or her own life, for whatever reason;

* and there is murder, where a person takes the life of another.

There is no such thing as euthanasia. It is one or the other, and we all know it. Assisted suicide is, if all goes 'well', suicide, and we all should have that right, over our own lives. Of course, if someone wants to take their own life and they in great pain, then we make it easier, possible, for them to do it - but they do it, and they do it to themselves, nobody else should be involved. All those wonkers and frauds who say 'yes, but what about the situations where they can't act?' Yes, what about them ? Then nobody acts, simple and heart-rending as that may be: you cannot take somebody else's life, the only life they will ever have. We don't come back as a beetle or a wombat or a gibbon. End of life and that's it. The worms get us. All the suffering in the world does not justify someone else taking a person's life. Nothing does. Of course, we can understand when a person in such a situation may take their own life, and of course there are grey-area situations, but there cannot be any sanction of one person taking the life of another. It is murder, pure and simple.

As an atheist, I believe that we have only one life, one finite life, here on earth and nowhere else, and that's it, so the owner of that life has the right to live it to the fullest, and only the person himself or herself has the right to take it, nobody else, on whatever pretext. No, nobody else has the right to take a life, no matter what the excuse.

Frankly, if I were Grand Dictator, I would jail half of you bustards.

Joe

It is so encouraging that all the comments seem to support the basic principles, which we all desire, that everyone should have the right to terminate their own lives. Even though there seem to be considerable misconceptions.

Joe Loudmouth (perhaps appropriately) has laid it out clearly. The problem is, as so often, that the law as promoted by the main stream religions makes the carrying out of the act difficult and unpleasant and totally illegal for any assistants to help in any way. This surely is wrong

The law should be changed to give everyone the right to end their own lives without difficulty and with dignity at a time of their own choosing. Doctors first of all must offer advice on all alternatives and if the patients decision is finally for suicide/euthanasia the doctors need only to be involved in setting up the nuts and bolts of the process. Not the act This may involve providing the same drug that the vets use to euthanase our animals or even setting up a more complicated process via a computer for patients who are incapable of even swallowing a draft. Under no circumstances should the doctor be asked to perform the act personally. This was the system set up under the N.T. law by Dr Nitschke and used successfully when it was legal. The “religious” extremists immediately set about making this illegal and currently doctors and I believe anyone can be prosecuted for “assisting” the patient in any way.

Senator Bob Brown is introducing a Private Members bill to the Senate to change this and legalize again the N.T. legislation. Please write to your Senators to make sure they support his initiative