Firstly, I would like to say I do not work for SBS, I have no pecuniary interests in any type of multicultural festival and I have no interests, of any kind, in soccer at any level – but they have aired some good doco’s lately and these are ‘articles’ are they not?

My comments refer to some extremely ill, debilitated and wasted people, near death who are trying to acquire the means to end their own lives peacefully: Looking at those ‘Rational Suicides’ I had to ask myself the question: Is it really rational to leave it that long? To hang on into so deeply a decrepit state of dysfunction? And, if it is not rational to leave it so long then how long is it rational to leave it? And, most importantly, what would be the ‘rational criteria’ for determining what the optimum time would be?

In the past the timing of the euthanasia was justified under a vague criteria which never had to be rigorous or specific because the candidates were all so close to death that satisfying criteria wasn’t really a big issue and almost all the attention was focused on whether or not it should be done at all. If we establish the rational criteria first it may raise some interesting findings. So, the question I put is:

“Under what terms and conditions should a person, with a clearly expressed wish to do so, be able to end their own life?”

NB: This question specifically circumvents all cases where a person is unable to express their own wishes and therefore all issues arising therefrom. Also, obviously, if you do not think voluntary euthanasia should ever be an available option, you will feel there are ‘no conditions’ under which a person should be able to end their own lives – that is already established.

If you watched the docco you would have seen one of the more contorversial ones.
The dram queen who went to Mexico to buy an illegal drug and then poured it down the sewer.

She had been through hell with cancer treatment but, at that point was "cured" (cancer doctors never actualy use that word)

There have been several, well documented, and televised, programs about cancer paitents who have wanted to end it. And have then recovered.

What is needed is for some of these pain management doctors to show some balls and give dying people large doeses of pain killers even at the risk of killing them.

I couldn’t fit this in the OP but I will start the list with some criteria I think could be included:

1. The person should be able to express clearly and emphatically that they wish to end their own lives.

2. That this wish be expressed consistently and without revocation for a period of no less than 12mths.

3. That the person’s own doctor, a psychologist and a psychiatrist all attest that the person is not suffering from any form of delusions or mental illness that may have influenced the thought processes of the decision.

4. That the person has attained the age of at least 30 years.

5. That the person be experiencing great personal pain or discomfort.

6. That there be little realistic expectation of providing profound relief of that pain or discomfort.

I think this debate could be very interesting, eg while many people might baulk at my suggested age of 30, modern people have different ideas now about the possibilities and impossibilities of both positive and negative afterlives - who knows where these beliefs will be in coming decades. People with severe disabilities and gross impositions may not find much holding them back.