Euthanasia

[poliphilo]

 The subject comes up once in a while. If someone raises it at Death Cafe we are encouraged to damp down discussion because legal issues.

 Esther Rantzen (British TV diva) has terminal cancer and is seeking to hasten the process.  This ensures it's going to be dipping in and out of the headlines for a while.

 When my mother was lingering out her last days we had a conversation- regularly repeated- that began "You wouldn't let a dog..." 

 I know very well, because I've worked in a hospice, that doctors often speed the parting guest. It's a guild mystery that the rest of us are happy to be excluded from.

 I have two opinions: the rational one which goes, "Provided safeguards are in place I can't see why not.." 

 And the emotional one which goes, "Ew, nasty...."

Comments

[cmcmck]

And then you get the whole 'life is life right till the end' Christianist mob shouting.

I don't know how they sleep nights........

[poliphilo]

Yeah, things tend to go wrong when people adopt an absolutist stance on ethical matters.

[qatsi]

I think I'm with you on this one. Medical advances can prolong life, but without quality of life it seems pointless or even grotesque. But it's surely human to baulk at such a terrible and irreversible decision.