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I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

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Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#151

Post by fsloth »

Razengan wrote: post #144
ekianjo wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think "death" is just another condition like disease or disability that will eventually be defeated through technology. Someday we will have medical immortality and maybe even mind-backups, to "restore" a person (or a very close approximation of them) in the case of accident/violence. Backing up your brain does not prevent you to die. Your organic form will die anyway and you will have to go through death, it's j…

It may still be comforting for people to get their loved ones back in some way. Even without such "resurrection", medical immortality in the form of immunity to aging and disease and disability could be considered as "defeating" nonviolent death.

"It may still be comforting for people to get their loved ones back in some way."

Memories. All you get is memories. To imagine something else is delusional. Losing a loved one hurts like hell but life goes on. Denial is one part of the processs but most of all the difficult part of the process is remolding oneself into a world where the loved one is no more.

The queen of the King of Sweden, Gustaf Adolf could not accept the passing of her husband and in her grief she stored his heart for years in a jar.

While science fiction flirts with various kinds of immortality it offers no assistance forming a philosophy for todays world.

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#152

Post by DanBC »

throwanem wrote: post #121

Third parties: Please don't downvote or flag the parent comment out of existence. I understand the urge, but it merits a considered response, and I would greatly appreciate your forbearing to deny me the opportunity to replace this placeholder comment with one.

I downvoted, and flagged, the post because it's a fucking horrible thing to say in this thread about an individual person's choice to die.

Feel free to have a discussion about the rights and wrongs of euthanasia in some other thread. Here people are remembering someone they know. They either know him AFK, or from his work. This thread about that man is totally the wrong place for self-righteous cunts to wang on about their opinion of euthanasia.

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#154

Post by Delmania »

wtbob wrote: post #107
throwanem wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think it meet of a Christian man to speak so at a time like this, or indeed any other? This is cruelty. We are called to kindness. Do you think it's your place to judge what God will and won't forgive? This is arrogance. We are called to humility. Would you demand that someone else continue in unbearable agony to satisfy your own personal notion of the right way to act? This is hatred. We are called to love.

> Do you think it meet of a Christian man to speak so at a time like this, or indeed any other? I do. > This is cruelty. Is it cruelty, or love? Is it kindness to say to someone, 'the world is better off without you in it'? Is it kindness to help someone destroy himself, and with himself every second he could have had? > Do you think it's your place to judge what God will and won't forgive? This is arrogance. We are…

> Do you think it is love to extinguish the greatest gift of all — life — in order to satisfy your personal theory of self-determination? Do you think it is hatred to urge someone to preserve the most important thing he has — himself?

This is the single most ridiculous thing I've heard when it comes to the Christian stance on euthanasia.

Pieter had incurable cholangiocarcinoma. He went through a course of treatment, but that treatment did not succeed. He did everything he could have done to preserve himself, but in the end, the form of cancer he was incurable. Your definition of "love" seems to be to force him to waste away, forcing his children and other loved ones watch him degrade slowly, knowing there is no hope for recovery.

The ban on euthanasia is there to prevent people from foolishly taking their lives. There are cases, and Pieter's definitely fits the bill, where the only action left to take is to allow the person the dignity and the right to die as he sees fit.

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#155

Post by Delmania »

nsxwolf wrote: post #102
icebraining wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your call for a discussion, but that requires good faith and empathy, both of which that comment was lacking. It's possible to disagree with his decision without calling late-stage euthanasia an "easy button".

Poster shouldn't have called it an "easy button", but I think there should be one surviving comment on here that stands in opposition to euthanasia, so I'll just leave this here: I am morally opposed to euthanasia.

> I am morally opposed to euthanasia.

Then let's hope you never develop terminal cancer.

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#156

Post by snuxoll »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #126
tostitos1979 wrote: post #99

Pieter: I don't know if you are reading Hacker News at this point or not. Most likely not. I respect your rights and understand the challenge you are faced with. We don't know each other but your work has touched me profoundly as a fellow technologist. All I have to say is I am crying at the moment. I'm crying because I feel very helpless. As a fellow human I am unable to do anything to help you. I am sorry.

>I'm crying because I feel very helpless. As a fellow human I am unable to do anything to help you. I am sorry. Although this is a poor comparison for a million reasons, I just put my beloved dog down a week ago. Helpless is the word here. Its incredible how many game-enders we casually flirt with everyday, how powerful illness can be, how illness makes us make tough decisions, how poorly we handle end of life issues…

Pets are no less an important member of your family than a spouse, children, parents, etc. We may obtain these companions knowing full well we expect to outlive them many times over, but that doesn't mean the eventual loss impacts us less than losing any other member of our family.

Never think your comparison isn't apt because it's "just a pet" :)

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#157

Post by zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC »

wtbob wrote: post #107
throwanem wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think it meet of a Christian man to speak so at a time like this, or indeed any other? This is cruelty. We are called to kindness. Do you think it's your place to judge what God will and won't forgive? This is arrogance. We are called to humility. Would you demand that someone else continue in unbearable agony to satisfy your own personal notion of the right way to act? This is hatred. We are called to love.

> Do you think it meet of a Christian man to speak so at a time like this, or indeed any other? I do. > This is cruelty. Is it cruelty, or love? Is it kindness to say to someone, 'the world is better off without you in it'? Is it kindness to help someone destroy himself, and with himself every second he could have had? > Do you think it's your place to judge what God will and won't forgive? This is arrogance. We are…

> Do you think it's humble to arrogate for oneself the ending of one's life? Do you think that radical self-determination is not arrogance?

Serious question: Arrogance towards whom?

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#158

Post by happy-go-lucky »

jnbiche wrote: post #141
happy-go-lucky wrote: post #128

From the article Confessions of a Necromancer: if you have the trust of your client, and s/he has real power, you have done half the work already. don't make stuff and then try to sell it unless you are growing an existing client base. breaking into markets you don't know is probably impossible. Build up trust with the client and sometimes they will reward you for it. When you've paid for all the mistakes, you should…

To expand a little on this comment, it is highlighting some of the main ideas from one of Pieter's most recent posts (and one of his very best, which is really saying something). It's presumably the parent's tribute to him, which I can appreciate.

You may want to read his The Ultimate Lessons at:

http://hintjens.com/blog:125

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#160

Post by tunap »

paulcole wrote: post #85
arkades wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hard to fear it more than any other thing that can kill me - a stroke, a car accident, etc. Hm. I wonder your age. Young folk seem to think death impossibly foreign, and fear it / ignore it all equally. Older folk, that have had more first-hand experience with the decline of the flesh in themselves and those they grew up with, have more an appreciation for the difference between an abrupt death in a car accident, a…

Arent abrupt deaths more likely to happen to a young person? Shouldn't a young person then not fear cancer (less likely) any more than accidental death? I wonder your age. Old folk tend to assume they have some sort of wisdom and that they can't possibly be wrong simply because of extra years spent on Earth.

Haha, 45yo geezer here! And allow me to retort w/ another broad stroke:

Young people tend to assume they know a lot about things they have never experienced.

Rest assured, what misconceptions time does not fix for us, death certainly will.

edit: changed 'you' to 'us', none get out alive.

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