Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

It's getting harder to die

plough.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 255 posts

Re: It's getting harder to die

#81

Post by treprinum »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #77

I'd like dying to be as easy as flicking a switch. Medically-assisted suicide ought to be available to anyone (not only of sound mind and not only with a terminal condition), and at any time. People ought to have the right to die, just like they have the right to water, food, and shelter. In most countries it is currently easier to take other people's lives than to take one's own. People ought to be able to step into…

Let's run a thought experiment - you make death super easy like in a suicide booth in Futurama. How many people are going to fight life obstacles, pushing society forward, or rather terminally quit at the first sign of troubles? Nihilism was quite popular in the 19th century and led us to two world wars already. All you'll get is a quick extinction of people like you in favor of those that persist and your opinion will be eliminated from the gene pool.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#82

Post by mistrial9 »

treprinum wrote: post #81
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #77

I'd like dying to be as easy as flicking a switch. Medically-assisted suicide ought to be available to anyone (not only of sound mind and not only with a terminal condition), and at any time. People ought to have the right to die, just like they have the right to water, food, and shelter. In most countries it is currently easier to take other people's lives than to take one's own. People ought to be able to step into…

Let's run a thought experiment - you make death super easy like in a suicide booth in Futurama. How many people are going to fight life obstacles, pushing society forward, or rather terminally quit at the first sign of troubles? Nihilism was quite popular in the 19th century and led us to two world wars already. All you'll get is a quick extinction of people like you in favor of those that persist and your opinion wi…

In the West I think alcohol is a massive factor, when talking about the moods of large numbers of people in those days. It is no accident that alcoholic drinking was banned outright for some time, despite the deep cultural roots.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#83

Post by jezzamon »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #77

I'd like dying to be as easy as flicking a switch. Medically-assisted suicide ought to be available to anyone (not only of sound mind and not only with a terminal condition), and at any time. People ought to have the right to die, just like they have the right to water, food, and shelter. In most countries it is currently easier to take other people's lives than to take one's own. People ought to be able to step into…

How do you reconcile that with many people that attempted suicide due to some illness like depression, and then later very much we're glad they didn't die. "Only of sound mind" sounds difficult to measure.

Related: Majority of gun deaths in the USA are suicides. In the gun control debate you might want to exclude those, right? But actually having ready access to a way to die increases the total number of suicides - it's not that all of those people taking their own lives would use different methods of suicide - some would but some would never die from suicide at all. So it's used as a argument against having easy to access firearms, and generally an argument against an easy way for suicide.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#84

Post by fdsavjakslj »

cm2012 wrote: post #78
nextaccountic wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was threatened with an ITO (Involuntary Treatment Order) if I didn't go ahead with having an internal defibrilator put in me. Did this threat come from a doctor? What an astounding lack of empathy. I would switch medical providers in a heartbeat if at all possible.

I personally would be so upset in that situation, that I would refuse it on principal from that provider after being threatened, health be damned.

It's not personal-- the docs are there to cure disease and just doing what they know, personhood be darned.

Also, in the moment, it's entirely possible that somebody who is otherwise completely rational who just had a life-altering experience is temporarily less than completely rational and you're only hearing that one side of the story.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#85

Post by throwup238 »

FerretFred wrote: post #66
Flumio wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best thing they can do is shoot me with a nice does of heroin and after the high.just ending it. We know how to end life's.

It's probably ironic that it's never been easier to buy that drug (and others) and decide your own fate compared with trying for a dignified and hopefully pain-free death the "legal" way.

Doubly so given the epidemic of fentanyl contamination.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#86

Post by delta_p_delta_x »

treprinum wrote: post #81
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #77

I'd like dying to be as easy as flicking a switch. Medically-assisted suicide ought to be available to anyone (not only of sound mind and not only with a terminal condition), and at any time. People ought to have the right to die, just like they have the right to water, food, and shelter. In most countries it is currently easier to take other people's lives than to take one's own. People ought to be able to step into…

Let's run a thought experiment - you make death super easy like in a suicide booth in Futurama. How many people are going to fight life obstacles, pushing society forward, or rather terminally quit at the first sign of troubles? Nihilism was quite popular in the 19th century and led us to two world wars already. All you'll get is a quick extinction of people like you in favor of those that persist and your opinion wi…

> How many people are going to fight life obstacles, pushing society forward, or rather terminally quit at the first sign of troubles?

Not many, probably, but the option should be available to those who need it.

> Nihilism was quite popular in the 19th century and led us to two world wars already

I'm sorry, but this is rubbish. Firstly, I'm not nihilistic, but practical. Not everyone who wants to die is suffering; sometimes they just want out of a pointless and meandering life. They don't want to put in the effort to up themselves, and frankly, why should they? What right do other people have to impose their views on someone who's feeling like this?

Sometimes one is suffering, but can't be bothered to, or might suffer more while trying to convince the state and a medical team that they deserve to die. It's 2024, and we have increasing acceptance of the gender spectrum, of the autism spectrum, of recreational narcotics, and more. Why is dying so marginalised? Like I said, this is a Christocentric view. A modern society must allow its citizens to die quietly, peacefully, and cleanly, whenever they choose.

Next, what led to the two world wars was not 'nihilism', a very loaded single word, but rather a bunch of overly-complex defence pacts, treaties, and arms races in 1900s Europe that eventually collapsed into a bloody shit show. The second world war happened because of a feeling of revenge, anti-semitism, and Slavophobia on the part of the Germans, and imperialism on the part of all the Axis powers. Nothing more, nothing less. Depending on who you ask WW2 began as early as 1910 with the invasion and occupation of Korea by Japan.

> your opinion will be eliminated from the gene pool

Wanting to die is not (only) passed down in someone's genes. It is highly environmental and depends on what people do, who they talk to, and where and how they live.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#87

Post by timnetworks »

Someone in the medical profession explained to me what 'do everything you can' means to doctors and surgeons, it's a binding command. My instructions are likely going to be 'do two things that you probably should at this point and then go have lunch'

Re: It's getting harder to die

#88

Post by delta_p_delta_x »

jezzamon wrote: post #83
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #77

I'd like dying to be as easy as flicking a switch. Medically-assisted suicide ought to be available to anyone (not only of sound mind and not only with a terminal condition), and at any time. People ought to have the right to die, just like they have the right to water, food, and shelter. In most countries it is currently easier to take other people's lives than to take one's own. People ought to be able to step into…

How do you reconcile that with many people that attempted suicide due to some illness like depression, and then later very much we're glad they didn't die. "Only of sound mind" sounds difficult to measure. Related: Majority of gun deaths in the USA are suicides. In the gun control debate you might want to exclude those, right? But actually having ready access to a way to die increases the total number of suicides - i…

> How do you reconcile that with many people that attempted suicide due to some illness like depression

I believe that depression should be treated seriously as a mental illness. But treat the depression, and not the choices made while depressed (i.e. suicidal ideation, suicide attempts), which are symptoms of depression. It's not like we treat so seriously any of the other choices made while depressed like over/under-eating, alcoholism, impulsive purchases, etc.

> So it's used as a argument against having easy to access firearms

Personally I believe in restricting access to firearms because they are usually used to kill other people. If someone wants to use their gun to take their own life, rather than take their guns away, I'd like to spare them and their family the mess, and give them a way to die peacefully and quietly in a supine position.

Re: It's getting harder to die

#90

Post by Liquix »

mistrial9 wrote: post #82
treprinum wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's run a thought experiment - you make death super easy like in a suicide booth in Futurama. How many people are going to fight life obstacles, pushing society forward, or rather terminally quit at the first sign of troubles? Nihilism was quite popular in the 19th century and led us to two world wars already. All you'll get is a quick extinction of people like you in favor of those that persist and your opinion wi…

In the West I think alcohol is a massive factor, when talking about the moods of large numbers of people in those days. It is no accident that alcoholic drinking was banned outright for some time, despite the deep cultural roots.

booze has been around for thousands of years. it's not good for you but it's also not a new phenomenon driving suicide numbers up.

IMHO it's a combination of low wages, high cost of living, and scrolling/gaming/streaming/porn addiction. we don't know how to talk about it yet but it's fucking people up. human brains were not ready for what the internet has become

Post reply on HN