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

Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

441–450 of 870 posts

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#441

Post by lolinder »

Yeul wrote: post #329
guyzero wrote: post #131

My Canadian parents are in their 80's so naturally a lot of their friends of the same age are dying. And two of them have been via MAID. In one case, which was surprising to me, a man who had survived cancer - he was not terminal but certainly wasn't getting any better - elected to die via MAID after his wife died. She passed, he called his doctor and less than a week later he was also dead. He got a chance to visit…

[flagged]

It would be helpful if you clarified what brand of Christianity you're talking about, since it's a very old religion that has many many different branches with different teachings. Some of these branches are totally on board with assisted dying, others are not for various reasons. Very few are because suffering is about "earning heaven points".

In many branches of Christianity what you do find is a belief that life is a gift from God and that it's sacrilegious to decide on your own to end that gift earlier than He does. That's not a glorification of suffering per se, but a prioritization of the will of God over your own will—it's based on a belief that even if you don't understand how now, His plan is always better than yours.

I realize that nuance like that doesn't do well on this forum when it comes to religion in general and Christianity in particular, but I do think it's important to accurately represent the other perspective instead of attacking a straw man, even if the other perspective is religious.

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#442

Post by bscphil »

simonh wrote: post #385
aaplok wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, someone has to. If you walk in very drunk asking to be euthanised, one would hope that they would have to wait until you are no longer drunk to confirm you really want to be euthanised. Then, who decides on the waiting period? Likewise if a traumatic event clouds your judgement (as some events can do), it's not unreasonable to make you wait until your judgement is sound. Then someone has to decide on th…

Is there any country in the world with laws allowing assisted dying that actually allows what you describe, or is it a fantasy that’s irrelevant to the actual policies we’re discussing?

The user you're responding to is very clearly presenting a hypothetical argument, not something that actually exists.

The GP asked "Who decides on the duration of the waiting period? Why can’t people be in charge of their own lives?"

And the OP is making that point that (a) there must be someone in a position to make that decision, and that (b) there must be some waiting period.

In fact, if as you imply there are no countries that allow walk-in assisted euthanasia, that's a point in favor of the OPs point, because it suggests that we do widely recognize that there have to be some limits to individual freedom in this area.

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#443

Post by wiseowise »

briansm wrote: post #69
grecy wrote: post #60

Theses headlines are always sensationalist, because it sounds like these deaths are avoidable. To be clear, all of these people were going to die within days, weeks, or at most a few months. Death is certain. Dignity at the end is the least we can ask for.

'pain-free' and 'organized' perhaps, but don't fool yourself, it's never 'dignified'. Makes me think of this: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0606035/quotes/?ref_=tt_dyk_qu

Makes you think of narcissistic, cynic addict with problematic personal life?

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#444

Post by wsc981 »

Yeul wrote: post #329
guyzero wrote: post #131

My Canadian parents are in their 80's so naturally a lot of their friends of the same age are dying. And two of them have been via MAID. In one case, which was surprising to me, a man who had survived cancer - he was not terminal but certainly wasn't getting any better - elected to die via MAID after his wife died. She passed, he called his doctor and less than a week later he was also dead. He got a chance to visit…

[flagged]

> In Christianity life is about suffering. You're basically earning heaven points. But when you no longer live for god but only for yourself there is no reason to suffer.

I'm not sure that is true. And even if it would be true for Christianity, I'd guess the same could be said for Buddihsm [0]. Buddhism monks in particular seem to be a miserable lot, as they (try to?) never smile ... at least on photos as shown in temples in Thailand.

The core of Christianity, from my understanding, is to believe that Jesus died for your sins and through accepting Jesus (not through works) one is able to get to heaven. This I think is the defining contrast of Christianity with other major religions, as in Judaism, Hindusm, Buddhism, Islam and probably others good works are needed to get to a better afterlife or reach a final state (nirvana?).

Though please correct me if I am wrong in any of this, as I don't know all of every religion.

P.S.: I myself was born in The Netherlands, but for the last 7 years or so been living in Thailand.

---

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#445

Post by steve_adams_86 »

nashashmi wrote: post #320
jncfhnb wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you need from grandma, who is in constant pain and desires to die?

The touch, the voice, the eyes of love, the concern, the stories, the heart, the smile, ... shall I go on?

All of this is beautiful stuff, but I think it no longer applies when suffering has removed a person's humanity such that they can't offer these things anymore. At that point they're only capable of putting their energy into suffering. Even your attempts to alleviate their suffering are probably useless, or offer little to no relief.

I don't see why you would think about or hope for these things when they're effectively gone; especially not if wanting these things for yourself is at a loved one's expense.

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#446

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

bawolff wrote: post #137
stronglikedan wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why don’t we get a choice in when we leave? Because dead folks don't pay taxes.

Terminally ill people generally aren't paying taxes either. You have to make money somehow to owe taxes.

There are so many people that really have no idea how taxes work.

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#447

Post by fdgjgbdfhgb »

gambiting wrote: post #343
Yeul wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Well that entire dogma is giving us monsters like Mother Theresa who thought that by letting people in her care suffer she made it more likely they will make it to heaven - and well, the Catholic Church has agreed with that interpretation and made her a Saint. This was touched upon in a game called Indika released this year......there's a story there how a guy ended the suffering of his young child who was in constan…

The "Mother Theresa withheld painkillers" thing is a myth [1]

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/gcxpr5/saint_mo...

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#448

Post by wiseowise »

tivert wrote: post #86
deepburner wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck helping somebody paralyzed from the neck down live a fulfilling life.

> Good luck helping somebody paralyzed from the neck down live a fulfilling life. Honestly, you seem to suffer from a lack of imagination. There are famous examples of people profoundly paralyzed who most likely lived fulfilling lives (e.g. Stephen Hawking), and I believe there's research the people's happiness tends to return to baseline after both very good and very bad events .

How many paralyzed with fulfilling life do you know personally?

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#449

Post by hellojesus »

Yeul wrote: post #329
guyzero wrote: post #131

My Canadian parents are in their 80's so naturally a lot of their friends of the same age are dying. And two of them have been via MAID. In one case, which was surprising to me, a man who had survived cancer - he was not terminal but certainly wasn't getting any better - elected to die via MAID after his wife died. She passed, he called his doctor and less than a week later he was also dead. He got a chance to visit…

[flagged]

I understand what the end looks like. My grandmother went through it, and she was the only exception her "dry" memory car facility allowed after her withdrawls started. She had been living on two meals at Chilli's a week, with the rest of her caloric intake derived from wine.

I am also going through a cancer scare myself and have been thinking about the future.

Sometimes it is helpful to review the wisdom of the ages, so I'll leave some here for ponder, as I don't know that I'm convinced the short of it is always the best decision:

> The lame can ride a horse, the handless drive cattle, the deaf can fight and win. It’s better even to be blind, than fuel on a pyre; a corpse is of no use to anyone.

I suppose at some point, one's disability does truly leave them beyond repair, beyond productivity. But maybe there is comfort knowing your existence fuels a paycheck for whomever is charged woth your care? But that may be undesirable if it subtracts from your heirs.

Re: Assisted dying now accounts for one in 20 Canada deaths

#450

Post by geysersam »

wpietri wrote: post #301
guyzero wrote: post #131

My Canadian parents are in their 80's so naturally a lot of their friends of the same age are dying. And two of them have been via MAID. In one case, which was surprising to me, a man who had survived cancer - he was not terminal but certainly wasn't getting any better - elected to die via MAID after his wife died. She passed, he called his doctor and less than a week later he was also dead. He got a chance to visit…

Yeah, I get that. Once you've accepted death is inevitable, you start to think carefully about what kind of death you want. My parents both died of glioblastomas, a particularly aggressive form of brain cancer. As the surgeon explained after the biopsy, "This is what you will die from." 3 months from diagnosis to death for my mom, a year and change for my dad. Seeing that process up close made very clear to me what I…

That must have been tough. May I ask what made them ill? The odds that they both got the same relatively rare disease by chance seems slim
Post reply on HN