Assisted Suicide On Washington Ballot Initiative

[literatim]

I wanted to vote yes on this, because I think suicide should be legal. But reading the arguments against it changed my mind. They stated something like insurers could deny insurance to terminally ill patients and just say "take the death pills and leave us alone."

Definitely a strong argument against legalizing it. I know similar stuff has happened in other countries. In socialist countries, they urge old people to kill themselves so they won't be a burden on the welfare system. Something similar actually happens in America without the consent of the person. It's called Hospice, old people are killed time and again by increasing their medication to extreme limits to have them die off quickly.

We can not have terminally ill people taking their own lives before the medical industry has had the opprotunity to take every last bit of accumulated wealth of the individual by superficially keeping them alive. That's just crazy talk .

Most terminally ill people are covered by insurance or by some state or federal medical plan. This is why socialists want to legalize this.

 

[klamath]

I'm not sure if everyone read the blog. Here is the last part;

"The act of assisted suicide, while tragic, is a final assertion of one’s power. In death, the terminally ill take back the control of their lives that has been lost for so long. They aren’t held hostage by their sickness anymore, for they may take their lives into their own hands. This isn’t a place for government to intervene; criminalizing only lessens liberty and increases suffering. The individual must decide for himself, and he must be able to decide for himself.

After all, it is only appropriate for the human life defined by freedom to end in choice"

I don't know why anyone would disagree with this particularly from a standpont of individual liberty.

Klamath, thanks for sharing your story. You understand and know all too well that these are personal, painful situations within a family that should remain private. Just as I would not question your father's choice no one should question mine if I choose not to live in pain.

This is not directed at you but a general statement; I am tired of living in a nanny state. From cradle to grave others can't mind their businss and want to tell people what to do. No party that supports the Constitution should have this in their platform - I am not illiterate, I can read the Constitution. It's bad enough we live our lives with people trying to legislate their personal views upon the individual but I will be damned if I have them hovering over my death bed too.

I guess I would have to read the actual proposed law. It all hinges on the word assisted. If you read my arguments I never argued against someone having the right to take their own life. I totally agree with that right. What I do not agree with giving another person the right to assist. What exactly is assist? That is a pretty wide open word. If it is leaving a lethal dose of medication within reach that is one thing. Hooking up IVs with the full intent to kill the patient that is another.

 

[axiomata]

I guess I would have to read the actual proposed law.

http://wei.secstate.wa.gov/osos/en/Pages/OnlineVoterGuideGeneral2008.aspx#ososTop