Pope Francis to Belgian Catholics: Stop Offering Euthanasia

Pope Francis to Belgian Catholics: Stop Offering Euthanasia Sept 18, 2017 1:37:58 GMT

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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2017 1:37:58 GMT

Sept 17, 2017 23:48:14 GMT cupcakes said:

Sept 17, 2017 23:17:39 GMT @miccee said:

If the right to die were enshrined into law (i.e. the fact that people can commit suicide does not make it a legally guaranteed right), and every case of assisted dying was properly documented, then those wrongful death lawsuits could go nowhere.

Right, and doctors aren't arrested every day, and documenting negligent, fraudulent or criminal reasons would stop all recourse cold.

Even stepping in front of a train moving at 80mph has been known to fail to kill a person

Doctors would still be arrested for criminal acts, but writing a prescription for Nembutal and overseeing the consumption of the medicine would not be a crime, and could not be tried as such as long as the consultation were properly documented and witnessed.

The fact that you think stepping in front of a train is a deliberative way for anything but maliciously making a grisly scene on the way out tells quite a bit.

Suicidal people jump in front of trains because it's one of the few effective methods of suicide that are readily available. When one is suffering intolerably and society keeps blocking all the exits; then desperate times will cause for desperate measures. The fact that it often has the unfortunate consequence of traumatising an innocent 3rd party is all the more reason why suicide should be assisted in a clinical setting. We can only hope that the people who are traumatised are the people who like you wish to criminalise assistance of suicide (then at least there will be poetic justice). Even a suicide committed in private may have the effect of traumatising the person who has to discover the scene.

That is just a la-la response. And mentally competent people can refuse both nutrition and treatment, not really grey at all.

It is a grey area, as anyone who would even entertain the possibility of dying a fraction of a microsecond earlier than they would otherwise die by natural causes is usually suspected of depression which casts doubt over their 'mental competence' in the eyes of the law, as it now stands. Also, their carers are able to force feed them and there isn't much that they can do about it.