NationStates Jolt Archive


Better for Old People to Kill Themselves Than Be A Nuisance

Eutrusca
15-12-2004, 02:35
Better for Old People to Kill Themselves Than Be A Nuisance, Lawmaker Says
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
December 14, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - A prominent British lawmaker has triggered an outcry by implying that elderly and very ill people should not only have the right, but the obligation to kill themselves rather than become a nuisance. The furor erupted as British lawmakers prepared to vote on a bill that critics worry could be used to sanction the killing of patients in a vegetative state.

Full text: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200412/CUL20041214a.html
Sdaeriji
15-12-2004, 02:37
That reminds me of a Star Trek episode.
New Genoa
15-12-2004, 02:42
Stupid old people. I say we make a law that all people over the age of 70 be sent to the "Eternal Convalescent Home."
Gnostikos
15-12-2004, 02:42
I...umm...think that they should be given the option, but...not that... On a related note, I think that people with terminal diseases and the like should be able to use any substance they want on their bodies. At least things like marijuana, especially if they are in great pain.

Edit:
This reminds me a whole lot of The Giver by Lois Lowry.
Kleptonis
15-12-2004, 02:43
Wouldn't that option be called "suicide"?
Battery Charger
15-12-2004, 02:50
More and more the British of today sound like they Soviets of last century.
Goed Twee
15-12-2004, 02:57
So when do we start eating them?

Bonus points to whoever gets that first.
Tamarket
15-12-2004, 03:00
So Mary doesn`t want to be a burden. Good, she can then off herself. However, she shouldn`t force that option on others.

Euthanasia should always be voluntary.
Chodolo
15-12-2004, 03:01
Better for Old People to Kill Themselves Than Be A Nuisance, Lawmaker Says
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
December 14, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - A prominent British lawmaker has triggered an outcry by implying that elderly and very ill people should not only have the right, but the obligation to kill themselves rather than become a nuisance. The furor erupted as British lawmakers prepared to vote on a bill that critics worry could be used to sanction the killing of patients in a vegetative state.

Full text: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200412/CUL20041214a.html

And there you have the biggest danger of allowing Doctor-Assisted Suicide. The freedom to kill yourself can become the pressure to kill yourself.

I still tentatively support D.A.S., but there must be EXTREME safeguards against abuse. If healthcare was socialized it wouldn't be a concern, but with private healthcare there is a very real danger of abuse.
Gnostikos
15-12-2004, 03:02
So when do we start eating them?

Bonus points to whoever gets that first.
At least by 2015. My ticket's on '07, though!
Goed Twee
15-12-2004, 03:06
I dunno, I'd guess '22 myself.

HINT HINT :p
Chess Squares
15-12-2004, 03:08
so your offing yourself pretty soon eutrusca? your pretty old supposedly
Kleptonis
15-12-2004, 03:30
This is Carlin-reminiscient.
Tandu Systems
15-12-2004, 03:47
2015:
President Hillary Clinton establishes the 'Old people for oil' program to the Middle East
Ogiek
15-12-2004, 04:05
So when do we start eating them?

Bonus points to whoever gets that first.

"It's people. Soylent Green is made out of people. They're making our food out of people."
Right-Wing America
15-12-2004, 04:07
Better for Old People to Kill Themselves Than Be A Nuisance, Lawmaker Says
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
December 14, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - A prominent British lawmaker has triggered an outcry by implying that elderly and very ill people should not only have the right, but the obligation to kill themselves rather than become a nuisance. The furor erupted as British lawmakers prepared to vote on a bill that critics worry could be used to sanction the killing of patients in a vegetative state.

Full text: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200412/CUL20041214a.html

That lawmaker is a genius and I completely agree with the man.
Indiru
15-12-2004, 04:09
"Hope I die before I get old"- my generation
Eutrusca
15-12-2004, 04:11
so your offing yourself pretty soon eutrusca? your pretty old supposedly

You wish! LOL!

You're a lot more cynical than I am old. :)
Dakini
15-12-2004, 04:21
That reminds me of a Star Trek episode.
i remember that episode!

it was when that one scientist guy was looking for a way to save their planet, but he hit 60 and had to die. i didn't think it was a dependance thing, wasn't it a leaving with your dignity thing?
Battery Charger
15-12-2004, 04:32
And there you have the biggest danger of allowing Doctor-Assisted Suicide. The freedom to kill yourself can become the pressure to kill yourself.

I still tentatively support D.A.S., but there must be EXTREME safeguards against abuse. If healthcare was socialized it wouldn't be a concern, but with private healthcare there is a very real danger of abuse.
:confused: :confused: :confused:
Ogiek
15-12-2004, 04:49
"Youth, large, lusty, loving—Youth, full of grace, force, fascination.
Do you know that Old Age may come after you with equal grace, force,
fascination?"

Walt Whitman
Los Banditos
15-12-2004, 04:53
Obviously noone has ever read or watched Logan's Run. I guess it is off to Carousel for the lot of you.
Reinmar
15-12-2004, 04:57
I think euthinasia should be legal if:
-The doctors attending him do not think he will recover
-The person has stated somewhere, perhaps in their will, that they want the plug pulled in this situation
Goed Twee
15-12-2004, 07:44
"It's people. Soylent Green is made out of people. They're making our food out of people."

Ding!

**marks off extra points, hands sheet**

Here ya go! :D
New Genoa
15-12-2004, 20:26
I think euthinasia should be legal if:
-The doctors attending him do not think he will recover
-The person has stated somewhere, perhaps in their will, that they want the plug pulled in this situation

Those reasons are not good. Wills can be "changed," and doctors can be bribed.
Kissmybutte
15-12-2004, 20:37
Re: "More and more the British of today sound like they Soviets of last century."

Definitely, currently Blunkett is proposing a national identity card, including provisions for making it an offence not to produce it when "requested". There has always been a fascist strain in British politics, which partly explains the resistance to a formal adoption of a constitution with a bill of rights.

Even now you can be stopped and searched at whim, and arrested on trivial grounds based on the "results" of that search .

I can hear it now, the terse "Papieren bitte" barked out by the uniform.... shades of 1933-1945 Germany.