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Would you be in favour of assisted dying being introduced for terminally ill patients in your country? (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago by DrownedRats@lemmy.world to c/casualconversation@lemmy.world

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With the discussion of whether assisted dying should be allowed in Scotland befing brought up again, I was wondering what other people thought of the topic.

Do you think people should be allowed to choose when to end their own life?

What laws need to be put into place to prevent abuses in the system?

How do we account for people changing their mind or mental decline causing people to no longer be able to consent to a procedure they previously requested?

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[-] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 6 points 7 months ago

It was introduced in my country (Canada) and immediately the government started talking about expanding access to it for people with intellectual disabilities; and worse yet, people with treatable conditions where the treatment is just very expensive. That freaks me out quite a bit.

I think it's good for it to be available but there need to be significant guardrails on its availability. My cousin and his wife recently used it for her father, and based on my understanding of his situation, I think it was probably a lot better than letting him die slowly.

[-] Perhapsjustsniffit@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Disabled Canadian here. Spinal cord injury. I think assisted death is necessary in any society and I am glad we have it. That's said... That some are choosing death over starvation or homelessness due to disability is not ok. If we give the option for assisted death we also need the support structure to avoid such unfortunately necessary choices for some. I have 3 young kids. I'm fully disabled now at almost 50. I went from a salary when working of almost 100,000/year to $12, 440.61 on disability. Even if I could find work that would make exceptions for my disability I could only earn $6000/year before I would lose my disability altogether and have to work full-time. $6000. Try live for a year on that, but that's what the feds say justifies full time employment for someone like me. $12,000/ year is no walk in the park but half that would be devastating.

If my major purchases (home etc)were not paid off we would be homeless for certain. A single grocery bill for us for two weeks is well over $300 and we grow all our own vegetables, chickens and eggs out of necessity. If we had a mortgage and car payment we would be seriously considering one less mouth. We are lucky because we live rurally and have some stability in owning our home otherwise MAID would be a consideration. Not because I don't want to live but because I couldn't afford to.

[-] zephorah@lemm.ee 3 points 7 months ago

Some terminal illnesses, I think I’d prefer this route. ALS, for example. No fucking way am I doing that.

If it’s not a play on eugenics, just giving the terminal choices in how they go out, I don’t see the problem.

[-] Redredme@lemmy.world -4 points 7 months ago

Say, didnt you guys hear about that one party which was hugely popular in germany once? The guy in charge was called "the boss" and they had a very specific greet.

They too extended it to people with disabilities.

I dunno.. But it seems somewhat relevant..

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 3 points 7 months ago

you guys hear about that one party which was hugely popular in germany

Evil people can accidentally do humane things under completely evil reasons. The question is always what the victim actually wants.

But I completely respect your ability to make this false comparison and then loudly express concern for it, as reminding us how evil can even coerce people into a bad decision for purely inhumane reasons of cost around the alternatives is a way we can work to avoid that kind of mis-use of this process. We need to be reminded every moment about it.

[-] Redredme@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

The moment the state decides if your life is valuable enough or not is the moment we are talking about fascism. It is that simple.

And yes, I'm all for assisted death. But the keyword is assisted. And if you yourself cannot decide if you want to be assisted it just can't happen.

A politician can not decide for you if you deserve to live or not. A life canot be valued. And that was what was implied.