Hemlock Society and Ethics

[jells]

Hi Everyone!

 

I was reading today about the Hemlock Society, which helps people in the States with terminal illnesses die painlessly and with dignity. They also publish books that detail how to kill yourself quickly and painlessly (one of them was even a best-seller).

 

Do you think there is an ethical issue here?

[w8kg6]

I would say that if there is an ethical dilemma, it comes more with the book than the actual aid of the death. When helping an individual with dying, you are much more able to weigh exactly what a person is living with, what alternatives they have to death, as well as their current state of mind. In writing a book detailing how to painlessly end your life, I think you're robbing the person who wishes to die of the reflection and expertise that comes with the more personalized approach. Also, in publishing a book of how to painlessly end your life, you're providing a wealth of knowledge to a group of people who it may not be safe with. If this knowledge is made available to a person who can't adequately weigh the magnitude of death (teenagers, people who are blinded by depression or another affliction), and they decide to kill themselves, even though an outside and unbiased person would see that this wasn't the best option, that's a real problem.

 

In either performing the act or simply providing the necessary informaiton, you're effectively making a person's death a possibility. The book just does this in a much worse way to people who it may not be appropriate for.

 

This is going to turn into a euthanasia debate really quick, I expect.

[Wolvenstar]

This is going to turn into a euthanasia debate really quick, I expect.

 

Mwahahaha, I hope so, I would love to get into another controversial topic debate, to help distract me from my studies.

 

I think the biggest problem with the book comes from the fact that people fear death (no unjustly so). I do not refer just to people fear their own death, but people fearing the death of others. Realize that alot of people would rather have a person with a terminal illness suffer, rather than face the fact that the person is going to die. You could be old, stuck in a hospital bed, defecating all over yourself, and have someone purposely inflicting physical pain to your body on a daily basis, and there is some friend or loved one, who would rather have you live through that and be tortured for another 20 years rather than die sooner and forego that pain. It is all about them avoiding the pain they know they will experience from your death.

 

I am not argueing for or against euthanasia....yet, I will let someone else start the debate.