Do you think Euthanasia will ever be legal in Ireland?

NIMAN · 26-10-2017 08:41PM #1

I heard a report today saying that our already crumbling health service is going to have another third of a workload placed on it by 2030 due to people living longer and an aging population.

It doesn't bode well.

Got to thinking about how many people are a strain on the system when they are barely living or have major health issues, and many might decide to take the assisted suicide route if it was available.

I know it can sound cruel, but is it a viable future option for us as a nation? We have been progressive in so many other issues, why not euthanasia?

freshpopcorn · 26-10-2017 08:45PM

It's hard to know to be honest but I know people who want to keep he 8th amendment but they'd support Euthanasia being allowed.
However selling it as a way take strain off the health system wouldn't want to mentioned.
The other issue you'd encounter would be stories from other countries about people choosing euthanasia because the cat died.

NIMAN · 26-10-2017 08:48PM

freshpopcorn wrote: »

It's hard to know to be honest but I know people who want to keep he 8th amendment but they'd support Euthanasia being allowed.
However selling it as a way take strain off the health system wouldn't want to mentioned.
The other issue you'd encounter would be stories from other countries about people choosing euthanasia because the cat died.

Well obviously there would be rules. That's must madness. You'd have to have some sort of terminal disease or else alzheimers or something.

buried · 26-10-2017 08:52PM

Good luck trying to find any politician who is looking forward to living off 10 or 12 pensions legislating for that sort of program

harry Bailey esq · 26-10-2017 09:02PM

Over my dead body :mad:

branie2 · 26-10-2017 09:05PM

I doubt it

Jimbob1977 · 26-10-2017 09:05PM

We need a system like Logan's Run

Our life clock will extinguish at age 30.

The crystal in our palm will turn black.

Then we need to renew in Carousel

Hitman3000 · 26-10-2017 09:06PM

NIMAN wrote:

Well obviously there would be rules. That's must madness. You'd have to have some sort of terminal disease or else alzheimers or something.

So you think someone with Alzheimer's would be in a fully cognitive state to want to end their days? Sure why stop there what about those in a coma?

Johngoose · 26-10-2017 09:09PM

Bertie Aherne advocated suicide. So maybe if he gets back in power. Don't see Sinn Fein having an issue with it either.

mickoneill31 · 26-10-2017 09:09PM

Hitman3000 wrote: »

So you think someone with Alzheimer's would be in a fully cognitive state to want to end their days? Sure why stop there what about those in a coma?

You know you don't just wake up one day with full blown alzheimer's.

branie2 · 26-10-2017 09:11PM

It's legal in Switzerland

SEPT 23 1989 · 26-10-2017 09:12PM

When the pain at the end becomes too much

I want the power to say enough is enough

Gwynplaine · 26-10-2017 09:13PM

Waiting on Ali G quote.

eviltwin · 26-10-2017 09:14PM

I would be in favour of assisted suicide. Euthanasia conjures up images of people being bumped off because it's the wish of someone else.

Hector Bellend · 26-10-2017 09:16PM

nice bit of an aul euthanasia

Hitman3000 · 26-10-2017 09:18PM

Johngoose wrote:

Bertie Aherne advocated suicide. So maybe if he gets back in power. Don't see Sinn Fein having an issue with it either.

No fan of Bertie but that's not true. The youtube clip is still out there.

RobbingBandit · 26-10-2017 09:19PM

Nope too many brain washed crazies who can't accept some people just want to die rather than suffer through endless fruitless torture. People or their loved ones should have a right to chose how it ends for them same as a woman should have the right to choose but not here unfortunately.

I've got a lot of medical issues myself the past few years thankfully none of them terminal if they were I'd like to have the opportunity whilst still able to end things on my own terms and I'm sure many others would think the same in the same boat.

NIMAN · 26-10-2017 09:24PM

RobbingBandit wrote: »

Nope too many brain washed crazies who can't accept some people just want to die rather than suffer through endless fruitless torture. People or their loved ones should have a right to chose how it ends for them same as a woman should have the right to choose but not here unfortunately.

I've got a lot of medical issues myself the past few years thankfully none of them terminal if they were I'd like to have the opportunity whilst still able to end things on my own terms and I'm sure many others would think the same in the same boat.

This is the scenario I envisage it being involved in, if it was ever to happen.

Not the silly options so many people argue against.

lazybones32 · 26-10-2017 10:37PM

The Belgians have gone loop-the-loop with euthanasia: kids can seek it, mentally-ill people (depression), people with non-terminal diseases or illnesses get it. They killed about 4,000 people in 14/15 and the British Medical Journal found that proper procedure was not always followed - nurses reported that certain doctors skipped certain important bits, like getting the consent of the patient (that was either Holland or Belgium or both). Google it instead of aksing me for links.

Sephiroth_dude · 26-10-2017 10:43PM

No chance!

gctest50 · 26-10-2017 10:54PM

lazybones32 wrote: »

The Belgians have gone loop-the-loop with euthanasia: kids can seek it, mentally-ill people (depression), people with non-terminal diseases or illnesses get it. They killed about 4,000 people in 14/15 and the British Medical Journal found that proper procedure was not always followed - nurses reported that certain doctors skipped certain important bits, like getting the consent of the patient (that was either Holland or Belgium or both). Google it instead of aksing me for links.

lazybones32 wrote: »

kids can seek it.

That's misleading - it's for terminally ill kids

The Belgian law has very strict rules for the euthanasia to be approved. It requires the minor to be in the final stages of a terminal illness, to understand the difference between life and death rationally and to have asked to end his or her life on repeated occasions. It also requires parental consent and finally the approval of two doctors, including a psychiatrist.

Firblog · 26-10-2017 10:56PM

I'd hope that it will be made legal; I see no point in exhausting huge resources trying to keep people alive in poor health for years. I believe that if someone wishes to die in a dignified manner, either to escape pain, or living in a way that is abhorrent to them, they should have the right.

Perhaps if people could register that wish, say in a will that is updated / reaffirmed yearly - for 3 or more years, then it should be recognised and facilitated.

NIMAN · 26-10-2017 11:00PM

I see a parallel with this and the 8th amendment.

We are being told it is a woman's right to do whatever she wants with her body, and apparently a large section of the population agree with this.

So why isn't it my decision if I have a terminal, painful illness to let me decide what to do with my own body?

EPAndlee · 26-10-2017 11:01PM

I personally wouldn't want to die in absolute agony in hospital. I'd like the choice of death and just end the pain or foreseeable pain a terminal disease could cause

RobbingBandit · 26-10-2017 11:02PM

That's pretty much a Do Not Resuscitate order, it's a tricky subject is possible to set one up but not an open topic in most cases.

NIMAN · 26-10-2017 11:08PM

RobbingBandit wrote: »

That's pretty much a Do Not Resuscitate order, it's a tricky subject is possible to set one up but not an open topic in most cases.

But a DNR order means you have to get to the point where you are near death and have passed out, and could possibly have suffered a long period of terrible pain up to then.

The option should be there to stop the pain as soon as you want to.

MonkieSocks · 26-10-2017 11:11PM

Hitman3000 wrote: »

No fan of Bertie but that's not true. The youtube clip is still out there.

This one?

corner of hells · 26-10-2017 11:12PM

RobbingBandit wrote: »

That's pretty much a Do Not Resuscitate order, it's a tricky subject is possible to set one up but not an open topic in most cases.

I think at the moment we have an informal "do not resuscitate " at the moment.
I remember with my own father in his final years he was effectively a vegetable with dementia we made an agreement with the nursing home manager and his GP that he was not to be resuscitated. Everyone had to be in agreement.

I do also remember another resident's family insisting she was to be resuscitated despite the fact she was in her ninties and at latter stages of dementia.

NIMAN · 26-10-2017 11:14PM

corner of hells wrote: »

I think at the moment we have an informal "do not resuscitate " at the moment.
I remember with my own father in his final years he was effectively a vegetable with dementia we made an agreement with the nursing home manager and his GP that he was not to be resuscitated. Everyone had to be in agreement.

I do also remember another resident's family insisting she was to be resuscitated despite the fact she was in her ninties and at latter stages of dementia.

sorry to hear this, but its a great example.

Why on Earth would the authorities want to resus such a person? for what purpose? We are all going to die, would there have been any point resus'ing your Dad to have him live another few hours or days in that state, especially when he was so close to the end anyway?

NegativeCreep · 26-10-2017 11:16PM

Well it’s looking likely that soon it’ll be legal to terminate a baby that has no say in the matter* so I don’t think it’s any worse to have a consenting adult choose to end their own life on their own terms. I would like to have that option when the time comes myself.

*I’m not saying I don’t agree with abortion but their comparable situations.

Hannibal_Smith · 26-10-2017 11:17PM

Hitman3000 wrote: »

So you think someone with Alzheimer's would be in a fully cognitive state to want to end their days? Sure why stop there what about those in a coma?

I watched a programme on it before. I think Terry Pratchet was the 'investigator '. The show was based in a euthanasia centre, or whatever it was called, in Switzerland. So they covered a few stories. One was a suicidal guy, another was an elderly man. He had the onset of alzheimers or something similar and the other was something like motor neuron disease.

Basically the way it worked was, every one went through a psychological screening process, to make sure it was absolutely what you wanted, you were of sound mind and able to make the decision for yourself and to establish whether (particularly with the suicidal guy) therapy my might be of benefit. After that, you move to the next stage. It has to be done when you are physically able to take the drink. No one can present the glass to you, you have to be able to lift it up and drink it. Otherwise it is murder. So if you want to do it because of alzheimers it has to be before the disease takes hold, so that you are of sound mind and before you are affected physically so you can lift the drink. This means you are effectively doing it in the full of your health and at the early stages of your disease.

You can have a loved one in the room. They give you the drink and a sweet, because apparently it tastes awful. They showed the elderly man taking the sweet, then taking the drink. They warned he would try and reach for water and asked the wife to help distract him because it would dilute the concoction and it wouldn't work. They told her not to cry, but to stay supportive for him. He took the drink, she played her part, he fell asleep and then died. She was allowed cry then.

So there are rules and regulations in other countries, it is done quite sensitively and to me it makes a lot of sense.

I would hope it would be brought in and follow the stipulations set out in other countries.

Do you think Euthanasia will ever be legal in Ireland?

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