Physician Assisted Suicide?

How do you guys feel about physician assisted suicide? Is it completely and always wrong? Or should it be allowed in cases of terminal illness where the patient has no chance of surviving and is only going to live in complete suffering and pain?

I'm interested to know how this community feels about the topic---I'd love to hear your responses below

Very interesting topic. Well I'm not sure if you're aware, but there is a doctor by the name of Jack Kevorkian- he is a US doctor, who use to perform Euthanasia (The act of killing a terminally ill person painlessly for reason's of mercy) He would provide all the stuff needed and give it to the patients who had personally asked him for help to die because they were terminally ill and didn't wanna go through the pain. So it was not the doctor's fault at all- he just respected the wishes of those who had a terminal illness and seriously wanted to die to avoid the extremely painful procedures. However, this doctor went to jail many times for this act- then he got out- people argued against him, while others argued that it wasn't his fault since the patients had asked for it. When he came out of jail- he continued to do the same thing but this time he would tape the terminally ill patient first, in which the patient would talk and say that he was doing this on his own will and had asked Dr. Kevorkian to help him die. Unfortunately that didn't work either, and this doctor was once again placed in jail- he remained in jail after that and the act of performing euthanasia became illegal in the US.

I personally think that it wasn't the doctor's fault at all. God forbid (and I repeat that a million time), if someone I knew or love has a terminal illness- it will KILL me to let them die- BUT I will respect their wishes. Sometimes the patient is in soooooooo much pain- that they actually tell you they wanna die-plz let them die- they don't wanna be placed on machinery in order to stay alive. I'll be heart broken, but I'll have to respect their wishes, because as people have said before- if you continue to keep a loved one alive on machinery even after you see them in so much pain, and they tell you they wanna die- then you're just being selfish.

Someone I know just recently passed away one and half year ago due to Cancer. He was a father of 3 kids and when he found out he had cancer- he use to always say, "I’ll survive- I’ll fight back; I wanna be with my kids- I'll be healthy enough to see them grow up and on n on- This man had so much courage- he really wanted to live. He went through all that horrible pain and other medical procedures- for a whole year. However, there came a time when he, who always wanted to live and fight back- begged his wife to tell the doctors to let him die and stop the painful procedure.

- So I know it's a very hard thing to do when you gotta decide for your loved ones or whoever- but I personally believe that when the patient is in so much pain that they actually ask you to plz let them die peacefully without the pain- THEN you gotta respect their wishes

And as for if it's wrong or not- Only Allah (Swt) knows best-!

Compelty wrong

Nobody wants to be miserable. I am all for phsyician assisted suicide but i guess its not that simple. How many patients did you come across who were in pain and yet not depressed? Not many! All these patients need emotional and psychological support.
It seems unfair to force a person to live when he no longer wishes to and yet inhuman to help somebody die.
I guess there should be a panel of doctors and psychiatrists who decide whether a patient is a candidate for euthanasia or not .....
In the end, i'd rather ask somebody to help me die than lead a life full of misery and dependency.
But the question is ... what about patients like Terri Schiavo who didn't have the time to decide? Who decides for them?

Tahmina,
Ok I completely lost you- WHAT SIDE ARE YOU ON? lolz you say one thing...well first you wrote that it's completely wrong...and then you end up saying that you'd rather ask someone to help you die than suffer...sooo ur really not making too much sense- not to be rude or anything. You also said that doctors and psychiatrists should decide whether a patient is a candidate for eutanasia--who gave them the right to decide then? Doctors have no right to decide that- they just gotta treat the patient. The right should only be given to the patient or close family of the patients. Which leads me to the story of Terri- Her husband decided for her because lawfully he had the right over his wife after his wife herself. In other words- first the patient gotta decide, if for whatever reason the patient is unable to...then the spouse of the patient is given that right- if not them then the parents (or perhaps its the kids)- but I think it's parents and then kids and then siblings- or may be it's spouse, kids, parents, and then siblings- something like that, but the spouse is defn. next in line after the patient.- that's how it is in the U.S. That's why Terri's husband decided and he actually said that his wife had told him from before that she didn't wanna be placed on machinery.

Well, i believe its not as simple as a straight do-it-or-dont-do-it situation. One person (like a husband) can be biased, might not be aware of the medical outcomes/situation.
And i think i said quite candidly that i am all for it but at the same time we should try to understand why people are against it. There is more to it than what you see.....
But i guess you are one of those people who can only see one side of the pic and believe that what they think is right!
And yes you sounded quite rude.... learn to argue without being rude .... that's the quality of a good speaker and a leader
PS> @moazzma.... its tEhmina and not tAhmina... :-S

LOLZ--aaahh no, you haven't seen me being rude yet-
I am not those types of people who just see one part of the picture and stick to it- Rehan had asked how we feel and what's our opinion - so mostly when people give their opinion they choose a side. Even when you write a paper or try to persuade someone, you usually don't say "ohhh yea this is correct--but that can also be correct, and this is true but also this...etc." if you talk like that, there's a good chance people will ignore you. That’s like you saying, “Oh I am a Muslim, but I eat pork, and I drink”- Eh, sorry to bust your bubble but it doesn’t work like that. You can't always be here and there in life- you gotta choose a side and a stand. When you're making a statement or an opinion, you gotta back it up with good facts and answers- and I know I did that.

I asked you to clarify your response because it was unclear to me. And I did say earlier that I am not trying to be rude- I just felt your response was a bit unclear. Now if you thought it was rude, even when I specifically mentioned that I am not trying to be rude...then you got some temper issues- take some anger management classes. May be you got too much stress it's ok...I understand.

And yes I know it's not Tahmina...it's Tehmina...I noticed that after I finished writing my response- but didn't find it too important to go back and edit it.

hahaha that's funny. You tell her Mo, these paki's take things to the heart. Ya need to learn to chill. The girl asked for a clarification of your unclear comment , don't gotta have a heart attack ya know...what I mean? lol Naahh ya probably don.t :twisted:
Ya wanna see rudeness, we'll show u rudeness BRONX STYLE- don't hate and don't mess.

By the way, I agree that if the patient asks to die because of too much pain, as moazzma mentioned, then we should let them. And if the patient isn't able to say anything, then the spouse or the relative next in line decides. usually the patient has told his/her spouse from before to what extent they want the treatment. That's my opinion, and that's how it is in the USA, Tehmina/tahmina you got a problem with it, ya let me know

these paki's take things to the heart


y is it that pakistanis living in the US feel that they're somehow superior to those that are still in pakistan ....

lolz @ saqib- you crack me up , let it go yaar.

and Sohaib, we don't feel that way- but when someone starts something for no reason, when i specifically said, "i'm not trying to be rude" then that person needs to learn to chill.
Whether you agree or not, girls living in Pakistan are the ones, actually, who feel they are really superior and can get their freaking attitudes. Well it might work on the boys in Pakistan- but no way in hell is it working here.

i guess u'll see more of the 'freakin attitudes' once ur in the pakland :wink:

@ Moazzma- lolz that was funny yaar.at least we both agree that we understood what she meant a little late, but that ****** rudeness got to go

@Sohaib- moazzma and I have been to Pakistan many times to visit and we have seen all their attitudes. Because of that reason I have ended up hating going back to Pakistan, but she still loves to.

i would still say that our judgements shudnt be based on the actions of few members of a group/nationality/religion ....

Yea, you're absolutely right about that. we can't blame our country, religion, race etc. due to the actions of some of its people.

And yea saqib, we didn't get what she meant due to some "technical problems" lolz as we defined it in class :wink: LOLZ so it was half our fault- so Tehmina we are apologizing for that...but we still stand true for everything else that was mentioned in our previous comments about you.