That’s more a philosophical question. I don’t want the government endorsing this as an option. If the government is going to provide something, it should be mental healthcare, not a suicide booth.
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This girl was not ‘‘euthanized’’ by the Dutch govt. It was her decision. Stop telling fibs.
The goverment allowed the legal framework did it not? They may not have plunged the needle in but it was goverment that set up circumstances that lead to it. Whether inadvertently or not…it was failure of goverment that set the stage.
There is so many questions.
Jay asked a question, what is moral reason not to allow suicide…but yet we are being asked to turn to goverment for moral reasoning.
Always err on the side of life.
It should be mental healthcare, but who is gonna pay that?
It could be.
It could also be a quick of nature that caused a person to be born with an “anti-survival” instinct, perhaps?
Is living until nature takes you ALWAYS the more “high value” proposition?
Was Van Gogh’s life of any less value because he ended it himself (assuming the murder hypotheses aren’t true)?
What about Hemingway? Sylvia Plath? Virginia Woolf?
Some stars flame brightly and quickly burn out. Some feel life too strongly to bear living it.
Who are we to judge if that is a tragedy or not?
The difference is those you mention had lived. This girl never really had that opportunity.
We are always being asked to turn to government for moral guidance.
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As I stated in a post on the old forums, suicide is a deeply personal decision. Ultimately, we own our own life and bodies and each person should be absolutely free to end their life if they think that is the appropriate option.
There are, of course caveats and nothing is ever black and white, but infinite shades of gray
The girl here is 17 and the human brain is generally not fully developed until age 25 or 26, yet, different people show different levels of maturity at that age.
Was this girl mature enough to make this decision??? **** if I know, I don’t have any of the necessary facts to say.
However, clearly there are times when suicide is not only appropriate, but preferable to the alternative of continuing to exist. Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. Parkinson’s. Terminal cancer. Various neuromuscular diseases. I have seen quite a few instances of both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s what they do to the caregiver. Estates drained of money and spouses drained of energy and life attempting to care for a living corpse.
There have been several Alzheimer related suicides in my extended family and in the neighborhood. And I long ago have made the decision for myself that if I get the Alzheimer’s diagnosis, that will be it for me. Let my wife grieve me and move on, not suffer my slow death along with me.
However, not every person has the courage necessary to take their life unassisted. Some simply won’t have the necessary means. Some simply want assurances of a peaceful end, something they may not be assured of doing themselves.
That entails ensuring that third parties can provide the necessary service, without fear of legal ramifications. Of course, it should be well regulated, with a legal statement by the person that they are acting on their own will alone and not under coercion and assurances that the person is legally competent to make the decision.
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How long should one live to know they no longer want to?
This is pretty much where I am in my philosophy as well.
I don’t know if 17 is an age where such a momentous decision can be reliably made either but for each individual case, ■■■■ if I know that for sure either.
Freedom is messy.
I don’t like the mess, but can’t see how you can have one without the other.
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That’s not proper question IMO.
The question is whether one had a chance to live.
This girl wasn’t given that opportunity.
Maybe not but maybe she never would have no mattter how many years she physically existed.
We hear about suicide is cowards way out. But in my mind that goverment had taken the coward way out in this case.
Would you all agree?
This was a decision made by the Dutch people through their elected representatives in govt. It wasn’t some willy-nilly decision some mindless bureaucracy made up and passed into law one day.
Have you even bothered to look-up the history of the legalizing of it in Holland?
How do you know?
It looks like she thought this over for quite a long time and came to the decision of sound albeit young mind. What chance did she have? Endless hospitalizations, PTSD, depression. How many therapy sessions over how many years, how many medications to swallow, how many more things do you think she should have had to endure just so that she could live the way you think she ought to?
I knew someone that worked with rape victims at early age. She paired them up with a horse on the farm. Taught em how to ride…to start caring again.
There needs to be some programs out there that can help people like this girl. At least give em a fighting chance.
Seems like they never gave her that.
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Seems to me society taken the easy way out.
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This is how I feel about it also. Colorado has enacted physician assisted suicide, or aid in dying, whatever you want to call it. I’m very appreciative that we did, as I have no desire to drain my family’s resources while I waste away under morphine, or become unaware of who my family even is. And they have to watch that? Not for me.
Thats true, but again, who is going to pay for it? I don’t want to derail this subject because it’s a good one, and the dialog has been good.
