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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

'Mercy killing' not part of law

'Mercy killing' not part of law: "An Old Bailey judge sums up in the trial of a mother accused of murdering her son who was brain-damaged in an accident."

This is very interesting in light of recent discussion in England in particular, and Europe in general. What do you think about it?

3 comments:

  1. If I stated, before something happened to me, that I wanted to be able to die with dignity, then I should be allowed to do just that. The law already allows for do not rescuitate orders to be inserted into a medical record.

    I can see how the argument applies to protect those without such orders in their medical records. I should be allowed to determine how my life ends. Personally, I want to die peacefully if ever in a vegetative state - not fed through a feeding tube.

    Let me go and have a great party. Im interested to see how others react. Thanks for the food for thought PD

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  2. Hey Dave. I affirm the desire to die with dignity. Your thoughts, I think I am hearing you rightly, fall more in line with the broader discussion. This article had very specific circumstances. I found it interesting the judge used the language of "mercy killing" in light of Brits going to Switzerland.

    I distinguish between "dying how you want to" and "do not resuscitate." If I may, what are your personal desires if something were to happen?

    This issues hits our family close to home due to my oldest sister's ongoing complications with MS. I suppose the comment section is not the proper place (at least in one single comment) to explain the full extent of my view.

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  3. If the law permitted it, I would want to simply receive an overdose of Versed and morphine...drift off to sleep and meet my maker.

    Jeremy Bentham said there should only be two kinds of crimes - those against other people and those against people's property - and all other things should be legal.

    In that setting, I (or anyone able to) should be able to set the parameters for my own demise, IF there were no other options and my death was coming forthwith.

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