With the discussion of whether assisted dying should be allowed in Scotland befing brought up again, I was wondering what other people thought of the topic.

Do you think people should be allowed to choose when to end their own life?

What laws need to be put into place to prevent abuses in the system?

How do we account for people changing their mind or mental decline causing people to no longer be able to consent to a procedure they previously requested?

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[–] Geek_King@lemmy.world 63 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It bothers me that in the U.S., we extend that courtesy to pets who are suffering from terminal issues. But we expect loved ones to hang on and suffer for no real reason other then the vague notion that the imaginary sky man would disapprove.

My grandma passed away 2 months shy of her 101st birthday. I visited her a few weeks before she passed, she was gaunt, skeletal, couldn't see us and was reacting to hallucination caused by their body slowly shutting down. She didn't even know my Mom and I were even there, and when we told her her daughter was there to see her, she said "No, I don't believe it" while staring blanking into the corner of the room. She wasn't suffering from dementia, it was cancer that came back which was killing her. What reason would we not allow a loved pet to suffer though that, but a blood relative, hell yeah, let them lay and suffer for weeks, months, years.

I don't have any grand ideas on how to prevent abuse, I just think it's humane to not let a thinking being suffer needlessly.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 23 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's the same for the young end of the spectrum, I've seen lots of kids and adults who were born with a bad disability to be permanently wheelchair bound unable to care for themselves or even communicate. But "they were breathing on their own when they came out, so we can't do anything about it now" because sky daddie might be mad

And then ofc the whole stress added onto the parents who will have to primarily care for the child for the rest. Of. Their. Lives.

[–] MisshapenDeviate@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I think a legitimate concern for that one is what do you define as a disability worth terminating the baby's life for. Some would likely abuse it for eugenics.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Good investment and R&D for better early pregnancy testing would be a good start, if we can accurately predict disabilities early enough for an abortion it would head off a lot of issues later on

But for post birth disabilities, yea, but it's hard to even have that conversation because many would just shut the conversation down entirely with "life is life" or some BS like that

[–] Ultragigagigantic@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

If life is life... why do I have to pay a monthly tribute to a labded lord? I thought my life is sacred!

[–] DessertStorms@kbin.social -5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

if we can accurately predict disabilities early enough for an abortion it would head off a lot of issues later on

That literally already is eugenics.
And the fact that you consider people advocating that disabled lives have just as much value as abled lives as "BS" tells me you really don't care, because even if you won't admit it, you are a eugenicist.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago

^ see, found one already lmao

Yea no, to cross the line into eugenics the state or other authority needs to mandate that X or Y disabilities need to be aborted even over the objections of the parents

Simply giving the parents and their doctors the tools and legalities to detect and come to their own decisions, is not

[–] JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee -3 points 7 months ago

Agreed!

[–] snooggums@midwest.social 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Not being able to live without any assistance and no hope of improving seems like a reasonable criteria. In fact, with that criteria they can remove the assistance and let the child (or adults) suffocate and die right now, but they can't use drugs to ease the suffering and speed up the process or it is 'murder'.

There are many things we can put in place to mitigate the concerns about eugenics, like requiring two doctor's to agree that it is appropriate in addition to consent of family/guardians/other legally responsible persons.