Medical assisted suicide

[A.R.Amistad]

Do you support a painless and consensual medically assisted suicide program for people who have excruciating and fatal illnesses? Is it ethical and acceptable to have, on hand, a type of lethal injection that patients under certain and very specific circumstances can choose to have their life ended?

[mikelepore]

To me this is an easy question. I don't think it's meaningful to consider whether it's ethical "to have" or "to give"; it's only meaningful to consider whether its ethical "to do." The usual test applies: is anyone violating the enumerated rights of someone else? I see nothing unethical here.

Further, I wouldn't limit the situation to "excruciating and fatal illnesses." Anyone who decides that they have already lived long enough, for any reason, has the right to die, assuming that there is no specific evidence that a mental illness has prevented the capacity to make careful decisions. If this were not true, then your body would have to be government property in general.

[Sasha]

what he ^ said.