'Locked-in syndrome' man right-to-die case starts

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

A place to start a right-to-die debate. What is the leftisit position? I support it, always have. I saw Nicklinson being interviewed and it broke my heart, he kept crying and he seemed so desperate and miserable (it was awful when he said pro-lifers had been harassing and lecturring him via twitter).

A High Court hearing is beginning in the case of a paralysed man who wants a doctor to be able lawfully to end his life.
The right-to-die case involves Tony Nicklinson, 58, from Wiltshire, who has locked-in syndrome following a stroke.
He is unable to take his own life and is seeking legal protection for any doctor who helps him end his life.
But the Ministry of Justice argues making such a ruling would authorise murder and change the law governing it.
The married father-of-two had a stroke in 2005 while on a business trip to Athens.
He was left paralysed, but with a fully-functioning mind.
The condition, known as locked-in syndrome, means he has to communicate through a special computer.
Mr Nicklinson has argued that his life is "dull, miserable, demeaning, undignified and intolerable".
His legal action was launched to seek an assurance that a doctor could intervene to end his "indignity" and have a common law defence of necessity against any murder charge.
His paralysis is so severe that he cannot be assisted in taking his own life, for instance by swallowing lethal drugs. He would have to be killed by someone else.

(More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18495973 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18495973))

[roy]

very sad. as far as the leftist position goes (insofar as revleft anyway), i dont think anyone outside OI would oppose this.

[Dean]

One aspect that has to be considered is the potential for exploitation. Allowing consumers to make self-destructive choices, even though there are cases where it is in their interest to commit suicide, nevertheless opens the potential for exploitative practices in which economic conditions can compel people to seek assisted suicide while practitioners profit.

I don't view this as simply a moral issue - obviously, people should be ultimately dictating the conditions of their lives. But when people aren't, such as within a capitalist paradigm, approving these kinds of requests can be allow coercion to drive people to self-destruction.

[MuscularTophFan]

I support it. It's gotta be really sad for someone to reach a point in their life where they want to take their own life. I can understand if someone is really sick and needs to take their own life when they are suffering. My own mother told me she tired to slit her wrists because she was so sad because of her throat cancer.

As for myself I don't know if I could take my own life. I could never kill anyway let alone kill myself.

[The Red Hammer and Sickle]

In my opinion this is like taking someone off life support, if nothing else can be done to help the patient then it is the only reasonable thing to do. He even said he didn't like his life, so in my opinion, he should be allowed to die.

[Aristocles]

One aspect that has to be considered is the potential for exploitation. Allowing consumers to make self-destructive choices, even though there are cases where it is in their interest to commit suicide, nevertheless opens the potential for exploitative practices in which economic conditions can compel people to seek assisted suicide while practitioners profit.

I don't view this as simply a moral issue - obviously, people should be ultimately dictating the conditions of their lives. But when people aren't, such as within a capitalist paradigm, approving these kinds of requests can be allow coercion to drive people to self-destruction.

But the conclusion of this line of reasoning is that if legalizing assisted suicide in a capitalist medical system is a significant enough moral hazard, we are stuck telling the incurably and painfully ill 'welp, looks like you'll just have to wait for the revolution, because there's no way we can do this now without running the risk of exploiting you.'

Well, maybe not that bad, but you get the idea. I'm usually not a 'truth in the middle' type but in this particular case I think it's probably possible, if we're very careful, to set up a system of checks and safeguards, immediately and under our current system, to make sure the path to assisted suicide is open but also as free as possible from any exploitation of the sort we're afraid of.