Tony Scott's suicide makes me wish we'd revisit Physician assisted suicides

[LynneSin]

Clearly Tony Scott realized that he only had months to live (he had inoperable brain cancer). Should any person in a position where they know their life only has months left to live have the choice to end their life in a humane manner instead of suffering until the end.

I think what Tony Scott did was pretty drastic (he jumped off a bridge) but in this country there aren't many other choices other than to suffer until the end and hope there is plenty of pain killers available.

I'm sure all of us have horror stories of watching loved ones slowly decay over time because they were in the late stages of cancer or some other deliberating disease. Shouldn't these people be allowed to plan how they want to gracefully exit this world instead of made to suffer until the end (and put loved ones thru the same watching someone die just a little bit more each day).

WIthout a doubt some checks & balances need to be made to ensure that there are no other options. But I think someone has the right to say I'm done let's do this the right way. And this should be something that the patient decides, not family members who might have other motives in seeing someone die quickly.

Thoughts?

[Vincardog]

1. I suggest a bottle of Tylenol and a bottle of Jack Daniels be required in every hospice room.

[Brickbat]

2. Agreed. I've had older people in my family say, "When I get to X, put me in front of a truck," where

X = some kind of uncurable malady. The problem is, the conversation has to end there because there is no realistic way to ensure that those wishes are fulfilled.

K&R.

[Lasher]

3. I've been thinking the same thing.

I wouldn't let a pet suffer like some humans do. I think suicide should be seen as the last privilege.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

4. My thoughts exactly. nt

[Auntie Bush]

10. +1000

[AtomicKitten]

5. Agreed. There has to be a better way to do it.

[Gregorian]

6. The injection of reliigion in politics.

I can't say much more than that. It just feels like so much of the trouble we experience is due to some ideological/hypothetical stuff injected into politics.

Why not just have laws for the living reality.

[LadyHawkAZ]

7. We treat animals better than we treat sick people

because animals aren't such a fantastic source of revenue. If there was no profit in keeping the terminally ill alive to the very last dollar, there wouldn't be a debate over assisted suicide.

[Warren DeMontague]

8. The bottom line is, the individual's body doesn't belong to "God", or the state, it belongs to the

Individual.

Period.

The war on drugs, the war on reproductive choice, the war on consenting adult same-sex relationships and equal rights, the war on consenting adult porn, the fact that people in pain often can't get adequate pain management because their doctors are afraid of the DEA, and the inexcusable fact that terminally ill people CAN'T, in most places, choose a dignified exit on their own terms.. all these relate back to this asshole authoritarian mindset -often, but not always driven by religion- which makes some people think they are entitled to tell other people how to run their lives.

[cbdo2007]

9. There are plenty of ways to kill yourself on your own.....

don't know why you need for it to be glorified and advertised. It isn't "graceful" no matter how it's done, whether it's jumping off a bridge or having someone inject you with something. Just my opinion and yes I've seen numerous family members suffer painfully to the end, just like people have for millions of years.

[edhopper]

11. Religion continues to

fuck up this country.
From the comments of Todd Akin to the embargo on assisted suicide because some think it is a "sin before God"
We live in the 16th Century in many ways.