[Jerrek]

Originally Posted by scastle

So, while I do agree that killing someone is actually murder (can't really disagree, that is a legal definition), I will say that Euthanasia is quite a different subject from assisting somebody who is depressed to commit suicide.

Well yes, duh, we did say that assisted suicide and euthanasia are different...

I also can understand the father's reasons for doing it (assuming the boy's life was bad).

Of course, just like I can see the reason a thief would have to murder the witness. It doesn't change the outcome: someone is dead, someone who may NOT have wanted to be dead.

I find it extremely ironic that all the people that are willing to commit murder, not knowing for sure that the person wants to die, yet the same folks argue against the death penalty because an innocent person may be executed.

Jerrek, can I ask, have you ever watched a member of your family suffer with a terminal Cancer (or any terminal condition)? If you had watched somebody die slowly, and extremely painfully, you may not have such a black and white view of Euthanasia.

Actually, yes I have seen "somebody." It still didn't bring murderous thoughts up in my mind. NAh. I'm just not a murderer.

Originally Posted by Mick

I grew up together with our family dog, Lassie, she was like a sister to me, but the time came when, she could not walk, if she could she would be yelping in pain. She was losing weight rapidly, I knew she was in discomfort, because never in the 15 years of her life did she ever snarl at me, as if 'don't touch me please.'

I was losing the dog, I loved and grew up with and towards the end she was not the same dog. A friend had to take her to be put down, I didn't want to her go but I also did not want to see her carry on, suffering. The friend returned with her lead and I cleaned out her food bowl for the last time and said my goodbyes, Suffer no more, my girl.

The moral of the story, why should it be any different to a human being suffering in the same consequencies especially when you know time is limited?

Sometimes anticipation of death is worse than death itself.

Somehow equating a human being with a soul to a dog, an animal, seems ... unjustified. You can shoot a dog and not be charged with murder because animals do not have rights. Humans, however, do, and you have no right to make that decision for someone.

Originally Posted by Pierre

What if the person in question is unable to request to be taken out of his misery?

You would condem him to a life of pain and misery?

Would you take the risk to murder a person that there was a chance he didn't want to die? I find it disturbing you're willing to gamble with people's lives like that.

Think: What is the reason for you murdering that person? Because you feel sorry for yourself to SEE that person like that, or because you think that person would want to die? Or perhaps it is because YOU would want to die if you were in a situation like that? Can you be 100% confident when you take it upon yourself to sentence that person to death?