Recently there were a number of stories in the news about a man who wanted the court to give him the right to die because he had locked in syndrome and felt trapped and unable to live resulting in him also becoming a burden upon his family from requiring constant care and attention as he was literally unable to do anything himself from being paralysed.
Now there are a number of ethical and moral implications to this case however I am not going to address everything but simply cover the main points and my beliefs on why the courts came to the decisions they did in not allowing him the right to take his own life (becuse he was unable to from his paralysed state this required the use of a medical proffessional, or family member) and he wanted permission to legally be assisted in this manner without the third party being prossecuted.
Ultimately the courts decided against this however this seems to contradict the fact that in hospitals you are able to sign DNR do not recussitate orders if you feel that you do not wish to be recussitated or held alive on machines yet if you are in such a state where you are unable to do anything but exist as a burden to others you are unable to choose to die. Of course the courts dont want to give doctors the right to decide who should live and who should die as this could open the floodgates to doctors deciding who is too far gone to save and put them down, but when it comes to an individual choosing they would do so anyway and this would be a more humane way of doing it.
As a result of losing the case he chose to take his own life by choosing not to eat, a slow and painful method of dying as opposed to being put to sleep and then having your life painlessly taken from you. With my belief system this is even more of a problem because people will state things which arent true to make things appear more palatable, like the papers put he passed away from natural causes as the headlines, yet he did not, he took his life by not eating, not a natural death, but a painful slow one of his choosing. Its much the same as people being hung pubically, they would state they are “dead” the instant they are released in the noose, but they are not, sure it would snap thier neck and paralyse them and they would be beyond saving, but it would take a while before death is ultimately achieved, and with the fact that the electrical impulses in the brain still exist for months after death who is to say if you arent still existing in there either in a dream state or in the moments of your death.
My beliefs are complicated because I know that in moments of danger and when you’re near death time does slow down, and also dying is incredibly painful while your organs shut down no matter what people say. And thats just going as far as Ive gone, who is to say that at the point of death and in those months of electrical impulses you arent stuck in those last moments of pain with time getting increasingly longer so that you feel that intense pain of every part of your body shutting down for eternity until your soul finally slips away into nothingness?
Is it more moral to let people have such painful experiences or let them choose to take thier own lives, the court simply didnt want responsibility over peoples lives, but the fact of the matter is they arent choosing, this guy still took his life, but in a much more painful and probably more upsetting method to his family watching him not eat and in pain rather than slipping away in a medically assisted manner.
I believe sometimes we value life too much and insist people should be saved at all costs even if they are unable to live or perform anything, keeping them in coma’s and locked in unable to do anything but see thier loved ones upset and unable to do anything for themselves. If people want to die they will find a way, if they choose to they should be allowed an pain free quick method of doing so rather than being forced to live in pain or take drastic methods themselves which could just result in bodily damage as opposed to actually dying, as so many people attemtp suicide and fail just damaging thier bodies rather than actually taking thier own life only to try again and again. Im not talking of course about those who cut themselves as that is more of a case that they enjoy the thrill or the attention but actual suicide attempts. Such as overdoses, suffocation attempts or attempts at cutting off the circulation to die (all of which are slow and painful and not reccommended to anyone who is reading this)
So my personal belief is that people should have the right to legally choose if they wish to die, they will attempt it anyway and this way it would save the medical profession attempting to save people who dont want to be saved and also provide a pain free option for these people.