Back story:
http://www.kctv5.com/...aynard-takes-her-own-life

So is this something we, as a society, should allow or not allow? Is it the persons decision or in the hands of god?

Evidently, which i had no idea, Oregon allows this.

I really have no issue with it. The death that she had coming from the cancer was terminal and apparently painful. I am sure at some point too with the brain cancer she would start having dementia. Why suffer through that? I cannot answer about God because I am Pagan. So that part of the convo I will leave out. I believe in reincarnation, so as far as I am concerned her soul will be back.

This has been an ongoing debate in Canada with the courts not really ruling decisively for/against and the government not really wanting to touch the subject recently.

Speaking from first hand experience, there are instances where I would unequivocally support a persons right to die. There are cases where you simply suffer more and more agony until you die with pretty much no hope of improvement. If you are lucky you might have a sympathetic doctor who simply ups your morphine slowly until you "od" on it..
Should we be very careful about when this type of thing is allowed? absolutely.

Back to that: even if suicide is "illegal".. what are they going to do to you if you are successful really... The laws are really intended to protect people with mental illness not to enforce some religious purpose.

I can agree with all that Martian. I think its ok for someone in that situation of a lot of suffering and an almost certain outcome (death). I will say that crazy things have happened when someone said you have no chance and end up pulling through, not saying that was even close to the case here.

How would it affect life insurance?

Having made a decision to take a family member off of life support in the past, as well as having one of my grandmothers succumb to alzheimers.. I fully support a person's right to die. Like abortion, it's something that everyone should be able to decide on their own.

Want to live as long as you are able to, even if it's in a coma - sure, go ahead. Want to be able to end your life as a result of medical issues at a point you decide, sure, go ahead.

Everyone reading this post, I urge you to implement a living will, as well as make directives for your end of life care. It'll save a whole bunch of legal hassle for you and your loved ones, as well as prevent someone you care about from having to make a decision as to whether or not to pull life support - and after, wondering if they've made the choice that you would've wanted them to make on your behalf.

The whole equation comes down to Quality of Life versus Quanity of Life.. everyone's going to have their own feelings on the matter thus the decision should come down to each individual person.

I am fully in support of a person having the right to end their own life when it is based on a medical issue where death is imminent.

The part that scares me is the shady things that could go along with this:
a doctor diagnosing someone with a fatal disease to coax them into killing themselves, only the person is perfectly health and has something the doctor wants, like organs, or money, or whatever or someone who has "power of attorney" over someone and having them killed off because they have the legal right to do so.

The laws allowing this should prevent abuse of this power.

And the few ideas that I am afraid of should not prevent people from being able to use this power for themselves.

Oregon and, I think, one other place in the US allow doctor assisted suicide. Look up Dr Jack Kevorkian.

I may be biased, having been raised in Oregon, but I'm all for it. I'd be willing to support having a second or third, non-biased, opinion involved to make sure everything is legit, but if it's all clear, why not?

Jack Kevorkian went to jail didn't he. I'm fine with euthanasia for the terminally ill but Dr. Kevorkian was kinda gross

yeah from the wikipedia entry, this is horrifying if true:

According to a report by the Detroit Free Press, 60% of the patients who committed suicide with Kevorkian's help were not terminally ill, and at least 13 had not complained of pain. The report further asserted that Kevorkian's counseling was too brief (with at least 19 patients dying less than 24 hours after first meeting Kevorkian) and lacked a psychiatric exam in at least 19 cases, 5 of which involved people with histories of depression, though Kevorkian was sometimes alerted that the patient was unhappy for reasons other than their medical condition.

The report also stated that Kevorkian failed to refer at least 17 patients to a pain specialist after they complained of chronic pain, and sometimes failed to obtain a complete medical record for his patients, with at least three autopsies of suicides Kevorkian had assisted with showing the person who committed suicide to have no physical sign of disease. Rebecca Badger, a patient of Kevorkian's and a mentally troubled drug abuser, had been mistakenly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The report also stated that Janet Adkins, Kevorkian's first patient, had been chosen without Kevorkian ever speaking to her, only with her husband, and that when Kevorkian first met Adkins two days before her assisted suicide he "made no real effort to discover whether Ms. Adkins wished to end her life," as the Michigan Court of Appeals put it in a 1995 ruling upholding an order against Kevorkian's activity.[20] According to The Economist: "Studies of those who sought out Dr. Kevorkian, however, suggest that though many had a worsening illness ... it was not usually terminal. Autopsies showed five people had no disease at all. ... Little over a third were in pain. Some presumably suffered from no more than hypochondria or depression."[21]

She felt she was beating the cancer the only way she could.

I watched my sister-in-law battle breast cancer the second time for 18 months (after beating it 5 years before that) and many times she asked to be allowed to die. She was not a religious person, but blamed God for her suffering. Her family now blames God for her death.

No one can know what it is like for someone who is fighting or who's loved one is fighting a terminal disease and they should be allowed any option.

Personally I don't know that I could make that choice due to religious beliefs.

i might have to move to Oregon in a few years. don't really trust the people around here. they probably throw me on life support forever just so they can bilk the government out of billions and spend it on bimbos. crazy Demoncrats.

worry about it after society quits killing each other. then maybe they'll know enough about what they should allow.