Depressing/ Suicide

[Big Sarge]

I say it is a personal decision. No one should try to make you feel guilty if you decide your quality of life is no longer worth it.

[limey]

Originally Posted by Big Sarge

I say it is a personal decision. No one should try to make you feel guilty if you decide your quality of life is no longer worth it.

And if your daughter was thinking of making such a decision?


Sent by thought transference

[Big Sarge]

Originally Posted by limey

And if your daughter was thinking of making such a decision?


Sent by thought transference

It's my job as a parent to give her a guilt trip

[xoxoxoBruce]

“Suffering is one very long moment. We cannot divide it by seasons. […] For us there is only one season, the season of sorrow. […] Where there is sorrow there is holy ground. Some day people will realize what that means. They will know nothing of life till they do.”

Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, 1895

[it]

Originally Posted by limey

And if your daughter was thinking of making such a decision?


Sent by thought transference

Then you go oh noes that's unthinkable and she learns the space with which she can communicate her thoughts isn't by you. A more problematic question is: Could she be right? What if she is suffering so much that her quality of life really isn't worth while living and she truly has no reasonable cause for hope to improve it to a point where it would be? If you loved someone, and they where really in that state of suffering, would you want them too continue living just for you?

IMO The key word which makes this such a difficult line is what counts as "reasonable"....

To the example I gave before - sure, it's possible they would have invented the cure for parkinsons right on time and my uncle would have been in the first test batch - or... Aliens.. But it's not likely - it's not a reasonable cause for hope.
On the opposite extreme, If his daughter is 16yo and just had her heart broken for the first time, the chances she'll recover are pretty close to 100%, if she doesn't it's more likely to be because an asteroid has hit earth then because of the heartbreak itself.
Those examples are pretty black and white, but there' a whole spectrum in between, and the closer it is to the middle the harder it would be to make sense of it.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by traceur

If you loved someone, and they where really in that state of suffering, would you want them too continue living just for you?

Christ, I see this with dog and cat owners all the freaking time. The fucking animal is miserable but they don't want to kill it because they will feel sad when it's dead, even though the grass hasn't grown over it's grave before they get a new one.

If they can't let go of a pet, they sure as shit aren't giving a pass to their family.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

...
If they can't let go of a pet, they sure as shit aren't giving a pass to their family.

This is where a good medical staff and counsellors earn their keep,
... helping family members let go and giving the dying permission.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yes, the "Death Panels" was a provision for doctors to spend time with elderly and terminally ill patients, explaining the possible end of life options. From do not resituate, to refusing life extending drugs/procedures, while they still are of sound mind. It's important because relatives will always choose save Uncle Willy, no matter how much Willy is suffering. Looking at the choices doctors choose for themselves, shows yes to pain killers and no to most everything else.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

...do not resituate...

You mean they should sit/lay in the same position all the time??? They can't move? Not even a little?

[it]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Yes, the "Death Panels" was a provision for doctors to spend time with elderly and terminally ill patients, explaining the possible end of life options. From do not resituate, to refusing life extending drugs/procedures, while they still are of sound mind. It's important because relatives will always choose save Uncle Willy, no matter how much Willy is suffering. Looking at the choices doctors choose for themselves, shows yes to pain killers and no to most everything else.

I don't know how I missed this, but somehow - until I noticed you calling these "death panels" - It never clicked in my mind that this was what the republicans were complaining about with the whole US public health policy thing a few years back.