4 ms·

> The front-runner in the one-way journey to Switzerland is a New Zealander whom Nitschke has known for years. She’s not terminally ill, but is becoming increas

> The front-runner in the one-way journey to Switzerland is a New Zealander whom Nitschke has known for years. She’s not terminally ill, but is becoming increasingly disabled by macular degeneration – something she finds intolerable after a lifetime of reading for pleasure. I am not so sure society is ready to embrace commercial euthanasia for non-fatal, non-painful diseases. Should someone with age related deafness be offered euthanasia because they find not being able to listen to music intolerable. Or how about a former runner with hip and knee problems?

sokoloff 7y ago
Why ought people not be able to request their own euthanasia? It seems like that's the ultimate form of self-determination. (I'm all for reasonable controls around it to ensure that it's a properly considered decision and not done on a whim or in an acute bout of feeling poorly, but I don't think that it needs a societally acceptable explanation, just a consistent, considered choice by the patient.)
- defined 7y ago
  And from the article: "But I know what I don’t want. I don’t want to be stuffed full of tubes with doctors hovering over me, pleased with themselves for keeping my heart beating for another five minutes, eking out every last painful second. That, to me, is dystopia.” My feelings exactly.
PeterisP 7y ago
Well, one could argue that quality of life is quite subjective and who better to judge that than the person themselves? Quoting the article, "Then came the elective death in May 2018 of Nitschke’s friend, the 104-year-old botanist David Goodall, who refused to declare any serious condition beyond being “tired of life”" - there's a precedent there.
shantly 7y ago
I don't want to go so far as saying that alone would make me consider suicide, but I was effectively deaf for a little over a week once in college with a sinus infection—mine, which I never even had one of until college so was unacquainted with at the time, get up to some weird shit with fair frequency, unfortunately. Even so, I could still kind-of hear, just not well enough to understand people most of the time, or enjoy music whatsoever (zero enjoyment possible, just a muted mess), or tell how loudly I was talking (I ended up being way too quiet, mostly, I gather). I felt significantly cut off from everything and everyone around me. It was pretty fucking bad, and I'm not even unusually into music or anything like that. I'd have said being blind was 100% for sure worse than being deaf before that. Now? Hell, I don't know anymore. Blind's probably still worse, but deaf was awful. Either plus any one other significant problem and I bet I'd be giving... options some serious thought.

sokoloff 7y ago

Why ought people not be able to request their own euthanasia? It seems like that's the ultimate form of self-determination. (I'm all for reasonable controls around it to ensure that it's a properly considered decision and not done on a whim or in an acute bout of feeling poorly, but I don't think that it needs a societally acceptable explanation, just a consistent, considered choice by the patient.)

defined 7y ago
And from the article: "But I know what I don’t want. I don’t want to be stuffed full of tubes with doctors hovering over me, pleased with themselves for keeping my heart beating for another five minutes, eking out every last painful second. That, to me, is dystopia.” My feelings exactly.

PeterisP 7y ago

Well, one could argue that quality of life is quite subjective and who better to judge that than the person themselves? Quoting the article, "Then came the elective death in May 2018 of Nitschke’s friend, the 104-year-old botanist David Goodall, who refused to declare any serious condition beyond being “tired of life”" - there's a precedent there.

shantly 7y ago

I don't want to go so far as saying that alone would make me consider suicide, but I was effectively deaf for a little over a week once in college with a sinus infection—mine, which I never even had one of until college so was unacquainted with at the time, get up to some weird shit with fair frequency, unfortunately. Even so, I could still kind-of hear, just not well enough to understand people most of the time, or enjoy music whatsoever (zero enjoyment possible, just a muted mess), or tell how loudly I was talking (I ended up being way too quiet, mostly, I gather). I felt significantly cut off from everything and everyone around me. It was pretty fucking bad, and I'm not even unusually into music or anything like that. I'd have said being blind was 100% for sure worse than being deaf before that. Now? Hell, I don't know anymore. Blind's probably still worse, but deaf was awful. Either plus any one other significant problem and I bet I'd be giving... options some serious thought.