re: Deaf Twins Going Blind Euthanized

Quoting Kayla [ ]♥:" I agree with it, but I'm not sure I agree with expanding it to dementia patients and children though."

Yea I don't agree with this part. An adult of sound mind should be allowed to make that choice for themselves though.

Quoting ☮ Phuket:" id probably want to die if i had demtntia.. depending on how long and how bad.. whos to say though. ... [snip!] ... whole young life might just want to give up. : ( like someone else said a mental eval. and counseling would probably be good"

I agree with not expanding it to children. Like you said, they haven't grasped what it means to live yet.

As far as dementia patients, though, I could see expanding physician assisted suicide to them. We have a long history of Alzheimer's in my family- my grandmother, her two twin brothers, their father, etc. Watching my grandmother slowly deteriorate and forget her life, her husband, her children, everything- it was so terrible, and not something I would wish on anyone. My mother has already been very explicit about if she gets the disease- she wants to be put in a nursing home and for us not to see her, visit her, anything. She says she doesn't want us to see her like that, and to have to go through what she went through watching her mother disappear before her. My uncle (mom's brother) says that if he gets it, he wants to go hunting and have an "accident" because he would never want to live like that. Why shouldn't they have a right to that choice?
My grandmother had moments of clarity. She was with my mom during one of them. She told her how proud she was of her, and how she had turned out to be a wonderful woman, wife and mother. She told her over and over again how sorry she was to be putting my mother through this disease, and how she wished it could all just be over so her family wouldn't have to suffer anymore.

I'm not sure what I think really. It would really help to know more of the situation. Helen Keller was deaf & blind & certainly didn't "not communicate". I get it. If I found out I was going blind & deaf I'd be terrified. I also couldn't say for sure I would be "suffering" until after it happened & I had actually experienced it. I may feel different but I actually know someone that happened to. It was vision first for him that got bad, then he went deaf, then the rest of his vision went (due to inoperable tumor). He went to the Helen Keller school & then got his degree at a local university. I realize not everyone will feel the way HE did about his situation...I am ONLY stating being blind & deaf doesn't mean useless nor unable to communicate. I see this very differently from other conditions where chronic debilitating pain or death are eminent. In this case I am hoping something more was wrong rather than it being them believing they'd be isolated - because that school is busy & MOST students are deaf & blind. Clearly - it isn't a life's over & you have to live in isolation thing. I just am not sure if you can know you would be in misery until it actually occurred. Look at Stephen Hawking. He has Lou Gherigs disease. It is considered fatal, usually in a few years or less. He progressed to the near fatal stage & then has stayed there. He was diagnosed in the 60's. He is considered the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein & has contributed so much to this world. Had he lost hope that his life could continue to be meaningful when he was told he had 2 yrs to live, he could have easily chosen to end it. That is where my conflict lies - what we think a situation might be like, versus the way it plays out.

I am all for choice in general, that is why this is hard for me. I want people to have choice, I also want them to have HELP so that death doesn't sound like the best choice. I don't know what options were made available to them so that their belief was that THIS was the best choice. Sine it says nothing else, i am basing this on the idea that the ONLY problems they had were the deafness & imminent blindness. If other issues are present/factors, I haven't seen that listed.

I do not agree with anyone else every being able to consent to euthanasia on behalf of another. I understand WHY we'd want to do that for someone who couldn't consent in certain situations...but it's way too close to being able to order a death for selfish or personal reasons, such as inheritance, relief of a burden, etc.

I support their choice. if they're consenting then its noones business but their own