Shiara, on 03 June 2012 - 11:39 PM, said:
Aptorius, on 03 June 2012 - 03:00 PM, said:
Tapper, on 01 June 2012 - 10:04 AM, said:
Well Apt, I'm going to take some offense at the title of the topic, there's enough nasty shit and rumouring on the web and in politics (I'm looking at you, Santorum) surrounding euthanasia as a means for eugenetics and/or waste disposal to add to it here.
Nor do I really think they're stupid (well, they are - but the issue is just a total lack of remorse, manners, civility and sense of ownership mixed into a cocktail of infuriating ignorance and don't care attitude. But then, they're probably in puberty), tis probably more nurture than nature.
Basically, what goes around comes around. These stellar examples of society at its best are going to be someone's prison bitch someday if they don't reform quickly, which will be comeuppance enough.
What does annoy me about the interview is the emphasis placed on robbing a girl scout. It's theft, no matter from whom. Sure, it's cowardly to steal from a very young kid selling cookies, but if it were a hulking Iraq special forces veteran, would it be less bad?
I posted this in the Inn because I didn't really feel they were worthy of a real discussion on education, parenting or crime and punishment. It's one of those stories so sad you have to laugh at them.
And my statement that these people need to be euthanized was (mostly) a joke. But they are clearly completely devoid of empathy or moral integrity. These kids are spoiled or ignorant to the point of them being a danger to the people around them. How are you going to rehabilitate these two? Their parents have failed miserably. The state certainly can't afford to waste the effort. They look and sound like borderline sociopaths. You know they are going to end up in a jail sooner or later, that or they are going to be living in the projects or a trailer park and raise 12 equally dysfunctional children.
Personally I think euthanisia would probably be preferable to doing hard time in an American
rapefactory... sorry, I mean prison.
Is euthanasia not assisted suicide? You really think they'll go for that?
I'm sorry Shiara, but no, it isn't, not even in the shortest description of it. If that's how even intelligent people like you see it, there's a massive PR-problem surrounding the issue. I am very much biased in my defense of euthanasia (see below) and I know it is still very much under discussion in bio-ethics and philosophy, but I am kind of shocked that this is how people see it.
Euthanasia (from the greek combination of eu = good, and thanatos = death) is the ending of someone's life on their own request because they have lost the will to live and can personally confirm this (in cases of a coma, this may be grey territory, in which case, loved ones can request it but proof will be needed that this wasn't against the person's own beliefs - it isn;t merely a question of convenience, and euthanasia isn't applied, people are taken off life support instead), are in a hopeless medical situation (as confirmed by a medical specialist - aka, in the last stages of a terminal affliction that has been treated with all therapies available to medical science) and they are in unbearable pain without options to relieve that.
In other words: there are conditions attached to it that make euthanasia a dignified way out of life to spare someone further suffering, at best for a few days. Furthermore, the patient doesn't execute the euthanasia: a doctor does.
Here in the Netherlands, where euthanasia is (thankfully) legal, doctors can refuse to perform it - it is after all an exception to the Hippocratic oath, and you can't expect anyone to end someone elses life. It isn't also something that is casually handled: it's not something that can be done on the spur of the moment. Furthermore, the entire team of doctors and nurses that is present or worked with the patient in his final day is given time off and psychological aid and care should they wish to have it. So no, it is in no ways assisted suicide.
I've seen euthanasia being performed on my father, it might have saved him anywhere between 6-24 hours of suffering, no more - but it also saved him from a very undignified and painful death and allowed him to go quietly, dignified and in the presence of all his loved ones. The combination of those three factors, personally for me, was a massive, massive step in getting over his death. My mother had already agreed to a date and signed the relevant documents when she died herself, so in her case, it wasn't needed. As I said, it isn't suicide - it is merely artificially bringing about the inevitable during someone's final hours.
If it was anything other than that, it would be stepping into the territory of murder. Hell, there's plenty of people (likely also on this board) who already consider it murder, anyway.
This post has been edited by Tapper: 04 June 2012 - 09:00 AM
Everyone is entitled to his own wrong opinion. - Lizrad