介绍:
A terminally ill cancer patient has moved to Portland, Oregon for doctor assisted suicide and scheduled her death for November 1st.. 29 year old Brittany Maynard, who moved to Oregon has stage 4 brain cancer and claims that choosing to take her own life is a far better option than succumbing to her illness.
Oregon is one of five States in America that offers legal protection to terminally ill patients wishing to end their suffering. The 'die with dignity act' was introduced in 1997 and recipients of prescriptions tailored to be fatal once ingested, has been on the rise since.
The subject of assisted suicide has been heavily debated as several countries have pushed to legalise it. In Canada, the issue is set to be brought to the Supreme Court next week. Meanwhile, an online poll has shown that around 84% of Canadians support assisted death, with great support coming from Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
however, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has voiced his opposition to the issue claiming that he is skeptical about the measures proposed in legalizing assisted suicide.
Other countries that have legalized assisted death include Switzerland, Germany, Colombia, Japan and the US states of Washington, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico and Montana.
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(JA) Gordon 7X from the globeandmail.com comments
I have seen many people in their last days of life, most of them dying from cancer. Their only cure was death. Near the end they lose awareness of their surroundings and their faculties to see or hear. You can tell they're in extreme pain. There's nothing peaceful or restful about people dying from cancer. That is what death looks like by "natural" causes. Where "you" and your awareness go in that last hour and beyond is really a matter for you and nobody else.
(QD) Malcolm ctvnews.ca comments
Death with dignity - not just for those with terminal illness or in severe pain who choose to die but also those who have lost their dignity and depend entirely upon others for their every need - and who have decided that its time to end their mental and physical suffering - it is their decision and we should be able to help them.
(FA) Glynn from dailymail.co.uk comments
Stupid idea started off with just allowing the terminally sick, went on to the elderly on from there anyone who wants to die.. It's disgusting and wrong, I don't care less what others say about it.
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Notes:
• Oregon is one of five states with legal protections for terminally ill patients who want to end their suffering.
• On October 27, 1997 Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act which allows terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose. The Oregon Death with Dignity Act requires the Oregon Health Authority to collect information about the patients and physicians who participate in the Act, and publish an annual statistical report.
• Since it was enacted in 1997, 1,173 people in the state have had prescriptions written for lethal medications. Only 752 of them have used the drugs to die as of 2013.
• More than three quarters of Canadians in a new online poll supported doctor-assisted suicide, as the issue heads the Supreme Court next week.
• Nearly 90 per cent of Nova Scotians and British Columbians in the survey agreed with the statement. More men agreed with it than women.
• The assisted suicide poll was commissioned by Canadian charity Dying with Dignity. It was conducted online by Ipsos, a market research company, which surveyed more than 2,500 Canadians between August 21 and 29.
• In March this year, the Prime Minister restated his opposition to assisted suicide, saying he is concerned that people will be unfairly pressurised to kill themselves if the law is weakened.
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(JA) mynameispatchon from youtube.com comments
Don't doctors have to take the hypocratic oath? If you want to die, don't drag the doctors into it. they are supposed to save lives, not take them. This is flat out wrong on many levels.What is the difference if she is hanging or convulsing from a drug? She is still dead at the end of the day
(QD) jhsass from theglobeandmail.com comments
The assistance of a physician to short circuit the pain and agony during the end of life process is neither "assisted suicide" or "euthanasia". These terms are being bandied about by opponents of death with dignity to stigmatize compassionate treatment of terminally ill and suffering human beings. It appears this dwindling minority will stop at nothing to force dying individuals to endure the maximum amount of pain and suffering.
(FA) Gord from ctvnews.ca
Frankly, this issue is not for the politicians, religious leaders or even the families to decide. I watched my father die, slow and painful, it took six days the last two were horrible and a disgusting end of life for a good man, I also have put down several beloved pets, calm, peaceful. Both my father and the pets were never coming back from their illnesses, the difference my father had to suffer right up to his last breath, the dogs never suffered at all.
