Dignitas [Switzerland]

[Meryl]

How do you feel about having control over the way you depart your life, if you are suffering with a terminal illness?  I've watched loads of documentaries about so called assisted suicide.  Do you think it should be legal in all countries?  Do you think Dignitas is a good thing? Do you think we all have the right to end our lives if we are suffering? Do you think family members should be prosecuted for helping us on our way?

Empathy, compassion.....or murder?  I see it as empathy and compassion.  The rules are so strict.  Does anyone think this decision is easy?  Any decision made, soley depends on the patient involved.  Nobody wants their loved ones to suffer...but everyon wants their loved ones to pass peacefully.

Prayers to anyone making this hard decision.

[wildmaven]

After almost 4 decades in healthcare, I believe it is not only ethical to allow a patient who is suffering to die, it is our duty as human beings to allow them to pass with grace. So many times, I have seen the pain with no end, watched a person fold inward because their body has betrayed them, witnessed the indignities that those individuals have to endure again and again, and it breaks my soul into tiny fragments. When patients look up into my eyes, their own pleading with me, and then they say, "I just want to die," or, "can you help me die,' those moments are etched into my heart.

[Patrick [ASE]]

The question i have for people who don't think it right is "why then is it ok to put an animal down that's in pain, but not a human >"

My mother had canccer of the spine that spread to her brain, she was in a lot of pain and hospitalised, we sat by her bed watching her in agony, the nursing staff could only increase her morphine enough to reduce the pain
We had been there just about all day and were hungry, as we left the hospital i mentioned to the sister "if only euthenasia was legal", 
After food we were just leaving the house and got 'the call', mother had passed away
After the visit i turned to that sister and said 'thank you' in a relieved voice, by the look on her face i think they just edged the morphine over the line which i was thankful for..

I do not want to see anyone suffer like that, and hope my family don't go through the same thing when it's my time.

[MzPanik]

I'm all for helping someone pass if they are past the point of no return with their health. You're doing them no favors to prolong the inevitable.