What right does anyone else have to tell me how and when I must die?
There is no good reason for old people to be denied the right to die at a time and in a way of their own choosing.Euthanasia or assisted suicide for the elderly in declining mental and/or physical health should be available to anyone of sound mind whether or not they are suffering from a terminal illness or experiencing unbearable suffering.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide should not just be legal, they should be socially acceptable, even commendable, options for ending one's life. Suicide too, at least in the elderly, should be quite acceptable, so long as one has fulfilled whatever obligations one may have to the living, for example, to one's children.
The suicide of a young person in the grip of depression that may be treatable or may pass is plainly a very sad thing and a very different case to a carefully considered suicide of an old person (such as myself). While suicide might seem to be the best course to a young person for a time, it is very likely that conditions will change and the young person will go on to enjoy life for many years.
One of the objections to suicide has been based on religion; "God gives life and only God has the right to take away one's life".
Of course, not only is there no evidence for the existence of a God or gods, but the
whole basis of religion is absurd.
Yet the prohibition on suicide seems to have remained stuck in the minds of many; even of those people who have removed the god-delusion from their beliefs.
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Why should a humane death be denied to a human being when any other sort of death is unacceptable for a domestic animal or a pet? Allowing an animal to die slowly and miserably can even be a cause for a criminal conviction, and rightly so; yet we humans are often condemned to die very unpleasant and long drawn-out deaths when it could easily be otherwise.
It has been suggested that euthanasia or assisted suicide be available to the terminally ill and those who are experiencing unbearable suffering. I am suggesting that one or the other, or both, be available to any elderly person of sound mind who feels that death is more desirable than life. It is a life choice – the ultimate life choice – to which we all should have a right.
The burden of looking after more and more aged people is not just expensive for society, it makes life harder for young, working people who have to pay the necessary taxes. It is simplistic to say that "you can't put a price on a life"; our society puts a price on life all the time – for example when deciding how much to spend of making a road more safe or how much to spend on health care – it is right to do so; to not do so would cripple society with unsustainable taxes and costs.
So long as elderly people can look after themselves they do not place a great burden on society, but once they have to be looked after by others and/or they develop serious health problems, costs go up steeply. They should have the right to decide for themselves whether they want to continue living – whether their quality of life justifies continuing – and whether they want to be a burden to others. Certainly they should not be pressured into ending their lives, but the decision should be available to them. They should not feel bound by custom to wait until they 'die a natural death'.
A person who has been responsible for his or her own welfare and is accustomed to contributing to society suffers a loss of dignity when he becomes dependent on others and can no longer usefully contribute. He should not be forced to accept this loss of dignity and self respect.
At the time of writing this I was seventy years old. At the time I was fortunate enough to be reasonably fit and well. I could still contribute to society.
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Not only is there nothing ethically wrong with a person wanting to not burden others; it is commendable, it is simply altruism.
The world is grossly over-populated. Why force a person to live against their will when, again, they would be behaving in an altruistic way to end their life? To keep people alive when they would prefer to die is not only immoral, it is also cruel and absurd.
I am not advocating encouraging people to end their lives, but they should be given the option of doing so if they want to and there should be no stigma attached to ending your life when it suits you.
Update, July 2019
I am now in pain fairly often, probably at least partly due to a serious car accident in November 2017. It seems to me that the time to end my life may not be far off.
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The ethics of euthanasia
Surely the most important point in considering the rightness or wrongness of some act is to look at who or what is harmed and who is advantaged.If euthanasia is done with care, consideration and compassion no one is harmed and a person who is suffering some combination of pain, indignity and misery is given relief.
Our shared planet is overloaded. There are far too many people and our impact is severely damaging the Earth. While I suspect many people would not give this point much importance, every single person adds to the load on our shared environment; one person less decreases the load.
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The legality of euthanasia
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In most countries to kill someone, even when they want to die, or even to assist a person to die, is illegal. This is the case in my country, Australia.
My wife, Denece Clarke, toward the end of her life suffered greatly from pain. As I've written in Denece's Eulogy she said many times that she intended to end her own life at some point, although she had no idea of any practical way of doing so.
Legally, if she was to kill herself that would be suicide, which, in Australia at least, is not illegal. If anyone else was to assist her to end her life that would have been illegal.
The situation placed me in something of a quandary. Of course I felt great sympathy for Denece with the pain she had to endure. If she was suffering from a terminal illness we could have sought legal euthanasia through the medical services, but there was no terminal illness, 'just' great pain and misery. I could not help her to die without breaking the law.
I have to wonder how many people do assist a loved one to die, and do so without the knowledge of the authorities, because of the laws?
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How to die
I am a blood donor. An ideal way of dying for myself would be to have the Red Cross Blood Service take, not only the usual 470ml, but keep on allowing it to flow into collection bags until I died. (470ml, I read, is about 8% of the average adult's blood volume.)
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Suicide in the young or mentally unstable
Of course it is not only the elderly who may choose to end their lives; young people who may be suffering from depression may also do so.It seems to me that they should be strongly encouraged to seek appropriate psychological or psychiatric help. But if they see life as unbearable, not just in some time of deep depression, but over a long period, then surely they should be allowed to choose to end a miserable life.
Impact on others
Many of us have responsibilities to others. An important example is the parent of young children; he (or she) cannot consider his life to be entirely his own to do with as they choose. Everyone who considers ending their life must consider the impact that would have on others.
I young person would have to consider the devastating impact that his or her suicide would have on their parents.
Death
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The slippery slope argument
One common argument against voluntary euthanasia is that legalising it would lead on to people being euthanised against their will. This argument is so absurd as to hardly be worth any consideration at all. You could say that no government should be allowed to lock up anyone in prison, because once they start they'll want to lock up all their opposition. Just as there are safeguards to stop this from happening, so there will be safeguards in any free and civilised society against euthanising those who want to continue living.Religion
Some people would claim that life is God-given and only God has the right to choose when a person should die. Of course there is no evidence for the existence of a God or gods, so this argument is without any basis. I have written about the absurdity of religion elsewhere on these pages.
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Just a thought
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If I decide to end my life I am ending the life of many trillions of cells. Might I not have an ethical right to do this? Cells have some degree of independent life from the multicellular organism that they reside in. I discovered after starting this section that I've written on this point elsewhere on these pages.
And we are not just made up of cells, most of our cells contain organelles, which are descended from independent life forms. So if I suicided, I would kill a great many trillion 'life forms'.
Other sections or pages on this site that has some bearing in this question are: