Euthanasia. Twins born deaf and sought euthanasia after finding that they would also soon go blind.

[dmallind]

36. Not necessarily, unless you include very tangential involvement.

Kevorkian's machine was simply filled by products you need an MD to prescribe. It's operation was enrirely patient-controlled.

OD's are also very easy to mess up - the risk of emesis, miscalculated dosage, unwanted interference resulting in painful treatment, the pain of many medications themselves. It's also the method of suicide FAR most likely to fail. 55% of US suicides are by firearm for a reason, with the next most common being by hanging - both guaranteeing trauma for the discoverer. OD's are an excellent argument FOR a more certain and controlled method.

Why is physician assisted suicide for a cancer patient any different? We are all dying, and choosing to control the timing and nature of that death should not be restricted to those with a narrow range of short-term prognoses. It should simply be a matter of expected benefits from continued life minus expected suffering from continued life resulting in a negative number in the opinion of the only person whose opinion matters one iota - the one whose life it is. If MD's get all weak-kneed about personal involvement, it is surely not beyond the wit of inventors and chemical engineers to combine painless anaesthesis with lethal substances in an entirely doc-free package. It really is very simple if we cared as much for human dignity as we do canine.