Non-voluntary Euthanasia: Yay or Nay?

[SkyBurn]

Non-voluntary euthanasia (sometimes known as mercy killing) is euthanasia conducted where the explicit consent of the individual concerned is unavailable, such as when the person is in a persistent vegetative state. The decision can be made based on what the incapacitated individual would have wanted, or it could be made on substituted judgment of what the decision maker would want were he or she in the incapacitated person's place, or finally, the decision could be made by the doctor by his own decision.

Active non-voluntary euthanasia is illegal in all countries in the world.
Passive non-voluntary euthanasia (withholding life support) is legal in India, Albania, and many parts of the United States and is practiced in English hospitals.

Arguing for legalization, Len Doyal, a professor of medical ethics and former member of the ethics committee of the British Medical Association, said in 2006 that "[p]roponents of voluntary euthanasia should support non-voluntary euthanasia under appropriate circumstances and with proper regulation"

Arguing against legalization is activist Peter Saunders, campaign director for Care Not Killing, an alliance of Christian and disability groups, who called Doyal's proposals "the very worst form of medical paternalism whereby doctors can end the lives of patients after making a judgment that their lives are of no value and claim that they are simply acting in their patients' best interests".

Well guys, discuss! Yay, Nay, or other opinion?

Furthermore, what would you like to be done for you, or your loved ones?

[Gospodine]

Yes, if the most recent next of kin consents to it.

If you can't ask the guy who hasn't woken up in 2 years, ask his father, mother, brother, sister, aunt, nephew (obviously situations where everyone's passed necessitate the need to go further along the family tree but it must be a blood relative); and make it a unanimous thing where you have to receive a green light from a minimum of 60% of the most recent relatives.

Some people will never wake up, others might; that's not the point. Closure matters. Some families might be okay with pulling the plug, others won't be. It should be up to the families in any case.

[SkyBurn]

Yes, if the most recent next of kin consents to it.

If you can't ask the guy who hasn't woken up in 2 years, ask his father, mother, brother, sister, aunt, nephew (obviously situations where everyone's passed necessitate the need to go further along the family tree but it must be a blood relative); and make it a unanimous thing where you have to receive a green light from a minimum of 60% of the most recent relatives.

Some people will never wake up, others might; that's not the point. Closure matters. Some families might be okay with pulling the plug, others won't be. It should be up to the families in any case.

How does one decide next of kin? Without legal certification, a parent, partner, child or sibling may claim that role?

How does one decide whether the wishes of the next of kin are truly what the patient wants, or what the next of kin wants? If the partner is a Christian who claims that the veggie (not PC, sorry) is one too, how do we know that's what the patient wants? Or if the spouse just wants their money?

Should they be kept on life support indefinitely, taking up scarce hospital resources and efforts, if the family decide against pulling the plug?

There have also been cases of such victims who have completely recovered...

(Devils advocacy is fun)

[Gospodine]

How does one decide next of kin? Without legal certification, a parent, partner, child or sibling may claim that role?

How does one decide whether the wishes of the next of kin are truly what the patient wants, or what the next of kin wants?

Should they be kept on life support indefinitely, taking up scarce hospital resources and efforts, if the family decide against pulling the plug?

You take your chances.

Insurance fraud exists but you don't see people asking their spouse to sign a will and then bumping them off the next day in record numbers.

Kids aren't going around to nursing homes and smothering granny just to get her silver collection.

The practical uses of killing a comatose relative in order to gain some benefit versus the risks of being caught ("Hmmm so the day after you pulled the plug on your husband you went and bought a Ferrari miss?") are not worth it to most people. People with such criminal inclinations would rather invest in a more sure-fire form of get-rich-quick-scheme.

Vegetative people can't do anything. They don't have jobs, they don't accrue interest and they can't offend people. The chances of there being some kind of unique scenario in which millions stand to be gained from killing a person in a coma are just not realistic. Nor is it likely that there would be a line of bitter and begrudging relatives just itching to kill the guy in the coma for something he did like 10 years ago.

Shit like that will happen, in miniscule amounts, but even most sociopaths are going to have misgivings about preying upon and using the suffering of a comatose vegetable to further their own lives.

[SkyBurn]

You take your chances.

Insurance fraud exists but you don't see people asking their spouse to sign a will and then bumping them off the next day in record numbers.

Kids aren't going around to nursing homes and smothering granny just to get her silver collection.

The practical uses of killing a comatose relative in order to gain some benefit versus the risks of being caught ("Hmmm so the day after you pulled the plug on your husband you went and bought a Ferrari miss?") are not worth it to most people. People with such criminal inclinations would rather invest in a more sure-fire form of get-rich-quick-scheme.

Vegetative people can't do anything. They don't have jobs, they don't accrue interest and they can't offend people. The chances of there being some kind of unique scenario in which millions stand to be gained from killing a person in a coma are just not realistic. Nor is it likely that there would be a line of bitter and begrudging relatives just itching to kill the guy in the coma for something he did like 10 years ago.

Shit like that will happen, in miniscule amounts, but even most sociopaths are going to have misgivings about preying upon and using the suffering of a comatose vegetable to further their own lives.

I'm entirely for Euthanasia (non and regularly voluntary), I'm just trying to provoke discussion and save my dying thread/poll xD

[Gospodine]

I'm guessing the Euthansia debate isn't really as discussed elsewhere, as it is in Australia.