Health

Should Man With Paralyzing Stroke But Intact Mind Be Given ‘Right’ to Die?

LONDON (The Blaze/AP) – Tony Nicklinson had a high-flying job as a corporate manager in Dubai, where he went skydiving and bridge-climbing in his free time. His wife, Jane, describes him as “a real alpha male” who was “tall, dark and handsome.”

Seven years ago, he suffered a paralyzing stroke. Today he can only move his head, cannot speak and needs constant care. But, his mind is completely intact.

Still, he wants to die. In a statement, he described his life as “dull, miserable, demeaning, undignified and intolerable.”

U.K. Man With Locked in Syndrome Striving for Right to Die

Tony and Jane Nicklinson (Image: BBC screenshot)

Jane said she and their two grown daughters didn‘t initially agree with her husband’s choice to die. “It was very upsetting and obviously it’s not what we want, but it‘s what he wants and it’s his life,” she said.

To try to ensure that whoever ends his life won’t be jailed, the 57-year-old Nicklinson recently asked Britain‘s High Court to declare that any doctor who gives him a lethal injection with his consent won’t be charged with murder. This week, the court will hold its first hearing on the case.

“Most people who want to die, who are physically able to do so, can lawfully commit suicide,” said Nicklinson’s lawyer, Saimo Chahal.

But that’s not the case for Nicklinson, who has “locked-in syndrome” — a condition in which a person’s body is paralyzed but mind intact.

Watch BBC’s feature on Nicklinson from last year in these two parts:

Under U.K. law, anyone who helps Nicklinson die could be charged with murder, even if they are carrying out his wishes. A murder charge has a mandatory life sentence, regardless of the motive or circumstances.

No one suspected of aiding a loved one’s suicide has been charged with such a crime in Britain in recent years. But Nicklinson doesn’t want to take any chances. Instead he wants to change the legal definition of murder to exclude euthanasia, arguably a long shot.

Emily Jackson, a medical law expert at London’s School of Economics, said Nicklinson may have a plausible case. “He is making a very interesting argument,” she said.

Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands but requires a long-term relationship between doctors and patients, a rule that excludes most foreigners. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, including for foreigners, but Nicklinson does not want to go there to die.

Nicklinson argues that British law hinders his right to “private and family life” — guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights — on the grounds that being able to choose how to die is a matter of personal autonomy.

“He argues that it’s unfair on him and that a humane legal system would enable somebody in his circumstances, with considerable safeguards, to get help from a doctor to exercise a right, which he has in theory, but is deprived of in practice,” Chahal said.

The Ministry of Justice has applied to dismiss Nicklinson’s suit since it could involve changing the law — which must be done by Parliament, not the High Court.

U.K. Man With Locked in Syndrome Striving for Right to Die

(Photo: Tony and Jane Nicklinson/AP)

Nicklinson communicates mostly by using a computer that detects his blinking.

He has refused since 2007 to take any life-prolonging drugs recommended by doctors, including heart drugs or blood thinners. He only takes medicines to make himself more comfortable, such as those to reduce muscle spasms. His wife, Jane, a trained nurse, said he could be at risk of another stroke or a heart attack.

Nicklinson spends most of his days at a computer he controls by blinking, writing emails and surfing the web. Jane said he rarely leaves his room in their bungalow in rural Wiltshire, southwest England, except to watch television in the evenings. He’s also writing his memoirs.

“It’s amazing what he remembers,” his wife said. “His mind is completely unaffected.”

Like the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who recently turned 70, Nicklinson has not lost any of his intellectual capacities. Hawking has Lou Gehrig’s disease, a degenerative condition that kills most people within a few years. He has repeatedly said he doesn’t think about his physical limitations, which haven’t prevented him from revolutionizing the understanding of black holes and the origins of the universe.

A recent British commission headed by a former justice secretary concluded there was a strong case for allowing assisted suicide under strict criteria. The commission was set up and funded by campaigners who want the current law changed. The report did not support euthanasia and recommended assisted suicide only be allowed for terminally ill people, which would exclude Nicklinson.

In 2009, the British government’s top prosecutor said people who helped terminally ill relatives and friends die were unlikely to be charged if they acted out of compassion. From 2009 to 2011, 40 cases of people suspected of helping loved ones die were reported to the government prosecutor; none was charged.

In 2002, the Netherlands became the first country to legalize euthanasia, allowing doctors to end the lives of patients whose suffering is “unbearable and hopeless” – not just those with terminal illnesses. In recent years, the country’s rates of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide have risen slightly, but still account for less than 3 percent of all deaths.

Switzerland allows doctors to prescribe a fatal dose of medicine for patients to take themselves. Since 2001, more than 160 Britons have traveled to the Dignitas clinic, near Zurich, to die.

Nicklinson considered going to Switzerland, but his wife said he decided against it for several reasons, including the approximately 6,500 pound ($10,000) cost. Nicklinson is currently receiving legal aid from the government to cover most of his lawyer’s fees.

Euthanasia is also legal in Belgium, Luxembourg and the state of Oregon in the United States.

Critics of euthanasia say the U.K. should focus more on improving care for the chronically and terminally ill instead of legislating mercy killing.

“I’m massively sympathetic to (Nicklinson’s) situation, but I don’t think we should change the law when it will impact hundreds of thousands of other people,” said Dr. John Wiles, chairman of Care Not Killing, an alliance that opposes euthanasia. He warned that legalizing euthanasia might worsen treatment of elderly people and the terminally ill.

Wiles doubted enough safeguards could ever be in place. “However narrow you try to make it, in principle, we would be allowing the killing of other members of society for the first time,” he said. “If we change the law, we’ll be saying to people, `If you don‘t like the care you’re getting, you can just end it.’”

The British Medical Association also opposes any changes that would permit assisted suicide or euthanasia. While patients have the right to their medical records, the group advises doctors to refuse to share such reports if they suspect the information will be used to commit assisted suicide abroad.

Nicklinson’s wife, Jane, said her husband simply wants the right to choose when to end his life. She said he began asking to die as soon as he could start communicating after his stroke, once he realized he wouldn’t improve.

“I’ve tried many times to change his mind, but he is adamant to see this through,” she said.

In a statement, he described his life as “dull, miserable, demeaning, undignified and intolerable.”

Comments (104)

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  • CottonMPG
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 7:54am

    The Bible is clear that a person who kills a severely injured person is guilty of murder and worthy of death themselves. Anyone who believes the life they are living is his/her own does not belong to Christ and therefore is still spiritually dead in sin. We are told to take up our cross and follow HIM(Jesus). That means we are to patiently endure whatever God chooses to have us suffer through. We are to be living sacrifices. Which means we are to count our lives as belonging to Jesus who bought us. I don’t think that a truely saved spiritually changed person who becomes profoundly depressed and kills himself will be lost but it is very difficult for me to accept that a real Christian would be so selfish and disobedient. Regardless of his choice to sin against God by killing himself he doesn’t get to absolve us from murdering him. Think of it this way, if your father lets you use his brand new BMW whenever you want without asking and you decide you want it chopped up and melted down, you don’t have the right to do it, and if someone else does it they’re guilty also. That would only be grand larceny or destruction of property or something. Of course dad could just drop the charges but God is just and the wages of sin is death. You have once to die and then the judgement. If you die in your sin you are condemned to Hell. God who can raise the dead can heal this man’s body. He should give his life to God and submit to His will if he doesn’t want it anymore.

    Report Post » CottonMPG  
    • Sol Invictus
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 8:05am

      “The Bible is clear that a person who kills a severely injured person is guilty of murder and worthy of death themselves”.

      Please advise the source and reference within the Bible. Thanks.

      Report Post » Sol Invictus  
    • SgtB
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 8:42am

      Do you have any idea how many doctors today are killing people with their “FDA approved” methods? How about how many people a year are wasting away in a bed because the cancer and the chemo have nearly completely destroyed them and their lucidity and they require constant supervision and morphine drips to survive? I was there the last night of my favorite uncle‘s life and on the last night of my grandfather’s life. Both of them had expressed their wishes to no longer live in such a state. Who are you to continue to force someone else to live? Just where do you get off thinking that you know what is best for a person who is seriously disabled, diseased, or injured?

      We are not talking about protecting the life of a person who is yet unable to decide their own fate as an infant is. We are talking about adult men and women who of sound mind have made a decision that their life is too hard for them to live and creates a burden upon their entire family. So exactly where in the Bible does it give you the right to tell others what they can do with themselves? Last I checked, God gave man free will. Are you really saying that you believe you are wise enough to take that away?

      Report Post » SgtB  
    • Sol Invictus
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 8:55am

      @SGTB
      Thank you for the most moving and meaningful comment on here. Your compassion shows you to be more of a Christian than Cotton ever will be. I‘ve been there with my uncle so I feel what you’re saying. You’ve nailed it – nothing more to add.

      Report Post » Sol Invictus  
    • objectivetruth
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 9:38am

      @sgtb
      Sorry I have little sympathy for you on this one.I know what its like to have someone inflict medical problems you don’t have on top of ones you do.Fiduary fraud commited by an eos.It was designed to drive me to commit murder or suicide.Either way they never would have been exposed.If I had of been allowed to, or my next of kin would have been allowed to ,I’d be dead.You nor anyone else would have ever known how they did it.All of you would still be at risk.Still think assisted suicide is a great idea?
      Oh and if you are wondering about my original condition.It was spinal fractures and head trauma.

      Report Post »  
    • Sol Invictus
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 10:03am

      @Objectivetruth
      Your post, even if true, makes no sense and is irrelevant to the argument.

      Report Post » Sol Invictus  
    • rose-ellen
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 10:19am

      If he wants to die so badly he can go jump out a window or take some pills. how dare he ask society or the medical profession to kill him. He wants to lash out at the world because he is handicapped. This is classic passive /agressive -making people jumt through his hoops because he is angry at the world. it is not the job of the medical profesion to kill people and he because he is angry at the wolrd wants to invert the purpose of health care. He’s angry and this is his way of taking out his anger. no court should go along with euthnasia ever.

      Report Post »  
    • Sol Invictus
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 10:29am

      @Rose Ellen
      Are you trying to be funny? “He can go and jump out of a window”!!
      You’re sick lady, really sick.

      Report Post » Sol Invictus  
    • objectivetruth
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 10:42am

      @sol invictus
      My post is truthful and quite relevant.The medical community doesn’t vet people claiming to be family members.They don’t vet that the orders they have are in fact legal.That they were obtained legallly.If you can’t see the relevence in this ,you are in fact, brain dead.You claim to be a hot shot IT manager.I pray not and it was a ego trip.Why?Very simply put I’d trust a grocery checker over you.They would at least verify identity.They know there are criminals in the world.You obviously don’t.

      Report Post »  
    • Vickie Dhaene
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 11:02am

      I have witnessed the power of God and the Spirit to survived. He must not have completed his mission here on earth. He has a message that God wants him to convey in God’s time.

      Report Post »  
    • JRook
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 11:33am

      @CottonMPG Providing support for your beliefs is great but completely irrelevant to this individual or his decision. The moral question here rests with the individual, his family and his physician. If that group accepts that he is competent and capable of making a such a decision then who is anyone to question it. Comments here that reflect anyone’s personal relationship with JC is just that…. personal and best kept that way.

      Report Post »  
    • Physicist_In_Training
      Posted on January 26, 2012 at 3:03pm

      @Rose-Ellen — I can‘t tell if you’re being sarcastic to make fun of your perception of a conservative’s viewpoint on the disabled, or if you are being serious. Either way that’s not classy.

      If it is the former — you’re sick, and have very little understanding of the psychology of a conservative.

      If it is that latter — you’re either presumptuous at best (i.e., you did not read the article and jumped to conclusions about its contents and the motivations of Nicklinson), or at worst…you’re still just sick.

      Report Post » Physicist_In_Training  
  • Sol Invictus
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 7:46am

    The key question here is not – should he be allowed to commit suicide it’s – “should anyone who helps him be prosecuted?” That‘s the question and so far I’ve seen few answers.

    Report Post » Sol Invictus  
    • Sol Invictus
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 7:53am

      Incidentally, I didn’t know euthanasia was legal in Oregon. Does anyone know how this came about?Serious answers please.

      Report Post » Sol Invictus  
    • CottonMPG
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 7:59am

      I answered your question. You might not like or accept it, but I answered it.

      Report Post » CottonMPG  
    • DTOM_Jericho (Creator vindicator)
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 8:58am

      First of all the problem with this article is, you cannot be “given” a right. Secondly, apparently in this country you can murder a fetus, but you cannot end your own suffering? If you try to end your suffering the gov will take another right from you, your 2nd. Only your second, not your first, 3rd, 4th… Only to progressives does this make sense.

      Maybe the real answer is that the fed gov should not be in the business of deciding what is a right. The states should regulate this and if you don’t like what they decide, you vote with your feet.

      @Cotton When you learn that THE Messiah was never named “jesus” then you might gain some credibility. All I see is someone who subscribes to white-washed paganism: “just don’t make Him TOO Jewish”. “jesus” is the image of the beast(rome). Technically, the same Scriptures that you non-specifically quote, would call you a false prophet.

      Report Post » DTOM_Jericho (Creator vindicator)  
    • rose-ellen
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 11:23am

      I was trying to bring home the point that what he is demanding from society and the medical profession is horrific and inhuman.it is not the role of health care providers to kill people.If he hates life so much don’t implicate the rest of us in your hatred of your own life.he wants to drag us into the mud where he is. he lacks humility and is lashing out at us[humankind[ because he has an affliction.he doesn’t fool me.If he wants to die so badly -where there is a will there is a way.It’s not like he is in pain but simply that his life is not fulfilling-whatever the heck that means..

      Report Post »  
    • JRook
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 11:27am

      Of course they should not. And there are thousands of examples of physicians meeting with terminal patients and families and “assisting” or complying with their wishes regarding speeding up the process. Medical actions are not taken, drugs are removed, etc. It is analogous to the D&C procedure that was and is being done for wealthy girls to alleviate a mistake and insure there is no record of an abortion. The guy should be allowed to meet with his physician and family and decide what course he wants to follow relative to his medical condition, level of pain, state of being and yes how he does and does not want to live his life. Those quoting religious text here are doing nothing more than providing support for their beliefs. Which while relevant to them have nothing to do with this guy or his beliefs. He may well be a more spiritual individual than all the part time evangelicals who feel a need to preach here.

      Report Post »  
    • JRook
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 11:36am

      @CottonMPG The only question you answered was why you hold the beliefs you do. Application of those here are, given it is the spiritual makeup and beliefs of the individual, his family and his physician that matter, are irrelevant.

      Report Post »  
    • deeberj
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 3:19pm

      Jericho – you said
      “@Cotton When you learn that THE Messiah was never named “jesus” then you might gain some credibility. All I see is someone who subscribes to white-washed paganism: “just don’t make Him TOO Jewish”. “jesus” is the image of the beast(rome). .”

      First of all I’m not sure what Cotton said to make you call him a false prophet, but I wanted to say one thing. Calling the Messiah Jesus is the accepted english way to say it. I speak english, so I see nothing wrong with calling the Messiah Jesus.

      I’m not stupid. I know that “Jesus” is a transliteration, and is based on several languages’ pronunciation of the Hebrew name. The Latin Iesus and the Greek Iēsoûs, which came from the Hebrew Yehosua or Joshua or the Hebrew-Aramaic Yesua and some say Yeshua.

      Whether I call Him Jesus, Joshua, Yesua, it’s all the same because we are talking about the same person who was a Jew. It’s not whitewashing the gospel to use english pronunciations of Hebrew words.

      Report Post » deeberj  
  • middnights
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 7:18am

    No affiance it sounds like his wife wants to do it because her husband can’t communicate with her. How sad my prayers go out to him that God heals him and heal his heart.

    Report Post »  
    • MOLLYPITCHER
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 7:52am

      I agree with you, and my prayers go out to them also. They need to seek God‘s will for their lives and let the Creator do as he see’s fit, not take matters into their own hands.

      Report Post »  
  • CottonMPG
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 7:05am

    Make the guy as comfortable as you can if he’s in pain but do not kill him! Any person who is selfish enough to make you guilty of murder, not talking legally but morally, deserves worse than they already have. If he is only paralized he can cope with no issue he’s just being selfish. He needs to be warned that no matter how badly or how long he suffers in this life it will only be worse after death if he isn’t saved. If you think that is untrue, well, you better hope you’re right! We are called to take up our cross and follow Jesus and that means accepting his will and being obedient to it. Sometimes we struggle with God’s will for us because we think we know better but if we are in rebellion against him for the rest of our life ,no matter how long or short, then we can be sure we were never saved. I’m not trying to convince you, just stating the facts, if you disagree then one of us is right and one wrong.

    Report Post » CottonMPG  
  • SpankDaMonkey
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 6:55am

    ,
    Should Man With Paralyzing Stroke But Intact Mind Be Given ‘Right’ to Die?

    YES………..

    Report Post » SpankDaMonkey  
    • smithclar3nc3
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 7:19am

      I agree the Government has no right to say what we do with our lives or bodies. As long as the person is sane he should have the right to chose. And if the person is a vegetable the closet family member should have the right to chose.

      Report Post »  
    • CommonSenseTalk
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 10:18am

      Smith you agree that a baby can be killed without any say but an adult can only be starved to death. That is the government way. His only choice will be to drive away from family and not eat or drink. Murderers are treated better then that. The government can stay away from me.

      God bless this family and hope things work out for the best.

      Report Post »  
    • CommonSenseTalk
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 10:21am

      Sorry Smith, wrong person

      Report Post »  
  • Baddoggy
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 6:47am

    You are just ate up with dumba@@ arent you mr spam?

    Report Post » Baddoggy  
  • symphonic
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 6:06am

    He will regret it much once he gets to the OTHER SIDE and realizes the judgment that awaits for murdering yourself.

    Report Post » symphonic  
    • Baddoggy
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 6:45am

      Sorry, you are wrong. There is only one unforgivable sin. It is the rejection of Christ. All other sins are forgiven, even suicide if you have accepted the attonement from Christ. In the Bible Saul killed himself instead of being tortured by his enemies. Do you think the leader of Israel went to hell? Or did God bring him to Heaven…do a little Bible study to find out…

      I do not want this man to be able to kill himself because it would be a waste of what God created. But as long as he does not bring in the medical community, who am I to say there should be a law to stop him? I mean, what are you going to do arrest his corpse?

      Report Post » Baddoggy  
    • proliance
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 7:43am

      Badoggy, all sins can be forgiven, it doesn’t mean all are automatically forgiven. Did you misspeak or do some people actually believe that all sins are always forgiven even with confessing and asking for forgiveness?

      Report Post » proliance  
    • Baddoggy
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 8:17am

      I guess you think God id not powerful enough to forgive sins? Through Christ alone are we attoned for past, present and future sins. If you knew your Bible, you would know that…

      Report Post » Baddoggy  
    • SgtB
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 8:56am

      At Baddoggy, while I agree with your sentiment that we should not be making up laws to keep people like this from committing suicide, I have to point out that your other argument is what keeps some of the most despicable people I know looking down their noses at the rest of society. It is the idea that you can just confess of your sins and take Jesus as your savior and you will be absolved of all wrong doing that makes people think they can get away with all sorts of malfeasance. I personally think that if you are a horrible person doing horrible things on a daily basis, it doesn’t matter what you do on Sunday morning because you never change your ways.

      Unless you change your ways and stop doing all the bad things in life, you are not really taking what you do on Sunday’s to heart. This idea that you can just sit in church and say you take Jesus into your heart is false. Too many people think they have done it but what they have really done is substituted reality for one of their making. They never take Jesus as their savior, they just say it. This will lead to alot of confusion at the pearly gates.

      Report Post » SgtB  
    • deeberj
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 3:07pm

      Proliance –
      You said, “Badoggy, all sins can be forgiven, it doesn’t mean all are automatically forgiven. Did you misspeak or do some people actually believe that all sins are always forgiven even with confessing and asking for forgiveness?”

      I assume we are talking about Christianity here, so I’m speaking from that viewpoint. Don‘t everyone get their panties in a bunch of they aren’t believers. I’m speaking to believers here.

      All sins ARE forgiven for anyone who believes in the Christ. If you believe that you as a Christian cannot be forgiven unless you confess each and every sin, you are making it to heaven by your own works. And that is not correct belief. God forgives us of sin, then as a Christian we are supposed to try not to sin but when we do and we will, we are to confess our sins.

      But, what if you as a Christian sin (you and a church friend waiting a the bus stop have a nasty gossiping sessioin) and then immediately afterward you get hit by a bus before you have time to confess? Will you go to hell for that? NO. Same with suicide. You don’t have time to repent, but God still forgives you.

      Even if a person who commits suicide isn’t a Christian, I‘m absolutely sure that suicide isn’t the only thing he did wrong in his life. The last “sin” he committed, suicide, isn’t what sends him to hell. It is his non-belief.

      Report Post » deeberj  
  • Concerned1
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 5:54am

    I think people who are suffering with debilitating disease should have the right to assisted (humane) suicide. However, I don’t agree with the choice. I think all life has a purpose- even the most painful ones… or maybe perhaps especially the painful ones. But I might feel differently if I were in this man’s state.

    His desire harms no one. He should be free to end his life if that is what he chooses.

    Report Post »  
    • Baddoggy
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 6:50am

      If you drag the medical community or other people into kill you, then they have blood on their hands. I dont want the medical community killing babies or old people…Do you? That is what will start happening.

      If it were not for the pro life people in the United States we would be like China and start murdering our babies after their birth…The same will hold true on assisted suicide. Soon, we would have death panels…

      Report Post » Baddoggy  
  • Anne G
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 5:45am

    Is it biblical that we feel we “should” put animals down (for instance, horses with a broken leg)? If it is not, how do Christians justify this practice? My question is not for the sake of argument. I really need an answer.

    Report Post » Anne G  
    • Tepeyac
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 6:05am

      One is an animal the other is Human! Animals are not human! Get it! Of course the animal kissers think differently, but that doesn’t change the facts! No person has the right to take another life save as prescribed by law when another life is taken!

      Report Post »  
    • objectivetruth
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 9:08am

      No it isn’t biblical.The real reason to put a animal down is to stop a slow and agonizing death.In essence the animal is terminal anyway.Car accidents, advanced infectious disease, in a very old animal.Broken legs in horses usually cause the animal to be put down for several reasons.Horses are subject to bloat if they lay down for any lenght of time.This can easily be fatal.Plus there just aren’t to many people who could treat and care for an injured horse.
      PS Don’t let the nasty poster above me get you down.They are truly warped sadistic people on earth.Unfortunately he got a double dose of it.

      Report Post »  
  • A_VT_PREPPER
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 5:42am

    All the bleeding hearts posting here…so easy to say when you’re talking from your high horse. What right does anyone have to inflict their beliefs on this man or anyone else. Why do you care? If there is a God and he has any objection to someone taking their life then he will deal with them on the other side.

    Report Post » A_VT_PREPPER  
    • rose-ellen
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 2:55pm

      He is the one who has crossed the line in asking us to kill him. It is one thing if he were in unbearable physical pain with no remedy for the physical pain [like if he were stranded in the middle of no where in agonizing pain with someone] but to ask that we become murderers because he cannot accept what life has thrown at him-is simple pride with added on anger expressed by bringing us down[turning us into murderers] He wants to manipulate us to jump through his hoop-his physical impotence gets overcome by controling us [to do what we all instinctively know is morally wrong-murder someone].It’s his private joke [for lack of a better word or his last ambition] to excercise power and control.[I'm a wannabe shrink]

      Report Post »  
  • A_VT_PREPPER
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 5:38am

    KCares…you are 100% correct.

    Report Post » A_VT_PREPPER  
  • AxelPhantom
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 5:16am

    My religion teaches that all life has a purpose in any form. But not everyone is of this belief. Case in point, Stephan Hawking rather than sit around and do nothing or kill himself he does as much as he can with what he has to work with, he has been debilitated for 20+ years. My husband’s grandmother died of cancer and begged her daughter at the end to kill her (she refused), a friend of mine died of pancreatic cancer a few years back and asked for the same relief from the pain, for both of these people, they were immediately terminal.

    Euthanasia is a slippery slope, yes you own your body and by all rights (excluding religious views) should be able to decide when it ends, however if it cheapens the life of your grandchildren and great grandchildren, should you?

    I guess it comes down to how you see life. If you can type (with your eyes) write a book, compose music, write poetry (anyone can do better than Al Gore) design a video game…something to be productive and make the most of life! My friend I know, would have changed places with this guy in an instant, just to have seen her children grow up.

    Report Post »  
  • Phoenixsoulfire
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 4:56am

    God wants to use this man and anyone who has anything wrong with them and their families. It is people and their families who suffered from some kind of tradgady that go out and champion the cause that effected them. People who were effected by breast cancer. Tend to donate or do what they can do get the word out there and hope for a cure.

    This man is no different. I can’t imagine what he is going through. Myself I have a host of health issues. So what I do is talk to people who are in the place I was and tell them what they need to do and explain why or they will end up like me or worse yet like my Grandma, and my Aunt. God rest their souls.

    So instead of looking for a way out why doesn’t he look for the good that can come out of this and stop asking to die and learn how to live a new way by getting the word out that they need to find a cure for this.

    Report Post »  
  • The Third Archon
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 4:43am

    “SHOULD MAN WITH PARALYZING STROKE BUT INTACT MIND BE GIVEN ‘RIGHT’ TO DIE?”
    Given? How can you give a man that which he already has?

    Report Post » The Third Archon  
  • msswim.com
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 3:44am

    As an Multiple Sclerosis Patient, I have thought about this before. I explained to my mother that if I lose the use of my legs, then start to lose the ability to use my arms, and a doctor said that I was approaching a state of quadriplegia, I told her that I wanted to go to Oregon with my parents and brother, go out to dinner, say all of things we never go the chance to say and all the things we wabted to say, then I would go back to the hotel and go to sleep.

    While upset that I wanted this, I told my mother that she raised me to believe in this God who was all loving and all forgiving, and that I think a scenario in which your soul becomes a prisoner, trapped in your non-functioning body, that no longer has a purpose in this world, that my God would love me enough to forgive me.

    I personally think that a situation like the one I described above, is completely different than shooting myself, hanging or some other violent death that I brought on myself. So Tony Nicklinson’s wife Jane should not be arrested for assisting her husband in having a respectable exit from this physical existance where he exists as a prisoner in his non-functiong body. I think a doctor should be able to assist, but the government needs to stay out of it.

    Whatever happens, will be something within a personal relationship with Tony Nicklinson as his creator.

    ___________________________________
    If you can, I would sincerely appreciate your help.
    Thank you, and God Bless.

    http://www

    Report Post » msswim.com  
    • msswim.com
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 5:13am

      msswim.com

      Report Post » msswim.com  
    • msswim.com
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 5:15am

      I forgot to mention why I would go to Oregon:

      http://public.health.oregon.gov/ProviderPartnerResources/EvaluationResearch/DeathwithDignityAct/Pages/index.aspx

      Report Post » msswim.com  
    • deeberj
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 2:54pm

      Suicide is suicide. You seem to think God or maybe others are more accepting if you die peacefully for what you deem a good reason. Either suicide is forgiveable by God or not. It should not matter if you take some nicey nice pills and fall asleep or use a gun and splatter your brains all over the wall for your family to clean up. You still ended your life on purpose.

      I for one say that suicide will not send you to hell. The bible never says that. If you consider killing someone a sin (suicide=killing yourself=sin), God is well able to forgive us of all our sin. He is not so weak He can’t manage to forgive this one, if you consider it a sin in the first place.

      I think it’s not evil if a person ends their own life. I do believe that a person wanting to do so ought to first get all the support they can (physical, mental, spiritual) to try to live their life the best they can, and have pain management if that’s an issue, because they may find they can bear living and actually want to live. This happens to people who are in pain and who are depressed. But in the end you ought to be able to end your own life if you want.

      The issue is having someone else help you. That’s a different discussion.

      Report Post » deeberj  
  • Lillith66
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 3:20am

    Yes absolutely!

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  • Andrew
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 2:52am

    I must say, it seems as if the man’s torture is having to explain himself outwardly to a society holding him captive by the force of the very same questions that woman was asking him, which represent the very essence of the laws on the books keeping him from taking his own life. This is grueling. What he is fighting for is his just right held hostage from him by a law. A law of man, not of God. Yet it is backed entirely by the code of a God. Separation of church and state? John Locke is rolling over in his grave.

    Report Post » Andrew  
  • jb.kibs
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 2:25am

    do we own ourselves and our property or not?

    Report Post »  
  • Shackleford
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 2:23am

    I couldn’t imagine being trapped in one position for an hour let alone decades. If this world really is overseen by an active god, and that active god lets you down in a degree this substantial with decades of physical and emotional torture due to our bodys’ lousy healing abilities, then why would the threat of God’s wrath be a deterrent? Would you trust eternity to a god that you couldn’t even trust with your life? What if his wrath is 180 degrees from what we consider wrath the way his love is usually 180 degrees from what we consider love?

    Issues like these are what makes the tight relationship between conservatism and Christianity so uncomfortable with people. Seeing people encourage another to suffer in the name of a god that behaves in no way as hyped is just a disgusting thing to see.

    Report Post » Shackleford  
    • unbound1
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 2:55am

      What if he isn’t saved, and God is waiting for him to accept Christ? The torment of Hell will be worse than the torment of a dull life.

      Report Post » unbound1  
  • READRIGHTHERE
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 2:05am

    It is not his life. It is God’s. God gave it and God will determine the time of his return. Allowing for assisted suicide, making it legal for people to assist in death is to demean the meaning of life. And it demeans the role that God plays in our existence. We are here for a reason, we may be here for a long time or for a moment, it may be “normal” or we may find ourselves barely surviving until our last breath. There are great lessons to be learned in our extremities, we mustn’t cheat our education. He should focus on what he can do as opposed to what he can’t. It sounds like there is much he can do. He should realize the miracle instead of bemoaning his limitations. Unfortunate situation to say the least, but he is not the only person on this planet imprisoned by his limitations.

    By the same token, that is all easy for me to say. God bless him.

    Report Post »  
    • survivorseed
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 3:04am

      Wrong….its his life and if he wants to end it, he should be able to. If a person can’t own their own life then things are pretty grim.

      Report Post »  
    • sealwifenyc
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 5:59am

      Of course his life is his own. Its fine for you to cling to whatever religious ideals you have, but that does not make them universal. By your same logic, you must not believe in modern medicine? As a Neurologist I find your opinion insulting, as you have no idea how painful his disease is. The fact that his cognitive abilities are in tact does not make his disease better, in his case it is likely to continue to increase in his pain intensity. While you may cling to some obtuse notion of an after life, he lives in the reality of misery. a reality that is his and he absolutely has the right to end his life with in a manner he has some control over and a Physician should be allowed to offer him a safe solution to do so. I have spent the last four years focusing on pediatric neuro-oncology and frankly when you see a 3 year old child battling a brain tumor the size of a baseball, it makes it hard to believe God actually exists. Medicine and science is what is real.

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    • Cesium
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 10:19pm

      @readrighthere Easy words for you to spout not being in his shoes

      Report Post »  
  • elihu
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 2:05am

    I pray that he doesn’t finally decide to end his life; he will be eternally sorry!

    Report Post » elihu  
    • deeberj
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 12:54pm

      Why? Is suicide the one sin we can’t be forgiven for? I don’t see that in the bible. If he is a Christian, suicide will not keep him from heaven.

      Report Post » deeberj  
    • Cesium
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 10:20pm

      why would he be eternally sorry? because of god’s evilness?

      Report Post »  
  • mtoidi
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 2:04am

    I don’t get it. Why doesn’t this man just stop eating and drinking? He clearly has the capacity to refuse force-feeding. He is already refusing “life-prolonging” medications. He is perfectly “physically” capable of killing himself. There is no need to corrupt the medical profession by allowing a doctor to kill him.

    Report Post »  
    • proliance
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 7:46am

      The article says he can only communicate by blinking his eyes. So I think he is probably fed through a tube and is physically unable to eat on his own or do anything to stop someone from feeding him.

      Report Post » proliance  
    • SgtB
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 8:47am

      And what should be clear to all is that if the wife or medical workers stop feeding and hydrating him they will be charged with at least elderly neglect charges but more likely murder charges and for the medical workers, this would mean that their entire life and career would be over. You cannot expect the family or medical caregivers to assume this threat.

      Report Post » SgtB  
    • Cervantes
      Posted on January 30, 2012 at 3:13pm

      Let’s just say that he can stop “just stop eating and drinking”. Why is it that someone should have to go through the pain and horror and whatever else accompanies starving one’s own self to death, when there are other safe, painless and dignified options available?? Also, the whole argument is about this man‘s extremely low quality of life but it obviously has other implications that don’t include him. It’s people like this who champion a cause that ease the suffering of others who are or will be in their situation both presently and in the future. My brother suffered the malpractice of doctors treating his cancer and it left him just like this man except even more disabled because he can‘t see and therefore can’t communicate. I wonder if my big brother wants the same thing this man wants because I know if I was in his position, I definitely would. People talk on here so callously and coldly about this kind of predicament but this man and my brother and people like them are worse than imprisoned!!! I actually can’t think of a lower quality of life than this– to be completely disabled and have only a few of the functions, joys and I don’t know, LIFE, that others have. When we describe ‘life’, this man doesn’t fit into any such description because he hardly has one and I guarantee you if ANYONE on here were in their place, they would seek the peace and escape of a dignified death!! Noone would choose to live this way!!!

      Report Post »  
  • Angel Artiste
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 1:59am

    His life is “Dull, miserable, demeaning, undignified and intolerable”? OK, what sets him apart from the rest of us?

    Report Post »  
    • ModerationIsBest
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 2:03am

      Zing!

      Report Post »  
    • unbound1
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 2:58am

      As it is so late, I read that his Wife was as “dull, miserable, demeaning, undignified and intolerable.” I really read it that way. Anyway, I do hate when someone is depressed.

      Report Post » unbound1  
  • ModerationIsBest
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 1:55am

    Yes, that is all.

    Report Post »  
  • freedomofspeech
    Posted on January 24, 2012 at 1:28am

    M.D.’s can be hired to assist a woman to kill her fetus, yet a man of sound mind can not hire a M.D. to assist in killing himself.

    Report Post »  
    • Shackleford
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 2:25am

      Is a doctor even necessary? It can’t be all that difficult to figure out an easy way to do it using Google and a few bottles of sleeping pills.

      Report Post » Shackleford  
    • kcares
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 3:21am

      I agree, how are we given the right to kill a fetus, but we don’t have a right to end our own lives?

      Report Post » kcares  
    • MetalPatriot
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 3:49am

      @shackelford

      The primary reason people don’t go through with it is because of insurance policies being invalidated from suicide…independent or assisted. No matter what, the spouse is screwed…left to watch the loved one suffer, the constant care/worry/suffering themselves. No matter what, the person desiring death suffers their ailment and the guilt of living or dying. Either will cause the spouse grief.

      In summary: life can be b.s. for a lot of people. My empathy for the family & those in their predicament.

      Report Post » MetalPatriot  
    • objectivetruth
      Posted on January 24, 2012 at 9:22am

      @metalpatriot
      I call BS on the insurance factor.After two years it doesn’t matter.If you are wondering why I know so much ,it isn‘t because I’m a black widow ,its because I survived a pack of them.Yes the human variety.

      Report Post »  
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