Assisted suicide - thought?

It's sometimes called "sweet death."

However, it's not clear whether one would indeed die of such sweet death if one were to intentionally place oneself in a situation where one would get severe hypothermia.

Deliberately jumping into a frozen lake with the intention to kill oneself might bring along horrible psychological suffering, worse than the one one was trying to escape from.

 

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@wynn --

What? My morals are rotting because I know from personal experience that death is preferable to certain kinds of pain? Or because I know that I would choose a quick and painless death over a protracted and utterly pain filled death? Or because I disagree with you?

Which is it?

This is a red herring. It has nothing to do with either the topic or the euthanasia method I(and the OP) was referring to. That method is gentle, especially when you compare it to other ways of dying, especially the one's I've experienced. You get a six inch blade shoved in your gut and then you can tell me that the method in question isn't gentler, until then you just don't know while I do.

And which orifice, if you don't mind me asking, did you pull this one out of. I didn't even come close to saying this anywhere in this thread, nor would I. Personally I was thinking of circumcision which we still wrongfully force on millions of infants every year and which is painful enough to send them into shock. But I could have just as easily have been talking about all of the coal miners we allow to die rather violent deaths every year too.

If you were attempting humor then you've failed. If you were attempting to make a legitimate point to defend your position then you've failed.

Ethical considerations with zero connectivity to the world around us(i.e. that don't reflect observed reality) are worse than useless. It was such "ethical considerations" for a witch's soul that led various early christian sects to think that they were helping(themselves and the supposed witch) by killing her in one of the worst and most painful manners.

@Rhaedas --

And all Wynn is saying is that her mind is closed on this topic and if you disagree with her then your morals are rotting.

 

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Or they died faster because they had a better understanding of their attachment to this world, and a better understanding that they can't take with them any of those persons or things they are attached to. I think they knew better how to let go, and that made the process of dying faster and easier.

I suggest reading this: Getting the message.

 

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A sensitive person would understand the cause and the cessation of suffering.

 

I doubt that their dying was easier. But it's painting a nice rose color to make it seem so, particularly in a time when people around you were dying frequently. Control the populace.

Yeah, I get that you see any act killing, even if it's to help the terminal person, even if they ask for it. I guess that eases the burden on the observer, after all, they aren't the one in physical pain.

 

Sometimes the cause of the suffering is living. What would you do then?

 

If that's the only way you are able to value life, i won't try to convince you otherwise.
The last time i went in for surgery, i had the student anaesthesiologist give me the needle, and it hurt like hell. From there on, peace 'n' cake. At that point, i didn't care if this was the last surgery because it's successful, or because i don't wake up - was okay with either outcome.

They were very good dogs - and besides, if Disney says so, then all dogs go to heaven.
My mother was a very good person. I am only a reasonably good one.
If somebody isn't good enough for heaven because of how they lived, they won't make up the deficit with their manner of dying - unless it's by saving a dozen orphans from a fire, for which terminal cancer patients rarely have the opportunity or physical stamina.
Or maybe another three months of suffering would cleanse me sufficiently, so i better hope the god doesn't take me a week early, in spite of my best efforts to hang on, but then, i'm not told how long i'm supposed to hang on or whether i'm expected to let go...... Fraught.
It's just as well i believe in neither heaven nor in a god who takes his entry fees in the currency of pain.

 

How?
Philosophically, i suppose that's true. Clinically, though, we usually look for a more proximal cause, or chain of causation, any link of which we may be able to address, or even redress.
If we can't, death is a reasonable option.

 

Did you even read this -



It is not clear how freely being placed under anaesthesia could be meaningfully compared to willingly taking in a substance for which one knows or has reason to believe is lethal (or undergo a course of action that will likely end with fatal injury).

When people freely undergo anaesthesia, they do so with the intention that they will most likely wake up from the anaesthesia.

This is categorically not the case when a person freely chooses to take in a lethal substance (or undergo a course of action that will likely end with fatal injury).
A person chooses to take in a lethal substance (or undergo a course of action that will likely end with fatal injury) with the explicit intention to end their life.
This is nothing like freely choosing to undergo anaesthesia.

 

It is obvious that you have never been put under anesthesia yourself or you would not say such things. Lucky you.

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Here, whenever one is anesthetized they are first informed that there is a chance that they will die from the procedure and they must affirm to the medical professional that tells them this that they fully understand the risk they are taking. Each time I have had surgery I have gone through this process, been told this and agreed to take the risk.

Intention has nothing at all to do with the actual experience of being put under. A dose of phenobarbital strong enough to shut down your heart would feel no different at all from one that just put you to sleep. Like Frag said, everything goes black, when you come to there is no memory of the experience.

I am right there with Will on that desire. Dogs are wonderful.

 

@Stoniphi --

I think it's clear by now that Wynn has literally no knowledge relevant to the topic at hand and is merely trolling here.

 

You didn't read my post(s).

:shrug:

 

We read them; we just didn't think they were representative of our experience, relevant to our understanding of the world or useful to our decision-making.

 

You don't find that your intentions for an action shape your experience of said action?

 

Yeah, it appears that way. :shrug:

 

@wynn --

My expectations when I take a swig of beer might color the taste of the beer, but what they will have zero effect on is the effect the alcohol in the beer has on my system.

 

An action and an experience are different: experience consists of thoughts and sensations; an action is a deliberate physical event. Either may be infinitesimally brief, or vastly protracted (depending partly on how you define an action; whether you see a complex act as single or serial).

In short, no.

An intention exists only in the mind; it has no substance or consequence in the physical world.
It may be abandoned, prevented, aborted, altered or carried forward. Only in the last case does it become an action. Action may fail, be thwarted, partly succeed, or wholly succeed in achieving its intent.
It's the action or series of actions in the physical realm that "shapes" the experience of carrying out an action, not the intention itself.

If my roof needs repair and i intend to climb up to do it, but change my mind, no experience results - except a mild emotional one: perhaps disappointment in self, or relief.
If i decide to carry out that intention and begin to climb the ladder, but fall off half-way, that's an experience. Whatever bruises i may get are an unexpected part of the experience.
If i get all the way up, that's an experience. If i proceed to fix the loose shingles, that's the intended action and the expected experience - unless i hit my thumb with the hammer - that's an unexpected part of the experience. If, once up, i have an attack of vertigo, that's an unexpected experience. If i fall off the roof, that's another unexpected experience.
In none of those cases was the unexpected experience caused by the intention - which never changed - but by unforeseen, unintended factors.

If i intend to kill myself, proceed to do it and die, that's the intended action and expected outcome - with competence and luck, a very brief experience.
If i intend to kill myself, proceed to do it and survive, that's an intended act followed by an unexpected experience.

And so what?

 

Scenario 1: You cut vegatables, and accidentally cut yourself in the finger.
Scenario 2: You deliberately cut yourself in the finger.

Is your experience of the wound the same in both scenarios?