Massachusetts texting suicide verdict; woman found guilty of manslaughter

[Oceander]

I strongly disagree.  No...very strongly.


If we assume "these circumstances" includes malice, then I agree.  But if he had wanted her encouragement when his courage wavered, then she was just helping a friend.  Some people tie their hands behind their back before hanging.  Some people form suicide pacts with another.  There are various ways people have to overcome instinct to do what they want.  If that involves help from a friend, who are we to say no?

Put a giant "If" in front of that sentence, and we're in agreement.

Then we'll have to agree to strongly disagree. 

But tell me, suppose all we had was a callow grand daughter who stood to inherit who "assisted" her grand mother to kill herself by talking her into "doing it" because, well, the grand daughter says the grand mother didn't want to live any more, hated living, and the medical records show that grandma was in a lot of pain.  Is that ok?

And if it's really ok to talk someone over that final hump and into actually killing themselves, isn't it just fine and dandy if you just cut to the chase and put a bullet through their skull for them?  Isn't that doing them a favor?  After all, they told you they wanted to die, even tried it unsuccessfully once. 

Where do we draw the line?

And more to the point, since none of us is omniscient, where do we draw the line for the purposes of protecting the infirm and ill from those who would take advantage of them?

Anything less than a bright line rule that makes assisting a suicide a crime is simply walking down the garden path of eugenics.  And the first to go will be the disabled and the old. 

[Gefn]

 

Truth is, we don't have a lot of help for some people, and throwing medications at it is a bit of desperation.  It's not like a broken bone they can set and know they're doing the right thing.  Talk therapy combined with medications is best for most people, but it doesn't fix

I can tell you my local hospital treats most people with ECT now if they don't respond to Meds. Which is a catch  22 because most meds take up to six weeks to start working and hospitals now want people out after two weeks because that's pretty much most health care plans will cover unless they do the ECT. Which is a whole other can of worms and problems.

[bigheadfred]

If you don't understand what involuntary manslaughter means, look it up.

The court determined this to be not in her favor. I'll go with that.

[Smokin Joe]

I strongly disagree.  No...very strongly.


If we assume "these circumstances" includes malice, then I agree.  But if he had wanted her encouragement when his courage wavered, then she was just helping a friend.  Some people tie their hands behind their back before hanging.  Some people form suicide pacts with another.  There are various ways people have to overcome instinct to do what they want.  If that involves help from a friend, who are we to say no?

Put a giant "If" in front of that sentence, and we're in agreement.

Quite a few states have laws against assisted suicide.

Those reflect a moral obligation to help others with their problems.

That help should never take the form of loading the gun they are going to blow themselves away with, or encouraging them to do it themselves. We're going to disagree.