Oh, another thread about this drama. Well, I have explained my thoughts on this in the past but I think this whole drama is heading into the wrong direction. Instead of arguing about the right to die, the police is now involved - treating us like criminals again? It's not like we experience this in the psychiatric system already, when they lock us into mental hospitals for suicide ideation, basically making us feel guilty for very rational thoughts. Shameful. We, as a society, should move towards a pro-choice situation. And this website is basically the only thing we have right now. Assisted-suicide isn't an option for many of us because all euthanasia organizations currently have a very elitist stance on suicide. They think they're the ones who decide if someone is allowed to die. And they think only people with a terminal illness, severe disability or incredible physical pain are eligible for assisted-suicide. I don't know of any country where this is different. Just look at the situation in Switzerland. We are known for our liberal euthanasia laws but the reality looks very different. For example, Exit Switzerland has several layers of rules in place to prevent young people from dying.
The first set of rules are (which I fulfill completely):
Suicide assistance may be rendered whenever the person wishing to die
-knows what he or she is doing (faculty of judgement)
-does not act on impulse (due consideration)
-has a persistent wish to die (constancy)
-is not under the influence of any third party (autonomy)
-commits suicide by his or her own hand (agency)
I fulfill all of them, no discussion. I know what suicide means. I understand it's a final act. I also don't act on impulse and my desire to die is consistent, for years. I am not under the influence of any third party and I could commit suicide by my own hands. If these were all requirements for assisted suicide, I could sign up and leave in an official way, no problem. But if you scroll down on their website, you will stumble upon this:
This means that even suicide assistance to young healthy people would technically be legal.
In full awareness of its enormous responsibility, however, EXIT has self-imposed restrictions through its by-laws and internal guidelines.
EXIT will provide end-of-life care only to persons
-with hopeless prognoses
-or with unbearable symptoms
-or with unacceptable disabilities
Which means I'm not eligible for assisted suicide anymore - because all of my struggles are of mental nature. In other words, only severely disabled, terminally ill and old people are allowed to die in their opinion. I don't really have a 'hopeless prognosis' - I don't even know what this means. I assume they refer to cancer-patients, for example. There are also no 'unbearable symptoms' in my case and and I have no disability. So I'm out. It's really cheap and a jerk-move in my opinion because they exclude everyone who is young and suffers from mental illness to take their services - for literally no reason. They think it's up to them to decide who is allowed to leave in a peaceful way. And that's not what it should be about. They should simply provide resources and if you want to go through with that process, assist you in your exit - and make sure it's peaceful.
But because we don't have this, we have this shitshow going right now. All of this drama could have been prevented in a different society. And we wouldn't have to have this discussion right now if this society would have an empathic and understanding stance on our struggles. And on suicide in general. It's a joke that the police is now involved because an adult person - someone who was 25 years old - decided to leave this world. And they had every right to do so. It was up to them and they took their chance. But as I said, apparently it's popular to tell other people what they can and can't do with their lives right now. I see a trend. It's concerning but I also know, in many countries, people are actually supportive of the right to die-movement. All polls I've read about this subject indicate that the overwhelming majority is in favor of assisted-suicide. All we can do is hope that the future will bring change and more acceptance of people like us.
Nonetheless, we need this forum. It's literally the only place we have right now. It's our safe-space and they are trying to take it away from us. There is nothing else.
www.google.com
