Comments on: Ohad Oren on euthanasia, supermarket style http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2008/11/19/ohad-oren-on-euthanasia-supermarket-style/ Just another blogs.bmj.com weblog Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:50:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Kareya Bauer http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2008/11/19/ohad-oren-on-euthanasia-supermarket-style/#comment-3212 Kareya Bauer Sat, 22 Nov 2008 03:08:15 +0000 http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/?p=505#comment-3212 Ohad, you are a wise young man. Indeed, how is it possible that we allow people, much less youths, to buy the tools of their own destruction in supermarkets? That is the question. We don't want to interfere with someone's freedom to pursue a life that leads inevitably to an early death, including enormous healthcare costs that would otherwise be avoidable, yet we insist that those who are suffering chronic pain continue with their lives, even though that is condemning them to a life of torture. I can speak to this because I have a chronic pain syndrome myself. I am lucky: I have it under control through non-drug means, but many people with my disease commit suicide, and I know why they do it. It is completely rational when the pain is that great and medicine cannot relieve the pain. I don't see the value in extending that sort of torture, not even to my enemies. We are such an adolescent culture, afraid of death to the point that we don't allow others the ability to choose death, even when it is the right thing to do. I wish that those who put a ban on assisted suicde will experience such pain for so long that they will finally understand why in these cases it is the right thing to do, the moral thing to do, the kindest of things. Ohad, you are a wise young man. Indeed, how is it possible that we allow people, much less youths, to buy the tools of their own destruction in supermarkets? That is the question. We don’t want to interfere with someone’s freedom to pursue a life that leads inevitably to an early death, including enormous healthcare costs that would otherwise be avoidable, yet we insist that those who are suffering chronic pain continue with their lives, even though that is condemning them to a life of torture. I can speak to this because I have a chronic pain syndrome myself. I am lucky: I have it under control through non-drug means, but many people with my disease commit suicide, and I know why they do it. It is completely rational when the pain is that great and medicine cannot relieve the pain. I don’t see the value in extending that sort of torture, not even to my enemies.

We are such an adolescent culture, afraid of death to the point that we don’t allow others the ability to choose death, even when it is the right thing to do. I wish that those who put a ban on assisted suicde will experience such pain for so long that they will finally understand why in these cases it is the right thing to do, the moral thing to do, the kindest of things.

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