Sir Terry Pratchett calls for euthanasia tribunals

[markfiend]

I am finding the religious groups denunciation of assisted suicide rather hard to understand.

There's a certain kind of religious person that always seems to complain about people "playing god".

I wonder what it would take for them to be happy? I sometimes imagine their neolithic analogues condemning the domestication of animals and arguing that we're meant to be hunter-gatherers.

Your mileage may vary of course.

My gripe remains that I don't see how you can legislate against undue influence.

I do see your concerns (and share them to some degree) but I would far rather that the attempt is made than we throw up our hands and say "it can't be done!"

Like I said above, there seems to be no evidence from countries where assisted suicide is legal of "granny being coerced into dying". Yes, absence of evidence is not the same as evidence of absence, but had abuses taken place, you would expect someone to have noticed.

[stufarq]

The scene with the refused water..it was hard to watch. But I think your body wants to live even when your mind doesn't, it was his body's reaction to the drugs. By all accounts giving him water might have meant him surviving with brain damage, something it seems unlikely he'd have wished.

Yeah, I'd assumed the same. My point was that it wasn't quite as peaceful as Terry made out. Whatever the reasons behind it, there was a brief moment that seemed anything but peaceful. That's not an argument for either side, just an observation.