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Posted by Mike on January 31, 2002 at 19:30:34: In Reply to: Todays poll posted by Sheila on January 31, 2002 at 14:08:56: "I think aborition and "assisted suicide" are similar" well not exactly ! In the case of assisted suicide you have an element of consent. Although I think its important to make the distinction between "assisted suicide" and "euthanasia" (often people use the terms interchangably) where a person is allowed die without the opportunity to give/refuse consent. There was a case in Ireland a few years ago where aa patient who was in a persistant vegitative state (coma) for several years had their feeding tube withdrawn. That was going too far IMHO because there was no consent given and in any case a lot of evidence has emerged in recent years that many PVS cases are misdiagnosed and that patients are often in fact fully concious but unable to communicate. If someone wants to die and provided they can be shown to be of sound mind and fully aware of their prospects of recovery then there should be no reason to deny them that right however the desision is the patients alone and nobody should be allowed to pressure them or make the decision on their behalf. Assisted suicide may go against the teachings of the Roman Catholic (and other) churches and while practicing Catholics are fully entitled to have their beliefs respected not everyone is a follower of the RC church and/or its teachings. Therfore it is wrong to use the teachings of any particular church as a basis for lawmaking
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