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talkpoliticsA 91 year old woman is being investigated by the FBI for selling suicide kits.
She claims her kits, which include a bag and tubing to connect to a helium tank with instructions and sell for $60, offer an easy, peaceful death to those who wish to end their lives. She has been criticized for not doing due diligence as to whether her customers need these kits as a compassionate measure or if they are underage or mentally unstable.
While I am in favour of assisted suicide on compassionate grounds, I do share the same concerns voiced by her critics. As well, it seems very wrong to me for someone to profit off of someone's pain and suffering. While I am not convinced she should be jailed for her actions, I do think her business should be shut down. Those who wish to commit suicide can always find a way to do so, either alone or with help without someone profiting off the act.
My questions to you:
1. Do you feel she should be prosecuted for this?
2. If not, should she be able to continue selling the kits?
3. Should the families of those who committed suicide using her kits be able to sue?
She claims her kits, which include a bag and tubing to connect to a helium tank with instructions and sell for $60, offer an easy, peaceful death to those who wish to end their lives. She has been criticized for not doing due diligence as to whether her customers need these kits as a compassionate measure or if they are underage or mentally unstable.
While I am in favour of assisted suicide on compassionate grounds, I do share the same concerns voiced by her critics. As well, it seems very wrong to me for someone to profit off of someone's pain and suffering. While I am not convinced she should be jailed for her actions, I do think her business should be shut down. Those who wish to commit suicide can always find a way to do so, either alone or with help without someone profiting off the act.
My questions to you:
1. Do you feel she should be prosecuted for this?
2. If not, should she be able to continue selling the kits?
3. Should the families of those who committed suicide using her kits be able to sue?
(no subject)
Date: 3/6/11 04:15 (UTC)On the other hand, if it was your partner, who had gone to shrinks, been evaluated as sane, and had expressed a desire to be killed by you, by your car, to end their suffering (and lets go so far as to say that your partner is bed ridden, 2 months to live that will be spent in horrendous agony sick), then the morality of your thought experiment becomes far more ambiguous.
Hell, let's just legalise Nembutal, available only with multiple referrals from GPs, specialists and psychiatrists and say it's still not OK to hit someone with your car. I'm struggling to see the moral ambiguity there, unless you're a crank who takes things in the bible, as interpreted by your personal minister and the tradition in which they were trained, as the word of god or some crap