[louwrentius]

At least we in NL have access to Euthanasia. Frankly I would like to see Futurama style suicide boots.

OK, the latter may seem extreme, but why do we have all the liberty in the world to create life, including a lot of suffering, but not to end our own?

In America, Euthanasia doesn’t seem like an option, but access to guns solves that option in practice. Terrible, but the hard reality.

In the end, It is about quality of life not quantity of life?. And everything in the medical world should be focused on that. For example, don’t put people on ventilators when there is no possibility of recovery.

Anyway, @Oleander: I wish you the best under the circumstances and that you may get what you wish for.

[tzs]

Futurama style suicide booths would be terrible. A huge fraction of the people who use them would be people who if they had just had to wait a couple of years would no longer have been suicidal.

Some stats [1]. In 2013 among students in grades 9-12 in the US, 11.6% of males and 22.4% of females seriously considered attempting suicide in the previous 12 months.

19.6% of females and 10.3% of males made a plan about how they would attempt it. 10.6% of females and 5.4% of males did attempt it. But only 3.6% of the females and 1.8% of males made an attempt that actually resulted in injury, poisoning, or overdose that required medical attention.

With a Futurama suicide booth where all you have to do is step in and insert a coin, which you can easily do on impulse while passing by, I'd expect that most of those "seriously considered" cases would become "successfully suicided" cases. As would a lot of people who considered it but not seriously.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/suicide-datasheet...

[louwrentius]

Yes, many people who attempt suicide are later happier and glad they didn’t die. That’s why it was more of an idea or concept, not meant literally / too seriously.

But for those people that really had enough there is no legal, clean way to end their life. Not even in The Netherlands, where euthanasia was first legalized.

Especially people with severe psychological issues will have a hard time proving that they suffer tremendously and that there is no hope of recovery.

[oleander73]

There are actually a number of countries (and US states) that now have euthanasia laws. We got there first, but that also means we didn't get to learn from anyone. There are certainly problems with the Dutch laws, but there is no political will to change it, because it works 'well enough'.

I've extensively studied the Dutch euthanasia law and practice and think I know the right things to say to convince the doctor, but it really shouldn't have to be that hard.

[louwrentius]

Fair enough, Verder mee eens! Heel veel sterkte!

[Deinos]

The irony being... isn't euthanasia the ultimate freedom? If it is our body, and we have full autonomy as long as we aren't causing direct harm, the "American Way" should be to allow the freedom of choice as to what happens to said body.

[refurb]

And you are free to commit suicide in the US. From what i understand most laws making suicide and attempted suicide are no longer enforced or were changed.

What’s we don’t do is make it easy for someone else to assist in your death. That opens up an entirely different can of worms and anyone who thinks that’s an easy change to make is delusional. It’s fraught with issues and one needs to tread carefully.

[oleander73]

It's definitely complicated, but in two countries the courts have already ruled that the ban on assistance violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

[Deinos]

That's a fair distinction. I did some digging, and it appears unassisted suicide only has common law implications in most states since the 90's; however, as of 2019, only 8 states have laws on the books legalizing assisted suicide (https://apnews.com/article/7f0fe9d789294a02852c1669c892f382).

[Nzen]

Presumably, suicide is illegal where I live because it may involve another person. Obviously, destroying my own life by my own hand leaves no perpetrator, though it does leave suffering [0] in my social circle. Of course, if I'm unsuccessful, our social net must pay to pump my stomach or sew my gash. Presumably, there is a punishment in place to prevent a proliferation of expensive, half hearted attempts. I agree that policy, unfortunately, affects people who aren't intending to harm themselves.

But, consider my semi mobile 97 year old, arthritic grandmother. If she did harbor a desire, she probably isn't in a position to end herself without suffering while she expires. She's not in a position to get a gun, or jump into a river. She doesn't control her pill supply, so she can't swallow all of her opiods. Maybe she could starve or dehydrate herself for an age.

Her greatest hope for dying without complication means involving an able bodied person. But, it's hard for uninvolved people to prove that murder didn't happen, given that the consenting party is gone. Sure, maybe the medical professional isn't interested in killing this person, but benefactors might be. It looks like murder in Los Angeles County in 2018 was 5 per 1e5 [2] and suicide was 14 per 1e5 residents [3]. (LA county contains 1e7 residents.) That is many cases that would need to be audited, and hence an expense that would be simpler to avoid with prohibition.

To be clear, I'm answering your question of why a society may choose to continue criminalizing suicide. I say this as someone who plans to off myself before my quality of life reduces to what (I perceive) my grandparents have experienced. Of course, it is easy for me to pronounce my intention [4] while my preferred date is still decades in the future.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvkbHIrrrvU

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25526104

[2] http://www.laalmanac.com/crime/cr02.php

[3] https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/annual/measur...

[4] https://twitter.com/Ashton_Murdock_/status/12617511652110868...