[rich_sasha]

As I say, my concern isn't academic. I was close to a situation where someone was allegedly coerced into refusing medical help. It was in fact investigated, ended up as word against word, and nothing came of it. That was in a jurisdiction where euthanasia is not legal and anyway such coercion would be illegal, for both the coercer and the doctors. It didn't stop the alleged coercion, and no one was prosecuted. So how leaky would the system be where euthanasia is in facr legal?

But please don't get me wrong, I am absolutely full of sympathy to people so desperately ill they want to call it quits.

[invalidname]

Neither is my concern academic. My MIL struggled with cancer treatments for a decade of terrible pain. My father was catatonic with Alzheimer and my mother is in a pretty bad place health-wise.

I don't want to appear dismissive of your concerns because I'm not. Such abuse is horrible, criminal and tragic. No question. But looking at the morality issue and consistency I think the answer is pretty clear. We need to give people agency over their own lives. Safeguards are essential for sure, and abuse will happen even with the safeguards in place. But the current situation is just tragic. People are afraid to go to the hospital because they're afraid they will be kept alive and in-effect tortured to a slow death.

[wat10000]

Would you support laws that force people to get medical treatment whether they want it or not? It would avoid the sort of problem you witnessed.