Is it Ever Ok for Someone to Take His Own Life?

I think people should be allowed to do whatever they want with their own life.

This story would have made more sense and been easier understood about why the husband participated in the joint suicide if you had mentioned at the beginning of the story that he was loosing his hearing and was beginning to unable to hear the orchestra play in practice and in concert.

Give all the pertinent facts at the beginning instead of a aside at the end of the story.

If someone is 'not' allowed to do as they please with their own life it is implied that they are relinquishing that control to someone else.

It is your life. You alone get to decide what you do with it. No one can feel your pain, suffer your illness, or put themselves in your shoes. I don't want to suffer unmercifully for years or be a burden to my family. Medicine is limited when it comes to actually curing illness. There is a huge difference between living and just being alive.

If you have ever watched a family member slowly being eaten up by cancer, and watched the horrific pain endured, and the inevitable outcome of this torture, letting a fellow human being choose not to go through that is a gift. Let those who so choose have that gift. Brian Keith will always be a hero. Look it up.

I think it's very hard for someone to answer this who is not terminally ill and/or has never been clinically depressed.

After watching my own two parents continually disintegrate so that currently they are both in wheelchairs, diapers and suffer from profound dementia/brain damage, and it has been six years of this with no end in sight, I say kudos to Edward and Joan for having the ability and intelligence to do what they did. They saved their families from having to experience years of expensive (financially and emotionally) suffering and watching painful and inevitable decline. They chose the most excellent way to go, in my opinion. This should be available to others.

what these questions really force us to ask is "do we believe in a higher authority." If not then sure people should be allowed to do whatever they'd like with their own lives and itwhy should anyone else care?

Of course it's okay, people should be allowed to do what they want provided it does not hurt anyone else. Trying to impose Christofascist control over other people who aren't hurting anyone is abjectly evil and immoral. If people want to kill themselves and no children are left behind to be emotionally harmed, intellectually and morally superior atheists find no problem with that.

why is it even a debate? if one individual decides when his/her life will end according to their terms, they're exercising their freedom. who else should have a say on the matter? governments?
not a lot of sense in going around claiming how "free" we are if we're too scared to accept all its forms. grow a pair, freedom is messy.
dont like it? move to China.
Peace

Author Carolyn Heilbrun decided to take her own life when, in her own estimation, it was no longer worth living. I would make the same decision in a heartbeat, and have announced that decision to family and friends so that they will not be shocked or surprised when it happens.

Everyone has the right and should have reasonable access to end of life. We have progressed through several levels of education and understanding to reach our current state. While still difficult for some to accept, there is no reason we should suffer through a painful, awkward and humiliating death, which serves no useful, reasonable purpose. Ideally we all are tought - or learn - that death is inevitable and at some point it is more intelligent and human to deliberately end life while still able to make that decision and carry it out.

I've already made the plans and will make them happen when the time comes.

RCharles

ABC, no matter how tight deadlines are, you should still proofread, or at least run a spell check right before you upload: "Were coving"?!

No

Absolutely.

If i brought a pet into a vets' office and the pet was in agonizig pain and could not have a quality life. Not only would the vet help me give my pet a comfortable death, they would likely hold me in contempt if i chose to treat the animal in the same way we treat a human at the end of life.

While it may appear that i am comparing the value of a human life to that of a dog or cat, i am actually not. I am comparing the compassion that we show our pets to the lack of compassion we show our family.

Can you imagine a world where we would force the beloved family dog to spend its final days, weeks, months or years confined to a vet clinic kenel in pain.

Why can't we show the same type of respect for our family members.

as I got older I've become an atheist so it's easy for me to say that people should be able to take their own lives. what's starting to trouble me is that (in though) I can come up with a good reason (besides braking the law) why I cant take someone else's life. Why am I forced to accept social norms or universal morals?

Why is this even being asked? I think it's wrong to deny the choice of what someone chooses to do with their life.

It's arrogant to believe we have the right to judge others' choices in life, much less if they choose to live or die. When everyone lives, thinks, behaves, and desires the same things we've lost our individuality and freedom to be individuals.

Weren't we founded on give me liberty or give me death?

Absolutely we should have that right!!!!!! I can't believe the U.S. is that far behind these other countries - -

I watched my mother slowly die of dementia/alzhiemers. Everyone should have the option of going early if they wish

Proofing:
"for its openness to patients with a vast array of ailments -- and it’s openness"

You got "its" right once and wrong once in the same sentence.

"Is it ever right for someone to take their own life?"

Also--subject/verb agreement.