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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   22990 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 4, 2025

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600 people per year being deliberately killed

*Voluntarily killed

although if they want to DIY it that seems fine

How is a ~77 year old terminal cancer patient going to DIY suicide, and how is that better for literally anyone? Sucks for them to DIY it, sucks for them even more if they fuck up DIYing it and survive with a crippling injury, sucks if they just can't, and have to die of their terminal disease slowly, sucks for whoever has to find their DIY remains (likely, a family member).

this new category of homicide is totally cool and no problem.

It's not homicide, it's literally voluntary. The average age is 75 for track 2.

Further, given it's VOLUNTARY, it won't happen to you, so why are you so tilted other people are doing it?

I feel like you should convince me why terminal or near terminal old people shouldn't be able to go out peacefully and painlessly. I think everyone has a right to a dignified and painless end, justify why they should be stopped if they consent.

I'll refer to my earlier reply to the (limited) meat of s_m_h's OP, trimmed to remove the commentary on the quality of his writing:

from the perspective of an actual Canadian who knows a couple of elderly & sickish people who did choose assisted suicide I can say this:

While I'm in favour of people being "allowed" to do more or less anything they want (direct and deliberate harm to others aside), in practice the whole thing feels... not good, in the pit of my stomach -- mostly I don't like the "assisted" part all that much, nor the moral preening that seems to go along with it. Could be that people just don't know how to do this thing correctly yet, but I'm not sure that's all there is too it.

The motte is a cancer riddled 96 year-old in constant pain, marking the minutes and waiting for the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding death -- the IRL bailey (IME) often seems to be rather different from that.

You are partying in the motte at the moment; the bailey (which based on the Canadian experience is not a long drive from there) seems rather different, and much more concerning.

I will say though that the cases I've been personally near to feel roughly as uncomfortable as those around the people I've known who offed themselves -- which is pretty uncomfortable, and made worse by the institutional sanction that seems to border on celebration surrounding it.

It's a very Boomer thing somehow, to duck out once the waters get a rough. I won't say that anyone's wrong to do it, but I don't think it should be sanctioned. Both of the people mentioned above could have easily put a bullet in their own head if they wanted it that bad.

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