Euthanasia should be legal

You make a spirited defence of euthanasia, very much based around the premise that people have a right to end their life and that their decision is final. However, people can only make rational decisions when in a completely sane state of mind. In cases of depression, one is not sane and so cannot make rational decisions. Consequently, as people seeking euthanasia have depression (in the vast majority of cases) their decision is not rational. We should not allow people to make irrational decisions if doing so would seriously harm them, as euthanasia essentially is insofar as it kills. My second point is that it is all well and good to listen to the patient and the patient alone, but the elderly and disabled can be very susceptible to persuasion from friends, family or the media. If euthanasia was legalised it is naive to presume that people will decide to die purely based on their own intuitions, in the Netherlands, the amount of people choosing euthanasia per year has doubled in 10 years (1) yet the amount of people with terminal illnesses has not significantly increased. This would heavily suggest that people are being encouraged, either by observing an increasing trend or feeling obliged to conform to social norms, to be euthanised. If euthanasia is only the patient's choice then there would not be a significant rise. Ultimately, a euthanasia law based on the total autonomy of the individual is impractical and Utopian because it ignores the fact that the large majority of people are readily influenced by other people, especially family and friends who may have ulterior motives. On a side point, how can a doctor tell if the patient wants to die because of pain or if they want to die because they feel they have a duty to save their family money? The elderly have very little security as it is, legalising euthanasia could be construed as a hint that it is acceptable to have euthanasia and therefore some people will come to expect elderly people to seek euthanasia. This could easily lead to people wanting the elderly to die and thinking them selfish to continue consuming resources. Is this a society that values the elderly? "I agree that depression and disparity are horrible. How is relieving oneself of that depression and disparity horrible?" Because it is not needed. Depression is temporary and so by committing suicide these people are seeking a disproportionate solution for something that can be cured. Your argument that they can't regret suicide if they're dead is not valid though as it can be reduced to the absurd; using your logic I could let a lunatic jump off a cliff claiming 'I was right not to stop him, he wanted to jump off a cliff and it's not like they can regret his decision now he's dead'. However, this is contrary to what seems obviously the right thing to do. We should stop a non-sane (I don't think it's entirely apt to call them insane) person making a decision that seriously harms them because we would not take their desire seriously; they are not in the right state of mind to make sensible decisions. "So not only is the person offered help, they are given plenty of time to consider it, and even if they don't want it, it is most likely highly recommended" Just because they are given time to consider, as well as the facts, does not mean that they can process it to make a rational decision. You cannot give a lunatic a book on science and expect them to then make rational scientific judgements. Also, if euthanasia is 'highly recommended' then how does that not influence a patient? If someone is undecided as to whether to seek euthanasia, someone highly recommending it could easily persuade them to do so. We stray into metaphysics here, but I think it is worth noting that we cannot be sure that death is an experience of nothing. I'm not going to postulate different afterlives here but I'm just highlighting the assumption you make. ""What if?" Is a pretty big question and can really be asked to anything. Abortion is legal. "What if the zygote grew up to be a scientist who hooks a satellite into Saturn's orbit?" Well, then that would have been cool, but hopefully someone else will, and abortion is still legal (in lots of places)." For the record, I do not agree with abortion. However, if we can envisage a good outcome for someone who does not have the mental capacity to realise it, we should guide them towards that outcome. If I were suffering under a mental illness then I would want people to stop me from making decisions I have not rationally made. "The doctors are not the ones granting life and death. The patient makes the decision to die or not." Well, in the Netherlands the law states that the doctor has to approve the euthanasia request, so they still have the role of granting the request. (2) (1)http://www.telegraph.co.uk... (2)http://en.wikipedia.org...