In MY state, I have the right to end my own life if terminally ill. Is that immoral?

It depends what religion or belief you have.

The opposite is immoral.

Hello M:

I believe that I don't wanna end my life with tubes coming out of my body..  I believe that once the quality of life disappears, all that's left is an empty shell who shits his pants..  I believe that I don't want to be a burden on my children.. 

excon

It's a tough question.

My 85-year-old mother is currently rehabilitating after breaking her hip twice. If she were mentally coherent and had been told ahead of time what this would entail, she almost certainly would have said, "Oh no, I don't want to go through that. Just let me go."

But if you were to look at her current day-to-day life, most of her "suffering" is that of a whiny 4-year-old ("The hospital food sucks", "It hurts when I do my rehab exercises", "I don't want to wait for the nurse to go bathroom", etc.).

So, should we be assisting her in ending her life or should we be telling her to keep working to get better?

OTOH, a friend of mine just lost her father. In contradistinction to my mother, who has a dysfunctional mind in a relatively sound body, my friend's father had severe Parkinsonism, so he had a very functional mind in a body that would no longer obey his wishes in any meaningful way. My friend did not give details, but we believe she and her family probably did assist his passing. I suspect if I had the full story, I would agree with their decision.

Of course, there are millions of other cases with mixtures of quality-of-life determinations, worries about temporary depression vs. genuine lack of hope, concerns about how much is driven by medical care costs, etc. I don't think we can make a blanket determination to cover all those contingencies.

Well, then go for it already. No one is apparently going to stop you.

The morality of doing so is your own personal struggle that you have to face for yourself. And if you do so and lose Pascal's wager it will only be you that suffers the consequences in the afterlife.

Hello Red:

Oy vey..

excon

I don't believe it's immoral if the reason for ending your life is that you have a terminal disease which progresses to a point where there is no quality to your life and/or you're in constant pain and if you are of sound enough mind to make that decision.

It's not my problem, so it is not my business.     I think you should be able to if you want to. 

Hey, OS:

Where ya been?

excon

Hello SS:

In fact, those ARE the exact requirements..

excon

Do you plan on exercising this right?

No...I don't believe it is.  Wanting people to suffer without release is.

Your state seems to understand the wisdom of this.

Not IMO.

As they should be. 

Hello Mr.

Nahh. I'm gonna throw myself under a bus.

excon

We are all terminally ill. We just haggle over a couple of years plus or minus.

I believe there is a "less than six months to live" requirement in there somewhere.