The Death Treatment (2015)
I used to unequivocally support the right to euthanasia, but as I learned more about it, I realized it was a complex issue, without simple black and white answers.<p>One of the stories that made me reconsider my position was about a young man who was severely burned in an accident which also killed his father.  He spent a long time in the burn ward, and was completely disfigured and disabled.  He was in constant agony and felt he had nothing to live for.<p>He made a video about himself called &quot;Let Me Die&quot;, and submitted it to his state&#x27;s legislature, begging them to allow him to legally end his own life.  His appeal was denied, his injuries eventually healed (to the extent that he was no longer in the burn ward, not completely), he was glad that he lived, and went on to a career of educating others about these issues.<p>Another story that affected me was about some island where the population discovered a readily available fruit that grew on trees on the island was deadly.  So they had a rash of suicides, with teenagers killing themselves because they were told by their parents to clean their rooms or some such.<p>I may be confusing bits of that last story with some others that I&#x27;ve read.  But I have read multiple stories of teenagers killing themselves over things that most mature adults consider trivial and blown out of proportion by teenage angst that the kids would most likely would have been able to put behind them as they got older, if only they hadn&#x27;t killed themselves.<p>There are legitimate concerns about autonomy, self-determination, and paternalism.  I&#x27;m the first to admit those are serious concerns, and in some extreme cases the decision to allow or even help someone take their own life is clearly ethical.  But there are also a lot of cases where the ethics of the situation are not so clear-cut, and I find it disturbing that some people are so dogmatic about their position that they can&#x27;t see any dillema, are unwilling to seek other ways of helping or alleviating these people&#x27;s suffering, and seem to view suicide as the default answer to difficult situations.<p>I&#x27;m also disturbed to hear that Etienne Vermeersch, a philosopher of ethics and &quot;the most influential intellectual in Flanders&quot;, can confidently proclaim that Belgium &quot;stands, ethically, at the top of the world.&quot;  This smacks of hubris, and is unworthy of a man or nation so distinguished.