Originally posted by Rosuav
Some lethal drugs are pretty gruesome, actually. When you look into things in some detail, there's really no non-violent way to terminate a life. Yes, there are methods of killing (or suicide) less violent and less painful than vomiting up your own interior; but nothing's painless, save perhaps an overdose of painkillers - which can backfire messily and uncomfortably if you vomit THEM up, so it may well not have worked for her.
Originally posted by Rilthyn
Legalising heroin as a painkiller for terminal patients in the exact same situations that would warrant euthanasia, but who wish to stay alive until the end.
Just a heads up on the pharmacology here. Morphine and other related pain relief agents are opiate derivatives, just as Heroin is. I've never heard of heroin being specifically used as a pain relief, but being in the same family I don't doubt it has some of those qualities. Its major initial effect is as an accute respiratory depressent. People who OD on heroin basically have the part of their brain that tells them to breathe shut down. This leads to low oxygen in the blood, and consequently low oxygen in the heart and brain. (Heart stops pumping, brain starts dying).

Having said all that, I honestly believe "pain free" death is well and truly possible - unless you really can't handle a needle prick. Ever held your dog while it was put down? Its hardly brutal. Massive drug OD's work similarly, and are even used in hospital environments to assist people like late stage cancer sufferers. Most folks will have heard of cases where the morphone dose has been upped to the point where it stops the breathing. Obviously these situations are pushing a very grey area in the legislation.

Other types of OD's are however FAR from pain free. The typical commonplace scenario being women (especially teenage girls) who dose up on over the couinter medications like paracetemol. Most things that are (A) available, and (B) orally ingested work slowly, and don't have significant enough effects to cause immediate death. What they will potentially do is destroy your liver function causing one or all of the following:
* A period of being unwell, likely unable to take to much medication to assist as this is also processed by the liver.
* Long term damage to liver function, may effect types of medications you can take and decrease your tolerance to things such as alcohol.
* Have enough and don't get it out of your stomach, suffer a slow agonising death over a period of three weeks or so as your organs slowly shut down and die due to the inability to process the concoction of crap you've ingested. On the bright side you'll likely be conscious for most of it, as again they'll be unable to give you too many meds cause most of those are also processed by the liver.

Drug assisted and effectively painless euthanasia is definitely possible, but it really does need to be handled by professionals and within the bounds of a robust system taking into account the relevant ethical, moral, and medical considerations.

For clarification on my point of view, it should only be an option for cases on MEDICAL grounds, where:
A) Death from the condition is 99.99% certain, AND
B) The patient IS suffering high levels of pain and discomfort, AND
C) Existing therapies are insufficient to alleviatre the suffering, AND
D) The patient (of legal age) is coherent and rationale enough to give consent.

I'd also (in principal) like to see it accessible for those who are getting old and want to "move on" before they become rambling dribbling zombies - however I think THAT is a much harder debate.
- When are they capable of such a decision?
- Can someone make that decision for them?
- Are they actually suffering?
- Even if they are.... do they know it?