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So the choice given to a dying old man faced with watching his "retirement" and healthcare costs drain whatever meager remains of the estate he might leave behind is faced with this choice:

A) Spend six figures on the various hoops needed to legally kill yourself. B) Spend 40 cents on a really good 9mm cartridge.

Medically assisted suicide doesn't work in places without public healthcare. You can NEVER be certain that the decision isn't driven by financial concerns, and like ALL HEALTHCARE IN THE US, its really only available to at least marginally wealthy people in the first place.

Ever see the show Shameless? Very dark comedy throughout, mostly light hearted content. One episode had me balling. One of the main characters is having memory issues. They were sort of working their bucket list that reunited them with a friend that also had memory problems. The friend mentioned their spouse dying. Main character asks how they remembered. They had it written down on a post-it note on the fridge.

If I had to relive my wife dying every day because I forgot, just put me down.

I knew someone who made use of a death with dignity law and one of the doctors that he had to see to get the OK legally had to entourage him to take his own life. Something along the lines of "I have to tell you that, instead of a peaceful drug-assisted death, you have the option to forgo eating and drinking until you die."

We put dogs down every day because they have incurable diseases or are suffering.

I had to put my dog down a few years ago because she was so old she could no longer get up or control her bladder or bowels, and I felt guilty for letting it get that far. I still remember the look in her eyes when they gave her the pain killers to knock her out, she looked so relieved.

I don’t understand how I get to make that decision for a dog, but a grown human, in most places, can’t make that call for themselves and go out in a peaceful and controlled manner. If I knew I was going to die painfully in a few months or a year, I’d definitely take an overdose or nitrogen asphyxiation over the disease. When dogs have a better way out than people, something is seriously wrong.

Maybe it isn't about caring for them maybe it's about teaching them to live with what they have. The skills for being retired are different than the skills of working. The skills of taking care of grandchildren are different than children.

We just sorta assume people know what to do when they get a certain age and maybe that isn't a valid assumption. I am just thinking of an uncle I had whose health just crashed right after he stopped working. He didn't add physical or mental work to make up for not working anymore. As opposed to some elderly I know who have loaded up the hobbies.

What use is a cog that can’t cog anymore? Caring for elders is not built into our value system and not protected by our economic system.

Also, what good is "care for depression" when the causes of depression aren't a "chemical imbalance" but having to live in a partriarchal capitalist society that only values men for what they can provide?

Is this for or against free choice for medical suicide?

The level of sarcasm is too high too understand for me >.>

I don't really see the problem with elderly people who decide they want to check out. If we allowed medically assisted death, they could die with dignity.

If Republicans actually gave a shit about mental health maybe we wouldn't have so many gun suicides.

Why does the US mentality always revolve around a single cause?

It's clear that the availability of an instantaneous way to end your life on a whim with zero effort and zero percieved pain is going to facilitate a lot of suicides. No, banning it wont stop suicide, but it would absolutely reduce them. To suggest otherwise is simply statistically disingenuous, regardless of how much you have the right to bear them or not.