End of life ....

[bkkguy]

I doubt if many actions being illegal in Thailand have ever been much of a deterrent to their actually happening.

and the reverse is also true - just because the law in Thailand now specifies that the patient's wishes in a living will must be respected does not mean you will necessarily find a hospital, or indeed an individual doctor, willing to do so

discussing this issue with a senior administrator at a large private hospital in Bangkok in August last year just weeks after the final appeal against the original 2010 executive decree was overturned I was originally told that this probably only applied to public hospitals (even though the English translation of the decree I presented stated it applied to all doctors and hospitals) but anyway the chairman and the hospital board, in conjunction with many other major private hospitals, will consider the issue and at some point decide on their response. From recent checks the hospital still has no procedure for a patient to place a living will on file as part of his patient records and the doctors have been issued no guidelines about this issue

the responses you get in the forums on this issue is fairly typical of the uninformed speculation you get on most issues in the forums - this is a serious issue and if you are serious about it you need to discuss this specifically with your preferred doctor/hospital then get a Thai lawyer who specialises in this field who can draw up a living will that accurately outlines your requests and will be accepted by your doctor/hospital

bkkguy

[cdnmatt]

cdnmatt's suggestions are dangerous and messy (no guarantee for success and putting others in danger as well), and best considered a joke (not funny by my standards).

No, I was actually being quite serious. Ok, a couple of those were stupid suggestions, but nonetheless... if it ever comes time, I'm not leaving anything to second chance.

Duct taping some C4 to my head, and detonating it in a secluded river I'm assuming has a high proababilty of success rate.

Same goes for maybe skydiving from 10,000 feet without a parachute. I would imagine that has a low rate of failure.

I'd definitely never use any of the conventional methods -- hangings, pills, electrocution, etc. We've all heard horror stories about those going bad. Hell, I've heard stories where people shot themselves in the face, and instead of dieing, ended up in excruiciating pain & surgery for months, then had to live the rest of their lives without eyes or a nose.

Sorry, but if I'm going to do suicide, I'm going to ensure it gets done right. As for doctor assisted suicide, I don't know, I'd have to reseach it more, especially the exact chemicals they use. Considering the number of botched lethal injections in the US over the last several years, can't say I'm too confident in it.

[Tobi]

A simple and painless way to go is to take a massive overdose of heroin, a drug which shouldn't be too hard to find in most major metropolises.

[cdnmatt]

A simple and painless way to go is to take a massive overdose of heroin, a drug which shouldn't be too hard to find in most major metropolises.

Yeah, but it would be painful as hell for the ~3 hours it takes to kill you. Same as why I wouldn't be too enthusiastic about doctor assisted suicide. What happens if it gets botched, and my last few hours of being alive are in a pain that I never knew existed, as I lay there while all my internal organs and muscles are dissolving?

Fuck that, let's go skydiving.

[Tobi]

What?! If you use a large enough dose of heroin, you'll be dead before you've finished pushing the plunger all the way down!!

[cdnmatt]

My apologies Heisenberg, I don't have much experience with heroin, so maybe I'm wrong.

heh, sorry... I'm in the middle of watching the Breaking Bad series again. Too bad they discontinued it. Good show.

[Tobi]

Aw, a box set binge, fab.

[frequent]

heh, sorry... I'm in the middle of watching the Breaking Bad series again. Too bad they discontinued it. Good show.

Since the basis of the show is that the hero has a terminal disease what did you want to happen so that it could continue? He rises from the dead on the third day?

[bkkguy]

Since the basis of the show is that the hero has a terminal disease what did you want to happen so that it could continue? He rises from the dead on the third day?

it's not like it hasn't been done before, and they've managed to pull it off for much longer then 13 weeks!

bkkguy

[Surfcrest]

A simple and painless way to go is to take a massive overdose of heroin, a drug which shouldn't be too hard to find in most major metropolises.

Oh, I'm sure most people wouldn't know how to handle street heroin, let alone find a vein to inject it in. Besides, if that didn't work one might forget they wanted to die and find a whole new passion for life. Here in Canada we're number 2 in the world for overdose deaths behind our friends to the south, with a fraction of the population of the US. A great number of those deaths happen right here, on the lower East-side of downtown Vancouver. The killer these days is not heroin, it's Fentanyl, a synthetic street drug out of China that backroom labs add to other street drugs to make them more potent. I'm sure that one would be easier than heroin, although still not an easy out.

These days, I think Social Media has the power to bring about change, if not express the people's desire for change. Doctor assisted suicide just makes sense in an ethical society, which a lot of countries (my own included) are rapidly moving towards, if not are there already. I think if people support it and make it an issue, even here in Thailand (perhaps delayed until democracy returns) then it could become a reality. Who knows, maybe they could add it to the medical tourism list to cut down on the number of balcony dives. They could have it on Koh Tao.

Surfcrest