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Comment by weego | Hacker News Reader

Without being at all patronising, you're lucky to be able to have such a binary view of mental and physical health.

There are so many non-temporary conditions that people live with that can lead to wanting people, very rationally, to speed up end of life.

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Sure... but they should atleast try some kind of therapy, before deciding to end it all permanently.

Please advise: what therapy could help the terminally ill father of a friend of mine? Stage 4 lung cancer. Talk to a psychologist? The only thing that "helped" him were large doses of opiate painkillers.

What's wrong with large doses of optiate painkillers, if you're terminally ill? Addicition isn't a worry, certainly.

The side effects of most pain killers can also be extremely unpleasant. You'll have more time, but you'll be miserable or marginally conscious for most of it.

And they don't always work. Look up intractable pain.

In case of opiates, what side-effects are you thinking of? Constipation is an easy fix. Assuming proper use and dosage, opiates are way safer than NSAIDs.

Yes, this is the exception i put in the braces in my previous post.

But being physically ok, but having depression is something that can be solved by therapy.. or atleast should be tried before ending it

Presumably most if not all people who end up doing an assisted suicide have tried one or more methods to ameliorate their issue before they go to the more extreme approach. Do you have some reason to believe they do not?

I still think there should be a human safeguard to verify that everything else has been tried.

A few questions and an AI box is not 'that'.

What kind of therapy ought someone consider before deciding to end it because their terminal illness is excruciatingly painful?

Studies of psychedelic therapy for terminally ill patients have had some super interesting results, there’s a section on the topic in Michael Pollan’s book How to Change Your Mind which I found fascinating. Seems there is a lot of potential for helping people deal with the existential dread and get more enjoyment from their remaining time with friends and family. Here’s an article for reference: https://nyulangone.org/news/mental-health-benefits-one-dose-...

That said I’m a Swiss citizen and knew someone with a terminal illness who used the “Exit” program and it seemed extremely humane and a positive thing overall and I fully support having it available to everyone in that situation.

Yes, this is the exception i put in the braces in my previous post.

But being physically ok, but having depression is something that can be solved by therapy.. or atleast should be tried before ending it

That’s nice and all, but but in the real world, those things aren’t always available (for any number of reasons, not just financial). In the absence of other solutions, sometimes the best choice may be to end a life rather than continue suffering.

Curious as to why you see parent as lucky to hold a binary view, if you care to say. I would say holding such a view is unlucky. Perhaps I’m missing something important.

The use of the cliche "Sucide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem" demonstrates binary thinking, as though there is only one temporary problem and no compounding factors.

It's also a pretty shitty thing to say. It's designed to make people who may want to die feel worse about themselves by calling their feelings merely "temporary".

I was asking weego why they consider ajsnigrutin lucky to hold the binary view you outline.

Sure, but publicly, and I had a response (as I was thinking the same thing).

The part you didn't respond to is why they are "lucky" to be able to hold a view...

My guess is that if you have such a binary view of the world, you might have lived a simple or sheltered or privileged life.

Ah, I see, my mistake. I agree with your guess.

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