
New Zealand lawmakers pass euthanasia bill - sahin-boydas
https://www.newsweek.com/new-zealand-passes-euthanasia-bill-that-would-allow-people-terminal-diseases-end-their-lives-1471631
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generalpass
Are they intentionally confusing euthanasia with assisted suicide? These
things are completely different.

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nashashmi
How so?

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generalpass
> How so?

Imagine there is a machine connected to someone and that if a button is
pressed, the mahcine will kill the person it is connected to.

If the person who it is connected to presses the button, this is suicide. The
assisted portion is that someone else has created and connected the machine,
but it is still suicide because the machine cannot kill the person without the
button being pressed.

If someone else presses the button, it is something other than suicide. In the
case that the act of killing the person is classified as an "act of mercy",
then it could be classified as euthanasia.

The article uses these two phrases as if they are interchangeable, but they
are conceptually quite different.

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netfl0
I understand this is well intentioned. This also seems pretty dangerous. It
puts a lot of trust in the complex bureaucracy that is the medical system.

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mantap
Is that different to DNRs? It's the job of doctors to make life and death
decisions. It's fine to not trust doctors; after experiencing some medical
errors I don't either. But often there's no choice other than to trust
doctors, if you are on the operating table for instance. Terminal illness is
another such case.

