I'm sorry but why are so many people here ITT shocked at the fact that VAD organizations in Switzerland have very stringent requirements and safeguards in place before a person is allowed to access the service?
I'm ulimately pro-choice, but it's a fact that even here on SS there have been minors who signed up and have CTB'ed (under 18). There have also been people who CTB'ed on SS with their main reasons (that they have stated in their goodbye threads) being unattractive, not sociable, getting rejected/dumped/divorced by their GF or wife, losing their jobs, losing their money, not being able to afford housing or any other socioeconomic circumstances. Also users who've mentioned that they need to get drunk before they CTB to bypass SI, or those who have to do it impulsively. Users who have CTB'ed when they haven't exhausted all attempts at medical treatment.
I wholeheartedly agree that every adult who is mentally competent has the right to take their own lives of their own volition for whatever reason because living isn't an obligation. Those SS users all had a right to CTB in the end as adults for whatever reason. However, there's a fundamental difference between consenting adults committing suicide by drinking SN which they have acquired through whatever means of their own volition, versus asking for direct active assistance from someone else to CTB.
If I was the head of Dignitas/Exit/etc I too would institute requirements to make sure that requests for assistance to CTB are due to medical reasons and not to socioeconomic circumstances that aren't unamenable. I absolutely would include a safeguard such as psych eval to make sure said patient is mentally competent and has the mental capacity to decide on something as final as CTB (I agree that mental illnesses do not automatically equate to mental incompetence or incapacity, but for a non-negligible amount of people does.) I absolutely would mandate a lengthy waiting period is in place to prevent impulsive requests, and I would mandate that EVERY avenue of treatment has been exhausted before our org assists someone to end their own lives. If I didn't have these safeguards and requirements then VAD would be COMPLETELY banned for EVERYONE (even the terminally ill) with no exceptions within a single week.
Sanctioned suicide booths where every consenting adult is able to CTB with no further questions asked will never be a thing in our lives, and not in many centuries in the future either. It doesn't matter if you think it should in principle. Yes, it fucking blows that humans are born without their consent(s) in this world, and it fucking sucks that SI exists in every human so humans will naturally be heavily biased towards continued existence (and a truly objective assessment of the value of life will never be possible). It also sucks that gravity is a thing and humans cannot fly without needing aircraft. These are however fundamental realities of this universe and it's simply impossible to change otherwise. 2+2 will never be 5 even if one wishes with all their heart that it would.
As much as some people on here want to pretend otherwise it's a fact that not EVERY single one of the 1 million suicides that occur on this planet each year were all carefully, and cooly deliberated and thought upon without impulse. Not every single one of these suicides were committed by people who have truly exhausted every attempt at medical treatment. It's insanity to think every VAD/MAID org in Switzerland should be completely laissez-faire on CTB'ing. As I've stated above, if they were then VAD would be completely banned for good. The right wing anti-choice conservatives would have every evidence and cause they can think of to prohibit the practice permanently.
'Pro lifers' like FT26, Kelli, etc, are opposed to CTB in every circumstance. They're opposed to adults CTB'ing without any assistance from others. They're also opposed to VAD being permitted and ESPECIALLY for non-terminal reasons such as MI. What I'm saying above isn't fucking 'pro-life'. It's simply reality.
It's disgusting how many people on SS are attacking orgs like Dignitas/Exit/Lifecircle/Pegasos when they have helped so many adults on this world end their abject suffering and torment because they have strict safeguards in place. Please don't do this.
