The 'assisted Dying' Debate In The Lords Later Today Prompted This Thought.

[sandyRoe]

In a place like the USA, where guns seem to be readily available, is there any evidence that some terminally ill people use them to end it all?

[Buenchico]

50.9%
https://www.afsp.org/understanding-suicide/facts-and-figures

[Buenchico]

Sorry, that's for suicides in general, rather than terminally ill people but it would seem obvious that people who want to die (for whatever reason) are likely to seek out any convenient method (which, in the USA, is bound to include the use of firearms).

[sandyRoe]

I suppose it stands to reason that where guns are available they'd be used. If it ever came to it I'd prefer something like this:

O for a beaker full of the warm South, 15
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim: 20

[Buenchico]

Ruddy 'ell! Keats, at this time of the morning! I'm not fully awake yet!

[Retrochic]

I would guess that many terminally ill people would not be in a position to buy a gun and if someone procured one for then or even handed it to them, then they would be guilty of assisted suicide.

[Buenchico]

34.4% of US households are estimated to possess firearms, Retrochic, so many people wouldn't need to buy a gun (or to get someone else to supply one); they'll already have one.

[Buenchico]

^^^That figure of 34.4% for households with guns is for the US as a whole. In some states (e.g. Alabama) the figure is around double that.

[Retrochic]

I suppose it depends how sick you are. I was presuming if you were that sick you were considering ending your life then your quality of life, mobility and motor skills may be such that it would not be possible to get your gun load it and end your life. Surely if you were terminally ill you would be on medication that if taken in excess would end your life in a 'gentler' way?

[sandyRoe]

I'm not sure I'd be happy being treated by someone who might have the ghost of Dr Shipman hovering in the back of his mind as he doled out my medication.

[Old_Geezer]

On the other hand, in that position, you may not be happy not being treated by such.

[sandyRoe]

Maybe I didn't put that as clearly as I intended. I'd not want anybody skimping on dosages for fear that he might find himself in the same boat as the notorious doctor.

[Svejk]

Apparently, Doctors don't/won't carry Morphine(routinely) with them since Shipman. It was standard practice, allegedly, to 'ease' the terminally ill to a more peaceful place.