← Back to context

Comment by sarchertech

3 days ago

You’re not understanding. They could just not take care of that person sure. But when the person dies, there will be nothing left to inherit because they will have spent it all on medical care.

So we've outlined a society where: healthcare providers, lawyers, etc. ("the system") stand to benefit from keeping a person alive and suffering because they can squeeze money out of them in their final years. Assisted suicide is being made available and "family pressure to commit suicide" is brought up as a concern? Sure, valid concern I guess, but it just seems pointless as there are already guardrails around these processes and we're not recognizing the benefits of giving more autonomy to people which means their suffering can be stopped.

  • >healthcare providers, lawyers, etc. ("the system") stand to benefit from keeping a person alive and suffering because they can squeeze money out of them in their final years

    Insurers and the government have the opposite incentive, but it's something to be concerned about.

    >there are already guardrails around these processes

    I don't think there are guardrails that can prevent what I'm talking about. Only the most egregious abuses would even be detectable.

    As long as you don't literally tell your mom to kill herself I don't think you could make it illegal. As it stands in the US I don't think you could make it illegal for someone to tell someone they "wish they were dead" in this situation.