I myself do not see a problem with this, to be honest...what reason is there to keep people alive who will be nothing but burdens to their families and everyone else? I'm not saying it's the person's fault for being born with some kind of mental condition, but is it fair to them to let them live when they'll never live normally?

The parents are in part to blame, because they chose to spin nature's roulette wheel and conceive. Then you get the dumbasses who smoke, drink, and use drugs during pregnancy and wonder why they give birth to fucked-up babies. I do feel sorry for the ones who did not fill their bodies with substances that contributed to their child's condition, however. These parents will be wiping their adult child's ass when they could be enjoying retirement. It's bad enough caring for a kid for eighteen years, but caring for one its entire life is way too much.

We don't even have the decency or compassion to euthanize those who are dying or who experience extreme amounts of pain while prior to imminent death, so I know there will never be a time when those who are mentally disabled will have this available to them. I just don't see how it's fair to bring a person into the world who will never have their own life because their minds remain in an infantile state.

What do you think? Should parents have the option of euthanizing their mentally disabled children?

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I value the lives of slugs over the lives of children - and I pour salt on slugs.

My sister is severely mentally disabled.  As is my mother.

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is it fair to them to let them live when they'll never live normally?

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I am curious as to whether or not you have had any kind of experience with a mentally disabled person.  If you have, I would suggest you look deeper.  Just because a person is mentally disabled does not mean that they do not know fear, that they do not know pain, that they would somehow not sense that they were dying even at a very early age, or at the very least sense that something was wrong.

Just because a person does not live normally does not mean that they don't enjoy life, that they don't cling to it as passionately as every other living soul on this Earth.  My sister for example is one of the most passionate people I know, one of the most brilliant minds I have ever come across (and she has an IQ significantly higher than my own as tested).

She does not, nor will she ever live normally, but to deny her the life that she loves, a life that she fights for on a consistant basis is cruel and an unbelievable measure from any account.

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who will be nothing but burdens to their families and everyone else?

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Edgar Allen Poe had a severe mental condition.  As did many, many other famous people (sorry, I'm drawing a blank right now).  A burden to the world in some ways, perhaps, but who is to say that with every baby culled you would not be depriving the world of another brilliant mind?

Interesting topic though....

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CuMaige

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therefore I agreed with the argument and mentally disabled should have the right to be euthanized because I would simply rather die than to live a meaningless life.

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Though how can we judge that they see their own life like that to them their life is probably meaningful it is other people who are saying they are not.  Would this whole idea extend tot eh physically disabled who require aid from other people should we euthanise them?  I think this argument is inhumane and frankly quite disgusting to even consider pondering so I shall leave it there

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Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!

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I am curious as to whether or not you have had any kind of experience with a mentally disabled person.  If you have, I would suggest you look deeper.  Just because a person is mentally disabled does not mean that they do not know fear, that they do not know pain, that they would somehow not sense that they were dying even at a very early age, or at the very least sense that something was wrong.

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I don't mean someone with slight or mild mental problems - I'm not advocating killing off people with ADD. I mean severely disabled people, as in the ones who are basically vegetables. It's no different than keeping someone alive on life support when they can't survive on their own. I realize few, if any people die from mental disabilities by themselves, but the two scenarios fall on a somewhat similar plane. Would you keep someone alive when they have no chance of having a real life, as in, a life where someone doesn't need to constantly hold their hand?

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Edgar Allen Poe had a severe mental condition.  As did many, many other famous people (sorry, I'm drawing a blank right now).  A burden to the world in some ways, perhaps, but who is to say that with every baby culled you would not be depriving the world of another brilliant mind?

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I'm sorry, but someone who is so mentally disabled that they can only communicate by waving and grunting is not a brilliant mind. I'm not saying this was Poe's case, but there are people who are like this, and most cases are due to poor decisions on the mother's part during pregnancy (drugs, alcohol, etc.)

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I value the lives of slugs over the lives of children - and I pour salt on slugs.

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For most part, the person lacks ... emtional depth.

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I strongly disagree. I work with special needs kids some of whom have mental disabilities that mean they can't function on their own.

But to say they don't have the emotional depth that mainstream kids do have is simply not true.

They have different ways of dealing with their emotions but this doesn't mean they don't feel the basic emotions that mainstream kids do.

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Which we can assume the state of conciousness and awareness is also diminished.

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That's a very big assumption which I feel is wrong. The vast majority of people with mental disabilities are equally aware and conscious of their surroundings as I am.

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I would simply rather die than to live a meaningless life.

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I find this particularly strange, because I hardly see how mainstream lives have any more or less "meaning" than the lives of people with mental disabilities.

Most people with mental disabilities can feel a full range of emotion and can comprehend and be conscious of their surroundings. Just because they don't tell you aboue it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

In the context of very, very severe mental retardation then it should be a judgement call for the legal guardian or next of kin if that doesn't apply. But I'm talking about vegetables here; people with such bad mental disabilities that they aren't conscious.

Post edited at 10:33 am on Oct. 5, 2006 by The Samsoniteman

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Massive, epic adventure, multi-coloured, multi-layered.
Sort of two/three dimensional Wizard of Oz for the future.

Its a heavy burden to carry.

I think it should be an option made available.

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"Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off...
...but it's better if we do."

"Kiss my black heart as the tears fall..."

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I'm sorry, but someone who is so mentally disabled that they can only communicate by waving and grunting is not a brilliant mind.

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What of the autistic boy (I'm blanking on the name at the moment but will look it up and provide reference later) who did not communicate and could not communicate except through writing?  The boy who waved his arms frantically and never spoke a word until he wrote a book regarding his perspective?

My point is that we simply do no know the expanse of the human mind -- disabled or not, and it is quite a leap to assume that because they do not outwardly express emotion in a socially interpretable fashion, that they do not experience the same existance as we do, whether they are "vegetables" or not.

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That's a very big assumption which I feel is wrong. The vast majority of people with mental disabilities are equally aware and conscious of their surroundings as I am.

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Bravo.  I would like to add to this that they also see things very differently than we do (ie: their brain is physically interpretting the stimuli recieved in a manner that is incomparable to you or I).  Just because we do not understand it (which we cannot assert that we do at this point) is no reason to irradicate it.

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CuMaige

If you're worried about spending resources on 'tards, then just don't spend any of your resources on 'tards. Simple as that.

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It is my deepest wish that we will one day escape our cradle.

I'd imagine that being severely mentally disabled after being fully-functional warranting euthanasia, but not from birth.

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Cruisin' down the street in my six-four;
Jockin' the bitches, slappin the hoes.