assisted suicide isn't murder. Self defense isn't murder. Accidents aren't murder.

Dictionaries definition of murder is - kill intentionally and with premeditation

@kipani: so are you amending your original statement of "I think if you take a life, you deserve to die"?

Also, by your definition of murder, assisted suicide is murder. The doctor has every intention to kill and it was clearly premeditated. The reasons behind it will be different from your average psychopath, but the way its carry out? If we go with your definition it is murder.

Premeditated by you, not him. And yeah thats what I meant. Also most manslaughter cases. :/ people who murder just make the world a crappier place for everyone else, because the systems too easy. Wanna hear something funny? x.x

My civics teacher told our class that if we ever shot somebody, to make sure we finished them off so they wouldnt sue us later. Kinda off topic, but for some reason popped up in my head, haha.. I guess because I think the system is so screwed up.

People nowadays sueing for hot coffee being spilled on them, sueing because they're fat, sueing because they hurt themselves while attempting to rob somebody else. Did you ever head about that? Some guy was robbing these people and he fell through their glass roof and sued them over it. WTF?

@kipani:

premeditated = Think out or plan (an action,etc.) beforehand. The doctor has to plan out how he will kill the patient that requested suicide. For example, he plans to lethally inject the patient because he sees it as the most painless. Or perhaps he will use gas/pills. So no, assisting a person to die clearly needs premeditation on the part of the doctor.

So exactly how is that NOT murder going by your definition?

Assisted suicide - the common term for controversial actions by which an individual helps another person voluntarily bring about their own death.

People don't want to be murdered. :\

@kipani:
what's the difference of being assisted to suicide or being killed/murdered? Doesn't a suicide that assisted by other count as murder too? How does it called if someone were submit when they knew that they're going to lose in fight(do nothing and wait for the final blow)? Volunteering?

@kipani: different doctors do it differently. Some like the notorious Doctor Death are the ones administering the drugs to kill the patient. So again, how is this any different from murder?

As for people don't want to be murder: I disagree in the case of assisted suicide. Those people want to die. And in this case and with your definition? It's murder.

assisted suicide is murder according to the law anyway (at least in my country)

Whether or not assisted suicide equals murder is something that courts and governments around the world are having difficulty sorting out, so I don't see it getting sorted out easily in this thread.

One difference I see is that in murder, the murderer perceives a personal benefit in ending that life. The murderer wanted to end the life because it would help him in some way (even if that perceived benefit is just in a deranged mind).

Someone assisting in suicide may not see a personal benefit in ending that life. Whether that person lives or dies has no bearing on the other one's life.

So, I guess you could edit kipani's statement to, "If you take a life with intent, malice, and/or receive pleasure and/or satisfaction through the act, and the deceased had no intent in ending his/her life, then..."

Now I see why legal speak gets so long and tedious so easily.

I have often thought about this very dilemma. I do not feel that I am qualified to decide that someone else 'deserves' to die.

If one of my loved ones had been murdered I might feel that then murderer deserved to die, but it would be revenge on my part speaking.

Suicide in a physically 'healthy' person- you can't imagine the pain that a suicide leaves behind. My brother-in-law committed suicide, and it devastated our family in ways that he never imagined, and destroyed his sons. I believe that if he had known how much wreckage he was leaving behind he would never have done it.

Assisted suicide of a dreadfully ill person who is in pain is not something that I would ever contemplate, despite my compassion for their situation. I hope I am never asked to do such a thing because I will refuse.

@arggie: i'm merely using kipani's definition of murder

It doesn't make sense to say assisted suicide isn't murder when the very act of the suicide means someone's gonna get killed intentionally as planned.

While I understand the intentions behind AS and sweeney todd are very different, someone's gonna get killed either way.

And to make your legal statement more complicated: Consider Terri Schiavo's case: patient in veggie state for years. Extremely little chance she would ever recover. Husband wish to pull the feeding plug. Parents don't wanna. In the end, they pulled the plug effectively killing the body. So, a life was taken intentionally but since there was no living will, the actual wishes of the victim is unknown.

I sense that statement needs more revising XD

As for my own personal beliefs: Eh, I support the death penalty so yeah I think some people deserve to die. Mass murderers, serial killers. Sick creeps who prey on lil kids. China got it right bout you paying for your own bullet. Less coddling the criminals please.

Mmmm...I contradict myself when I come to things like this. I do think some very few people deserve to die. Like those kids who tortured that poor japanese girl Junko Furuta. Those boys deserve death. Maybe I'm being mean but I feel that way after what they did.

At least, I think that way for a few minutes and then I think...no. They deserve to suffer a lot on earth and then die. Then I remind myself that punishment in hell is nothing compared to the simplest punishment in hell. Then I think 'What if they beg for forgiveness before they die?' Then they deserve punishment on earth. 'What if God forgives them?' Even if God does, I'd still feel sad for the girl though God is the one who knows what we all deserve when the time comes.

I better stop talking or I'll keep contradicting myself lol. XD

I think only murderers deserbe death. By murderers, I mean any person who wilfully takes another person's life without prior permission from the one murdered excluding accidents that result in death or has some malicious intent in murdering.

Just wish I could find the link for this one >.<

This incident happened in Florida:
The citizens of Florida threatened the court officials in Florida. Why? A guy was put on death penalty in the court (which the citizens were against). Why? Cuz he murdered an abortionist. Why? Cuz that abortionist kills unborn babies.

So now what?

By killing the guy, you’re ultimately gonna do nothing but end his life. And consequences aren’t good either. You’re clearly not gonna prove to the guy that killing is wrong, by killing him. Violence begets violence.

Killing doesn’t work as a form of deterrent/punishment, imo. You can’t punish a dead man. It’s more like revenge, an eye for an eye, esp. in this case.

Wrapping up; the abortionist did not deserve to die, but neither did the guy. If he did, then the court officials would be next. <- all this chaos due to enforcing ‘death penalty’. You can rather lock the guy up in prison; make him repent his mistake by realizing that reprisal is immoral. And save a lot of other lives from being affected.

Lovinlife - In this case I think it's quite clear, if according to the state's law the state's penalty for murder is death penalty. If it was proven that it was willfull murder, you can't mess with the currently valid laws.

In general I'm not sure about death penalties though. I don't think they're really a punishment, rather escaping the punishment. But what to do about the worst criminals then? They should be kept in prison for the rest of their life, but seeing how some prisons look more like recreation that's just laughable. Currently everyone seems to be so concerned about the prisoners' comfort, forgetting why they were sentenced in prison in the first place. I believe the conditions should be much harder, specially for people who comitted violent crimes against other people.

@Luz- Think about it, the last few days, knowing you're going to die. Think about the torture that's going through your mind. Death Penalty hurts and it keeps criminals off the streets.
P,S- My pet peeve would be lawyers. Good slimy lawyers get criminals proved as innocent and send the innocent to death

@theone: Think about the exact same torture that’s gonna be going through your mind for weeks/months/years/the rest of your life in case of life imprisonment. Think about spending the rest of your life in a locked up cage. The day you get out of jail, will be the day you see a bright white light, is when you’re literally dead.

And when the innocent are sentenced to death, can you give back those innocent lives that was taken away for no reason at all? The entire time they spent in agony? The pain shooting through the families of these innocent lives? The responsibilities/liabilities that were left behind? The fact that you’ve committed a murder, in such an approach, due to death penalty?

actually it has been proven that death penalty does not reduce crime rates any more the jail punishments, I had an article about it, but i can't find it anywhere.

The article also said that death penalty also was more expensive, but I can't see why that would be

There is no way that the death penalty is more expensive than jail time. Prisoners have living quarters, recreation, food, and medicine all paid for for them. That cost really adds up (which is really controversial). The death penalty is a dose of poison or a shock in an electric chair (I'm not sure where this is used anymore). That does not cost much compared with the cost to hold a prisoner.

@ipink: However, you have to factor in all the tedious costs for appeals, keeping the dude alive while he waits to get killed, and people who get sentenced to death have about ~20 years before they get zapped.

In a nutshell: Bureaucracy makes carrying out the death penalty absolutely horrendous.

@luz: i agree with less coddling the criminals. In the US, they get 'free' medical care while until recently many people don't have health insurance! D:<