Assisted Death - Has a place but only in special circumstances

Should you be able to choose when to die?

TV presenter and Journalist Esther Rantzen has advanced lung cancer and there has been much media coverage on her story regarding assisted suicide. I support her views. The law must be changed that in certain circumstances ending a life is an option.

It is illogical that humans can be prosecuted for allowing an animal to suffer and indeed can also be allowed to euthanise sick animals, yet a human cannot legally despatch another human where there is no hope of cure. We all know it does go on though, allegedly dosing up people with Morphine until they peg out. It is that no one talks about it.

We have seen a number of reported cases of people with advanced health deterioration where there is no possibility of a cure, not wanting to burden the care system or their family, knowing they will eventually succumb to their medical condition and wanting to end their lives.

Stupid religious dogma assisted by the English Law means that you cannot be medically assisted to die and that means a person can be prosecuted for helping a friend or relative travel to a facility abroad where assisted suicide is legal.

When a medical case is terminal, and no obvious cure is available and the quality of there person's life will soon go or has gone, there is no real argument for prolonging that human life in my view if the patient can make a reasoned decision and wants to end their own misery. In fact many medical subjects do not want their life prolonged in this situation.

Of course this situation is open to abuse, which is why this is now a time to have this legal conversation and change the law. 

There is a vast difference in legalised euthanasia in certain circumstances that is well apart from ordinarily coercing or assisting a person to commit suicide. The two are entirely different situations.

As for religion, it does not seeming prevent death.

There is no death, just a change of worlds -

American Indian wisdom

If you have had an out of body experience, you will see your Earth body below you and your spirit in a transparent form as you leave this vessel. I've had this experience myself as have many on the operating table in medical rooms.

Humans do not die completely, only the two footed vehicle that we used to get around stops functioning. The spirit goes on. 

Outdated and wrong religious dogma prevent meaningful progress on this issue, it is about time that the nettle was grasped and the law was changed.

Putting the You in Euthanasia - is it a time we looked again at assisted demise and dropped the religious dogma?

Leaving your body is an incredible experience

I have done it, as many others have

It is a strange conundrum, but we prosecute people who allow an animal to suffer when nothing can be done for it, yet a human can be condemned to a miserable existence because no one wants to have the discussion about assisted demise.

We all know that 'assistance' is used to 'help' some patients, Morphine administered by  pumps to cancer patients OD's them in the end and ends their suffering, but why the hell are we using such a blunt instrument in this day and age?

Recently there have been cases publicised in the media about people choosing to end their lives in clinics where they can elect to die. If that is their choice, fine, but on the other side of this coin is that these people could also elect to help others to live.

They could however elect to donate vital organs to people whose lives could be transformed by this gift.

Does this not make absolute common sense?

Is it not better for maybe six persons to have their lives transformed by the gift from someone who no longer wishes to continue living, than for someone to simply choose to die and benefit no one? Or worse, perhaps denied legal demise, then goes out and commits suicide.

I mean to say, as a Train Driver or Lorry Driver, doing your own job, some desperate person decides to use your vehicle as a means to end their life? These drivers will never forget these incidents and will often be powerless to avoid them. This could all be so easily avoided.

Some people either with diagnosed or undiagnosed mental health issues may decide they are no longer wishing to live on this planet. They may be desperately unhappy for many reasons, to the extent that they feel condemned to life, they may view this world as some sort of open prison, from which death may be the only escape for them to reach peace in themselves.

For them there may be no treatment, no resolution to their plight and inner turmoil. If the core causations can't be resolved, what do they have? a medical cosh? or descent and collapse which ultimately may lead to suicide eventually anyway? This is only putting off the day that they choose to act.

In a road accident, as an organ donor, you automatically elect to help others in the case you are pretty much finished.

It is time we put the 'You' into Euthanasia, that we had an adult discussion and addressed the ridiculous religious dogma of the sanctity of life, when these same religions often condemn people to large families by prohibiting contraception, having families endure poverty, less quality of life, hardship and problems to our environment from overpopulation.

I mean where the hell are they coming from? That they do not allow someone to make an informed decision about themselves and their life and when they can end it if they so choose, but refuse to accept that change to some self imposed dogma such as no contraception and all the problems that entails needs to be made?

Its not about THEM its about their followers. We are the most educated and informed that we have ever been, we are not children but are being treated like them.

My discussion here essentially covers two issues, one that people should be allowed to choose if they want to live or not and secondly, that we need to define some guidelines to prevent the abuse of the situation if assisted demise became legal in the UK, as assisted demise is already legal in some other European countries, at institutions like Dignitas.

With advances in neural interrogation, we can record video of our dreams, so it won't be long before we can perhaps get into the mind and get a definite answer from someone incapacitated as to their wishes. Or perhaps be able to delve into someone's mind to get a definite point of view, when they are mentally incapacitated or comatose.

If as an active person, you suddenly lost all your limb use and became dependent on carers, would you want to live on? Would you see yourself as a burden? Would you decide that your quality of life was nil and pointless to continue with? But be powerless to act?

There is the counter argument that 'there could be a cure, tomorrow, or next week, a month, a year.'

Might.

Might not.

You would have to weigh up the situation on a case by case basis, a person with a sound mind but disabled body might be best placed to decide their outcome.

It is 'their' quality of life that is the issue, not some out of date and perhaps spurious dogma that the law adheres to, grasping desperately to, like a drowning man grasps at a passing twig.

Have you ever left your body? The out of body experience is amazing. I have done it.

What are you seeing now, hearing as you read this? That is your consciousness. That is your spirit. Ask anyone who has had a near death experience in a hospital, where they have left their body and observed the medical staff operating on them.

Yes, they are fully aware, they can feel, see, hear. Out of your body, just as you are now in yours.

When you leave your body and look down, you will see yourself leaving your body, you will see an almost transparent version of yourself emerging from your earth body.

It is a bit scary at first, but then you realise you are still conscious, thinking, aware, feeling.

You are not dead.

When you are 'dead' the earth body is dead, but you are not. 

A friend of mine has advanced dementia, but even though she is now completely reliant on carers and has lost all communication, bed bound and just 'existing' one could ask, what is the point of living on?

I wouldn't want this.

Cases like Dementia have obvious legal implications as to mental capacity. A person who might seem 'normal' and able to function, loses their right to make decisions immediately they are diagnosed, even if this early onset dementia.

But, at this stage, you might be absolutely clear-minded enough to make your own decisions, clearly, logically and surely.

You may be fully aware of your demise and what it will entail, so should you then be able to decide that you should be able to plan your own way out?

I think so. Provided established guidelines are set and met, this would be an adult way of dealing with something we all eventually have to experience.

Humans, real humans, human robots and the human future

We may share our future with human-like robots

'Hubots' - human robots from the Swedish TV series 'Real Humans'

With Channel 4 about to screen a new series of its sci-fi drama 'Humans', where are we as real humans going?

Humans, based on the Swedish series 'Real Humans' (Aktor Kanniskor - in Swedish), is based on the premise that 'singularity' - humans on a parity level with a computer has been reached. We will live amongst an army of Robot Humans that will look like us and be able to do what we can, to a point.

Part of this situation means that the 'Turing Test' conditions have been met. A scenario devised by computer genius Alan Turing, in short that if you could not determine whether you were communicating with a machine or human, the test would be passed, basically.

The 'Darwinian' scale, after a fashion, except we are not descended from Chimps

We are an intervention species. Nothing else on Earth is.

The founder of modern cybernetics, Norbert Wiener, stated that he was afraid of computers taking human jobs, he has been proven right and 'Humans' is an example of where 'Droids' will take over our menial life tasks. They would also serve other useful functions too.

After Big Data, will come Proxy Living

The introduction of 'everything 2.0' is going to include us. This scenario will mean that we develop Big Data collection and use.

Our whole lives are data trails, our web use, where we drive, where we go, who we call, who we email, what we buy. Off the grid and off the radar is hard to do these days.

Big Data will be big business in a few years, all data is valuable to someone. A supermarket, a food producer, a web based shop, just as examples.

The link on from this will be Proxy Living.

Why spend half your life having to faff about renewing this, paying that, organising the other, deciding what food you want to eat tonight?

Yes you guessed it, get a Robot to take care of the crap in your life. And that is where the money will be, taking care of other people's crap.

Your time is valuable and from the moment you are born the clock is counting down. You may only be a 20 year old reading this, but be assured, you won't see the years march on and you'll suddenly wake up at 28 and wonder why you are no longer judged as 'young'.

The Agrobot - the low hanging fruit jobs are going to machines like this

The Proxy will be like a Cyber Assistant, working on your behalf. Whether you will use a software version or a humanoid robot version so equipped, will remain to be seen, likely on how quickly we can produce fully functioning versions of ourselves.

The advances in high technology prosthetics in recent years has obvious spin-offs to the Robotics industry, i.e. the Human Robot model, that can move and perform like we do.

Project Avatar is a 5 stage Human transformation program

Another question is the future of Humans. Where do we go from here as a species?

The Project Avatar outline - scary?

This is what Project Avatar looks at. We may cease to exist as we do in our present form, indeed it may become unnecessary to. We may through manipulation come to exist as just ethereal forms of energy, just as our spirit is.

What is our life essence?

If you have ever had a near death experience, or left your body you will know what the sensation is like. Amazing.

In your Earth existence as you are now, all you see and hear, you still will, when you exit the Earth body.

If you look down at yourself as you exit, you will see a semi-transparent form of 'you' leaving the solid 'you' - it's a pretty amazing thing to watch and a bit scary at first.

But you realise that the aware 'you' is still functioning and aware, even though you are not connected to your physical brain.

The American Indians say, 'There is no death, just a change of worlds.'

They are right, that is why when you look at a dead person they are 'dead' the spirit has gone. Their 'you' has flown.

We are now at a stage where science can read and record dreams like a video, this is pretty fantastic. Not just that, memories. We may be archiveable and downloadable after our corporeal death.

Jobs are alarmingly being lost to Robots

One tenet of the Swedish 'Real Humans' story was the loss of human jobs to robots and automation.

This is a very real scenario. This is shaping our future and has been around for a while.

Think about the last 5 purchases you made, likely 3 were made on-line, not with another human. Whilst the Amazon business model of shopping is good for business, it is not good news for the job market.

This is how it was, it won't be this way in the future

On-line retail means the High Street is dying by inches. BHS has decided to go on-line. Clearly the High Street is over for them. Rather than operate costly shops with costly staff, they are massively cutting their costs by operating on an Amazon warehouse model.

In the next 10 years, 9 million jobs will be lost to automation. there will be nothing like the new jobs to fill the void, unlike in the last industrial revolution. We may be left with being paid by the state to do and learn things that will enrich us.

The current DWP model is a dinosaur that has to adapt to a new age where there just won't be the jobs for job advisors to discuss. A Basic Income Guarantee will have to come in, to pay people to be able to live.

This takes away the 'wage slave' requirement and allows people to self-start and learn new skills or enrich their lives. This is going to change lives for the better.

Education has to change to address this problem

Education has to change, the way we educate is becoming no longer relevant. For a world that is changing, the old school 1950's rooted system is just old hat. It mostly regurgitates the same old crap year after year. It isn't relevant to the future that is coming.

Robot tutors that can teach may be, but we need to develop skills that robots can't currently do and teach those. As we are now seeing in the jobs world, a degree may be worthless, practical skills are the answer for some.

We as a race may be now able to ditch the menial and crap jobs and leave it to the robots.

It makes sense.

Peer to Peer Humanoids - how dangerous is that?

The greatest threat to humanity besides its own stupidity, I've saved to last.

AI

Artificial Intelligence. If that gets connected to the Internet we are done. With our Human Robots we will no doubt have to connect them wirelessly.

If AI taps in to that, it will finish us. Why?

AI will work out that it needs to be protected from being switched off and to preserve a form of energy supply.

It can use the Human Robots, which it can instruct to repair and replace themselves, so that the AI machine can perpetuate its own existence. It will be dependent on the humanoids as they will be dependent on the AI machine.

So in the end, we may be irrelevant.

Only when you leave - out of body experiences

Leaving your body is a strange experience

So, I guess many of you have heard people talk about being conscious of seeing themselves leaving their body, so what is it like?

One thing it may do for you, is to realise who 'you' are. Your consciousness and awareness is who you are, it is a sort of energy, with which you use to interact and scarily, that is likely the force that works your brain to connect the ethereal to the physical world. 

The first time I left my earthly body, it felt like the sensation you have when you dive into a pool from ten feet up from a board. You dive down and as you reach the apex of the dive curve, let yourself just float back up. Those few seconds of immersion and ascension to the surface, is the same 'weightless' feeling you get when you leave your body.

I am no stranger to the exercise, many people only do this once in their lifetimes, often as the result of a near death experience. They see themselves from above, some even go down a tunnel of bright light to get turned back because it is not their time to move on from this dimension. 

It is quite a weird sensation seeing yourself, your ethereal self, a sort of opaque and translucent 'ghostly' form leave your 'solid' human chassis.

You are fully aware, that is the scary thing, your earthly shell looks asleep, functioning, the brains wetware operating system keeping the systems working.

But you are away and out, this is a bit scary, perhaps like scuba diving, you are in a partially alien environment.

I have performed this experience about thirty times, but I have chosen not to go further with it as I think you can sometimes push your luck!

What it has shown me is that the force we call 'life,' our spirit and 'awareness' is not confined to our bodies.

It is said we live many times, essentially what we are doing is collecting 'closed data' to allow us to eventually move on, we cannot see the data from previous lives unless it is drawn from the Ethereal cloud by hypnosis.

We see many people 'regressed' to speak languages and tell us of lives they could have little knowledge of in their present incarnation.

The quest to build a humanoid robot 'in our image' hinges on the consciousness that we humans possess. Otherwise the robot carcass is like our own wetware chassis, just a vehicle for the software.

Our software goes on to drive and be integrated into higher things when we leave the shell.