Should life prisoners be offered assisted suicide ?
 

As per the title, I was pondering this earlier, imagine being stuck in jail, especially in America with no chance of parole, no use to anyone, just a burden on society,, so should prisoners for certain types of crime be allowed assisted, Dignitas type suicide ?


Would any take it ?

Yeah, that'll take civilisation forward :rolleyes:

dl

Hmmmmm, I'm for people having the right to take their own life's due to illness etc but don't think they should be given the option of an easy way out for their crimes.

I'm for it. Criminals are punished. Government doesn't have to pay for the rest of their life. (£14k a year per prisoner?)

I 'thought' it was a hell of alot more?

No. They were sentenced to life imprisonment so why should they get the option to duck out early? What's the point then?

My instinctive reaction was 'yeah let them get on with it'. Then I thought of Jamie Bulgers case and then think I'd want them to suffer.

But then yesterday I said I'm for the death penalty reintroduction.


Eh? 6-3's screw me.

In my defense one is by punishment, one by request of the guilty party?

If they have a chance of getting out, then no, let them serve their time with that little bit of hope eating away at them.

If they really have no chance of getting out, ever then let them die.

It is a lot more

just over £40,000 a year per prisoner

no - if you do the crime then you must do the time - suicide is simple a way out.

In these days of cctv and big brother etc,have a real life "running man" ala
schwarzenegger film type deal.Let 4 or 5 of the creme de la creme of scum off in a maze of tunnels etc,send in a few "buzz saw" and "sub zero" types after them,etc etc,you know the rest...People would pay to see that live every week,serious money to be made... may have problems with "human rights" though, just a thought.

What this man said!

they were man enough to do the crime, they have to do the time not pu$$y out....

David, it is a question, not a proposal, just interested in what people thought as I have pondered it, think its in some film, is it "Escape from New York" perhaps where they get the option to take their chances in a lawless prison or just end it all.

It will never happen, I am fairly sure of that, there would always be the two arguments of them getting away with it, i.e. not serving their sentence versus the cost to keep someone incarcerated.

Whether it takes humanity forward, again the dichotomy of spending money that could be better used elsewhere to sponsor those who make a contribution versus the fact we are kind of breaking a taboo, terminally ill people are travelling to Switzerland to end their lives, if you are never, ever going to get out of prison, isnt that a similarly depressing and painful existence, just longer, not saying it is rigth or wrong, not sure hence the interest to hear others views. Is wanting to see someone in prison having a miserable existence as bad as the glee expressed at the car theives that got burnt to death, at least their misery was short, if a little toasty.

So for those of you who think they should do the time lets put it another way for a bit of reflection, this by the way Is a general question :lol1: just wanted to see if opinions could be changed for a better standard of living.

If they held a national vote on this topic and government said we would be saving £x amount of millions / billions per year which would in turn result in lower taxes, cheaper fuel, easier way of living etc etc whilst at the same time it would be ridding alot of our prisons of the people that probably don't deserve to be released due to their crimes of inhumanity, and for the rest of them who are in for petty crimes as somebody else said on the other thread send them to the poverty stricken countries and put them to work, we see a drop in national spending whilst giving aid to countries that need it.

I suppose its how you want to look at it, I don't agree with what they done and should be given the sentence they deserve, but at the same time I work flat out to pay my taxes to house this type of scum within our justice system, I can't help but feel the money could be going to families who have lost everything due to this recession, and there are genuinely people out there who have lost everything, don't you think it would be better to give the money to those that need it, rather than funding a convict a bed and shelter whilst feeding them, and by no means am I implying this is the case for ALL, but for the more serious offences at least, it would certainly give us a better way of living whilst starting to put the country back on its feet.

So thinking about the above could / would any of you rethink your position on this? I for one would! As I want cheaper fuel for my car :lol1:

Its not meant to spark a debate but was curious :thumb:

It wouldnt work that way though.... theyd just tax us somewhere else.... we'd still be paying the same if not more...

Why stop at those on death row? Extend it to any prisoners.

I see there would be many problems, such as how do you know these prisoners haven't been forced to say they want to off themselves? How would they be assisted? You wouldn't want them getting access to anything which they could use as a weapon against anyone else.

Don't just bang them up in their prison cells for 23 hours a day, make them do some bloody hard labour. Society could benefit from the work they did or it would pay for their own up keep.

Should life prisoners be offered assisted suicide ?
 

It would be a start if the likely majority who wouldn't choose to off themselves actually got life, instead of the poxy 18 years or whatever which is much more typical in this country.

As for the US, if a prisoner there wants to take a short-cut outside in a wooden box, I'm sure there's plenty of opportunity for them to do that as things stand - shot while escaping, pick a fight with the wrong gang, etc.

+1 :thumb:

It's an understandable idea, but really not that practical, and would likely to actually cost us more than it saves.

I've just watched the prog from death row with Trevor Mcdonut. A lot of folk on it seemed to think, or at leat hope, that one day they'd be free! One guy went in aged 15, he was due for parole when he reaches 102 (or thereabouts). What's the point of letting him out then, what's he gonna do?

I'm all for tougher sentences here but if someone wants to leave early, I'm all for it!

OK, I accept it is just a question but, taking the USA system, I think the real question is more fundamental and should be "should some folk be imprisoned, never to be released?"

Now my armchair opinion is that prison serves a number of purposes such as keeping the public safe, punishment and as a deterrent to others. But you need to set the background as prison doesn't seem to work very well in preventing prisoners repeating offences, a big percentage of prisoners have severe mental health issues which are largely brushed under the carpet and the punishment factor is debatable.

I think there are serious offenders that probably should never be released but I don't think the American sentence of 100+ years can ever be justified.

Aside from the Sutcliffes and their like I think it is right to give some hope of release even if many years into the future. This is a better option than offering a suicide pill.

I don't think this is "soft" but rather the way a civilised society should behave.

David

Right, but in that case what would you say is the right length of sentence for a bog-standard murder? 20, 30, 40, 50? Or do you honestly think anything less than that is acceptable punishment for deliberately taking another person's life?

Agreed.

When I was growing up we lived near HMP Nottingham.

You'd regularly see groups of prisoners on the streets (with guards) sweeping litter or weeding the traffic islands.

This was the 1970's though....

Suicide is illegal in this country and it should stay that way too.

Les

Why let them get away with things and end it early? Same reason I disagree with the death penalty vs a bloody long prison sentence. Make them put up with the prison