Someone Asked “What Is Something You Changed Your Stance On After Learning More About It?”, Here Are 30 Of The Most Fascinating Answers

Absolutely agree! My daughter was a horrific baby. I never shook her but I have had to put her down and walk away. I even called my husband to come home from work one day because I was broken and could not handle it anymore. He was so concerned he actually sent his dad to come because he was much closer. I literally thrust my daughter into his arms and walked out of the house. Walked and cried for an hour until I felt better. It's terrifying to be that close to the edge but its also very very common and you are not a crappy parent because of it!!! My daughter is now one of the brightest, happiest 9 year olds I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. It gets better.

On it

Remember when they used to have advertisements about this on tv?

You should be proud of yourself, too, coping with all that on your own x

That's such an interesting argument too. We think "How can I play God and decide who gets to live and who gets to die?"...but don't realize we do it every day. We're deciding our child gets to live when we give them antibiotics to clear out their infection. We're deciding we get to live a little longer when we take our heart medication. If we're already "playing God" in that way, why can't we also help the person who says "Please, I'm suffering, I want to die".

Ironically, making assisted suicide against the law IS choosing who gets to die (nobody). It is only by putting both choices within the law that we relinquish control.

And let’s face it; playing god is what we human do. All day every day. We heal the sick, we rearrange the landscape, we create life where there would have been none in the natural order of things by fertility treatments and IVF - playing god is not a bad thing, it’s the foundation of all civilization. We even bring people back from the dead on a daily basis, but I rarely hear complaints about CPR as a whole. Why would this be different?

Die with dignity- in the medical field we are so often concerned with whether we can save a life that there isn't the thought of whether this person wants their life saved. What is the point of keeping someone alive if they are literally condemned to lay in bed, unable to move themselves, to speak, to control bowel and bladder function until their body finally shuts down. Each person should have the right to decide that their suffering in this world is at an end.

Whilst these people are ill we are pumping their bodies with medicine and tablets to keep them functioning, so where does one draw the line?

I completely agree with you Inga. My opinion on this OP is that while I'm glad this OP saw the light, it irks me when people can't have compassion until they've had personal experience with it. . It's a sign of immaturity to not be able to put oneself in someone else's shoes. Such a hug problem in humankind.

Very well said. Thank you.

Especially when a lot of us "play God" by judging people and deciding their eternal fate based on limited knowledge.

The main concern I would have is coercion. There are plenty of cases of elder abuse and this could an extension of that. That's why it has to be almost a constant discussion and just about everyone in the family needs to know what each elderly relative wants so there's no craziness at the end. You might sign a document stating the circumstances under which you would do this, then later change your mind... but then a serious accident occurs and... poof, the plug is pulled. There's also religious objections, I know Christianity (and I think Islam and Judaism-at least orthodox- do too) views suicide as a serious sin, which has serious negative implications on the afterlife. All that said, I am totally for physician assisted euthanasia.

Most debated issues are 1) on consent 2) whether or not it should be performed in Hospitals (many doctors believe it is a breach of Hippocratic Oath)

Not just the US - any country where euthenasia is illegal.

Also in America they're not making money out of you once you've gone.

My favorite argument is "but then everyone will start going to the doctor even when they don't need it" because yes, everyone loves sitting in the waiting room for a few hours and then getting poked and prodded by a doctor. Great alternative for those days when you don't find anything good on Netflix

There are two types of people. The first thinks, "I suffered through this, and I don't want anyone else to have to suffer through this." The second thinks, "I suffered through this, why shouldn't you have to suffer through this too?" The US has far too many of the second type. It's regressively puritanical.

Simple, it's major propaganda. Those against it have sworn that universal healthcare will raise everyones taxes up to like 50% of their wages, and that it will create a massive backlog of patients to the point where a pregnant woman will have to give birth at home alone because there won't be any room, along with the claim that the money for paying for uhc will run out before the end of the year and you'll just be told "well you'll have to sort that yourself" if something happens after that point. Now how people can believe this, I honestly don't know. Some people refuse to get their information from any source but the Singular one they like because it confirms their world view.

We are lied to, repeatedly.

Like what has been said before, it is the propaganda that has been spewed for decades. A lot of the older generation (not all) believe that it basically means that tax payers will now have to pay for everyones c**p. I would way rather pay for a healthy and happy society than pump even more money into useless things or into programs that do not need more funding.

A bit of decently successful propaganda to the public about how socialism is "the debbil" even though that's what pays their medicare, roads, water, infrastructure, etc. But mainly through "donations" to elected officials to keep them voting against.

I’ve seen quite a few people going on and on and on about the ‘awful quality’ of care in countries with universal healthcare, and terribly long waiting lists. I’ve seen people say that in Europe, family is supposed to be taking care of the patients when they’re in the hospital. And all kinds of other nonsense. Someone is feeding them absolutely batshit crazy ideas about other countries. Probably the YouTube crazies..

It's because of the way it's been touted to us. We're told there are long lines and you can't choose your doctor. And the doctors are somehow less qualified because they are paid less. And that the level of service is less because they're trying to do everything on the cheap. It's not until you really do your own research and realize that's not generally the case.

Powerful groups have convinced right-winged Americans that universal healthcare equals lesser healthcare. Of course, that's ridiculous thinking, but powerful people have managed to steer Americans into believing this for decades now. They also convinced Americans that if we change our tax system to benefit average people more than corporations, it would change our standard of living for the worse. The right wing propaganda in this country is insane.

Because it's sawshalism.....and as far as the right thinks, socialism is an evil institution, born of the devil, himself.

Because too many people are convinced that someone getting something for free takes something away from them. This goes for housing and food assistance too.They won't help others out of poverty because you're supposed to do it yourself.

In the UK private healthcare is an option. My employer gives me private medical insurance. 99.9% of the time I use NHS. Why? Because private insurance sets ridiculous limits on what is covered and not, everything is argued to be pre-existing and medications are only partially paid for. It's a waste of money.

I read that in the US, they call Universal healthcare is Socialism.... Ooooh scary socialism... The birth of my child would have cost me 1700€... Taken care of by my Sécurité Sociale.

They're brainwashed by the Fox News propaganda channel and all of the leeches in office, right wing AND left wing, that love getting their kickbacks from insurance companies/lobbyists. Who are you gonna work for? The Public Servant job you were elected to do, that pays ~160k? Or the soulless husks in suits that invite you out, wine you and dine you, and then offer to pay you hundreds of thousands, if not millions, if you make sure to vote for this specific bill that ends up giving them a massive tax cut?

Sadly, a bunch assume that since its not American/in America, that its subpar care. They dont want to hear that American doctors arent the best & that other countries have great care & drs too. They also assume that since it means paying more in taxes, its more expensive. Its been shown that it would essentially pay for itself in like 5yrs but they dont want to see that it'll still be less than their monthly deductible

Because in the U.S. we're subjected to an enormous amount of propaganda from the oligarchs who actually run the country because they can generally buy as many politicians as they need to. And there are just enough morons who eat up everything they say to help sell the idea. Please don't turn into us.

I think some Americans who have (at least for now) good health insurance are afraid that national health care would make getting care like the nightmare that is going to the Department of Motor Vehicles. There's a lot of propaganda about how national health care has enormous long waiting times and simply doesn't include the "latest and greatest" drugs and procedures, and so people with good health insurance worry that care would become harder to access and lower quality.

As a Canadian, I am constantly baffled. My American-born mother snapped both bones in her forearm in her youth, and being a broke hippy didn't spring for the extra cost of having it pinned and just had them slap a cast on it. It's curved and twisted and she has to basically point her elbow at the sky in order to play her flute.

We are told our taxes will go higher and that there will be crazy long wait times to see a Dr. For those of us with chronic illnesses, the idea of having to wait to see a specialist is pretty scary. It really boils down to the fact that we are lied to all the way round about it.

They think it means theyll have to pay like 90% more taxes or sething stupdily high like that

Some politicians (mostly from Republican Party, but I suspect some Democrats too) receive money from healthcare companies to spread rumors that universal health care means money from tax payers would be used to pay healthcare for lazy unproductive groups of people like drug-addicts or even criminals.

They think it’s a bad idea because they have been brainwashed by right wing politicians who call it communism.

And Scandinavia.

Canada and Mexico, both in North America have Universal Heath Care.

To be honest, they don’t. They simply go with “the masses” and believe what advertising tells them. There are thousands of people in every state of this country with “free” healthcare. It’s mostly assisted but if you look at the terms and conditions, to qualify for it you have to pretty unfortunate.

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

Because it means giving up a significant portion of your already laughably low pay. EU countries make UHC possible by taxing EVERYONE at a high starting rate, which increases the more you earn. Minimum wage in Romania is less than $600 a month, and after taxes and health care contributions, people take home less than $300. Whether you want it, need it or use it, you pay for it. Americans pay somewhere between 0-37% tax rate, and HC spending is around 3.5 trillion per year. That means every single adult in the country would need to contribute an ADDITIONAL $14,000 and change in taxes to cover it. And no, "taxing the rich" isn't a solution. If you took all the wealth of the richest people in the US, it would cover health care costs for 18 months, and put every one back at square one at the end of it. Corporations don't support it because they don't want to increase wages, citizens don't support it because they don't make enough, and even if they did why should they trust the government.

No one should be forced against their will to have their body used to keep someone else alive. This basic precept is vital in cases regarding separating conjoined twins. Each twin has equal right to life, but one twin cannot be used to keep another twin alive.

That is absolutely true however everyone should want to reduce the number of unnecessary abortions (because it's a non trivial procedure with risks) and increasing support for those who are impoverished, universal healthcare, comprehensive sex education, easily accessible birth control, and maternity leave are all shown to massively reduce abortion rates. If those were implemented then the number of abortions of viable pregnancies would be pretty negligible. There would still be cases of rape and incest and still a few (but far less, because of the sex education and the reliable birth control) accidental pregnancies, but financial necessity, lack of education, and lack of access to/understanding of how to use birth control make up a huge chunk of the reasons why people end up having abortions. 'Because I don't want to be pregnant' is a perfectly valid reason to have an abortion, but on its own, without other considerations combining with it, it's pretty uncommon.

Exactly, Kanuli. But I think the OP was describing a realization that they'd been unfairly vilifiying women who get abortions and that their strawman argument was defeated.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, they aren't pro-life, they're anti-choice.

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

So, what you are saying is that you want to allow abortion up to the point that we can still call it a lump of cells and not if it's developed enough, right?

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

The issue isn't what you call "a lump of developing cells": Those cells inevitably develop into a human being, that needs taking care of. And THAT's the actual problem.