jacksons story in emmerdale! hypothetical question iyl?

[M0naLisa]

Just watching this morning and they had the guy in who plays his mate (forgot his name now) he was saying how his accident happened etc etc and how he is planning mountaim climbs for charity. Which is very good despite the accident he had.

BUT me and dh sat watching (dhs day off) and he said if anything like that happened to him he would want his life support turning off, or if he was like jackson amd able to communicate he would be planning his death.
which I have agreed I'd do the same, to go from being me to paralised in a second would be devastating for anyone

The question!

What do you think? Do you disagree with the reasoning as to why jacksons mother hazel killed him or do you sympathise with her? What would you do in that situation?

If it was me I would do the exact same!

[3ismylot]

I honestly dont know how I would feel in the position on either Jackson or Hazel but I definately think that the law on euthansia needs to be looked at again.
We dont allow animals to suffer yet we are forced to sit and watched loved ones die slowly and painfully from things like cancer all the time.

Obviously it would need strictly monitoring but if like Jackson they could express themselves then they should be able to die with dignity

[itisnearlysummer]

I think it would be devastating but I don't think you could say what you would do for sure until in that situation.

My understanding (and I'm quite prepared to be corrected on this by someone who knows otherwise! ) is that the feelings of frustration fade eventually because they are a physical response as much as a mental/emotional one and that eventually, without the 'feeling' of the physical response, the emotional ones aren't as strong.

At least that's what I was told at university...

[itisnearlysummer]

Yes but cancer is (when it gets to the stage you're talking about) is a life limiting disease.

It's not the same.

[itisnearlysummer]

Jackson wasn't dying slowly. He was still very much alive. Not that I watch Emmerdale or anything

[boohoohoo]

I'm don't think I could answer unless I was actually in that situation. At the moment I would do ever thing in my power to live, I wouldn't want to miss watching my children growing up.

[3ismylot]

itisnearlysummer that is very true and part of the problem with legalising euthanasia is deciding who is allowed to use it and who isnt.

I dont think it was right for Hazel to help Jackson die but then Im not sure how I would feel if my son was begging me to release him from a life he hated :(

[travellingwilbury]

I honestly don't know how I would feel .

I think it is easy to say when you are fully able bodied that if such and such a thing happened then you wouldn't want to live . But I have seen lots of people have their goal posts shifted when they get to each stage that they thought would be too much for them to live with .

I am not completely against helping someone to die if that is what they truly want but would it only be if someone was physically unable to live what they perceive as a good life ? What about someone who suffers with anxiety and depression and every day is a struggle ?

What can be a complete hopeless life for one person can be a joy to someone else .

[Punkatheart]

My father was a paraplegic - he did become very depressed. The media tend to focus (understandably so) on the brave and resourceful disabled who appear to adapt and actually do a number of positive and incredible things. My father never recovered mentally and was depressed quite a lot of the time. So by some, he was considered to be self-pitying.

The body is only part of our existence. We all have a balance of how much we live in the physical world. Some of us live a lot in the mind and can in some strange way adapt better.

When my father was dying in hospital he held on to life as fiercely as he could. Simple things: sun buttering trees, a child's laugh.......they would be gone.

It's a difficult and complex subject and I saw a lot of diverse stories in the spinal units..

[MrsSchue]

For some people, to be 'very much alive' but only on the INSIDE must be worse than knowing you're dying slowly. To feel trapped in a useless body but to know that the end is coming, might be preferable to knowing you're stuck there for fifty years.

I believe in the right to choose for everyone.

[stoatie]

I believe that this is an individual decision and that you may think like the OP however if your life changed you may change your view. Not making sense here am I. I worked on a Spinal Injuries Unit for 5 years, I recall several conversations where the opinion was that pre -accident they would have voiced the opinion of wanting to die, however post -accident, this was no longer the case. Their lives had changed but this didn't mean that they didn't wish to live. However, for others this was not the case, some expressed suicidal desires.

[serajen]

Am typing this in tears, 3 months ago member of my family has become paralysed from neck down, he is 22, in a specialist unit where everyone else can use wheelchairs, he's horizontal 24/7, his spinal cord has died, I honestly dread him asking to not be around anymore, we are all living in trauma, at least with death you know the person is not suffering anymore, this is living torture and unfixable

[itisnearlysummer]

MrsSchue - that is very true.

I suppose I do believe in the right to choose for everyone.

I would just want to be sure that the person making the decision had made a real effort to adapt to their new circumstances. I know that sounds clumsy, but I can't really think of a better way to express it.

[M0naLisa]

serajen sorry to hear about that :(

MrsSchue I agree.