Legalising assisted dying option, do you support it?

[ForTheSakeOfThePenguin]

Hi,

I just realised there is a group advocating for the option of assisted dying for the terminally ill in the UK.

I am not a member of the group but this is an option I would like to have if I ever come to the point of having an illness that has taken away my quality of life (and that of the people around me) with no hope for improvement.

I've just added my name to Dignity in Dying's public record of support for legalising assisted dying. If you agree, add your name - it only takes ten seconds: action.dignityindying.org.uk/page/107124/petition/1?utm_source=em_share

Thank you

I’m a nurse and I’m in favour, having watched so many horrible lingering deaths-even with meds etc. I would want very strict controls though- you would have to have signed up before you became ill. no relatives able to make that decision for you to stop abuse. Must be a terminal condition.

Exactly. I think anyone who knows what actually goes on in our UK health system would be worried about it (probably the reason we don't already have it).

I understand why people want it, but I think those in favour are not really aware of the reality of the situation we're in in the UK.

It would simply not work.

Don't you think that even those strict controls could go wrong, though?

Being honest - how many times have you seen errors made during the course of your work in the NHS? Be they big errors or little errors. If you say never, I wouldn't believe you.

If one single error was made with this, someone would die who shouldn't have.

Fully support it. Why does anyone else have the right to make me live when I don't want to - my life my choice surely?

Are we watching the people we love ‘die in such pain’? How common is this because to me it’s very much an emotional ‘saying’ used to add weight to these arguments.

And if it really is very common then shouldn’t we be advocating for more resources for high quality palliative care to end this situation?

Why is the only answer to distress at the end of life to kill people sooner?

Modern medicine and healthcare should be doing better than this.

I have seen first class palliative care in action and it’s fantastic. It’s about letting people live right to the end.

I think there is such a huge risk that people would feel pressured not to be ‘a burden’ in their illness and would see assisted dying as a way to avoid this. That isn’t right.

It worries me that people supporting assisted dying actually don’t work in or have experience of palliative care or the realities of assisted dying in other countries. So it is all based on ethereal ideas and concepts not actual reality.

Amongst medical professionals who work in palliative care, care of the elderly and general medicine the consensus is strongly against. Because they see the vulnerabilities of people and how easily AD could be misused.

I support Dignity in Dying.

What really is the alternative ?

100% yes.
We don’t allow our pets to suffer slow and painful deaths. And yet subject our nearest and dearest to it.
If god forbid I got a terminal illness, I’d rather meet my end quickly, on my terms and with dignity!

Why aren’t you campaigning for better education on end of life care? Death can be slow but it shouldn’t be horrible. We have the medicine and capability to do better but it requires expertise.

Rather than witness awful deaths and wish you could kill people off to avoid it please refer to your palliative care team and implement training for your ward in end of life care.

I agree with some others, and was just thinking about this last night. In a perfect world, yes but unfortunately I don't trust the state/gp/nhs etc with my life.
However if I am diagnosed with dementia and I have enough awareness, I would want to take matters into my own hands. I don't know how yet and it would have to be non violent so that my body looks at peace for my family. I have a relative going through this now and frankly she is losing her mind. I won't go through that or have my children see me that way.

Fully funded palliative care

Yes, but only for the terminally ill who would otherwise die in pain.

My father is receiving palliative care and has been for 6 months now. He's not in pain. He's getting to see family members. We're losing him slowly. He still smiles. He's still Dad.
I can imagine scenarios in the current NHS where people like my dad would be perceived as an encumbrance and euthanasia was used to get rid of a sick elderly man because of the resources needed for his care.
Were already dealing with NHS CHC trying to pull his care funding - we dont need the option of euthanasia too.
It's a no from me.

Predicting pain is hard and ultimately everyone will be terminally ill at some point in life.

These kind of sweeping statements end up meaningless.

I’ve always been in favour of this, in principle, but have heard about a few cases in countries where it is legal that have made me stop and think. There was a very young woman who had PTSD, a trans man in Belgium and a man in Canada whose family were desperately trying to help him but doctors overseeing his AD couldn’t let them see him.

I just don’t trust the system to do this properly.

Yes, I don't trust the UK to get this right.

I definitely support this. Excellent medical care extending the life of someone with no quality of life is cruel. We warehouse elderly people who no longer have the capacity to read a book, listen to the radio or watch tv due to sight and hearing problems, pay derisory wages to overworked staff to keep them clean and fed and administer pills, and ignore the fact that they are totally miserable and have no prospect of enjoying life ever again. It can take decades to die in such circumstances, if you have the misfortune to not develop something incurable and terminal.

For those with something incurable and terminal, the means by which death will eventually come can be horrific. Eg If your control over your muscles is slowly being lost so that you gradually lose the ability to move, and the the ability to communicate, eventually the muscles controlling your lungs succumb and you slowly suffocate. All the while conscious of what is happening. In some illnesses the level of pain becomes so great that only strong opiates can help, and obviously those are so strictly controlled that the best they can hope for is occasional short respite from the pain, rather that adequate relief. That is torture. A dignified end at a time of the individual's own choosing is far better.

I’m on the fence about it.
In certain cases, degenerative diseases for example where there’s no possible cure, then yes, absolutely.
Iirc in some countries with assisted death programs there are young people with mental illnesses that have opted death, which horrifies me - I tried to find the case I had in mind, but it turns out there are several similar stories. I don’t believe allowing a young person to opt for death is ok.
I also think it would be open for manipulation.

My SIL was in an advanced stage of a terminal illness and chose to end her life by assisted suicide in Switzerland. I thought her choice took an enormous amount of strength and courage.

Yes. I have a relative who was in awful pain and was told she wouldn't survive an operation to rectify it. The family was told several times to say their last goodbyes. She survived, had the operation 'at her own risk' because she basically backed them into a corner by not dying and has lived another 3 years. She was great when I saw her yesterday.
She would absolutely have taken the dying option at the time because of the level of pain.

I don't trust the system to not take the easier/cheaper option.

On the other hand there are 100% unsurvivable conditions where the option should be available. But how to transparently regulate this is a minefield.

I'm in favour of accelerated dying aka increasing the pain relief drugs for the terminally ill so they slip into unconsciousness then stop breathing, but only those in last 3-6 months of life. The system in Belgium for instance is too broad. I'll look up exactly what they are advocating here. It's a far more complex issue than with animals because of the possibility of coercion for financial gain

I've been a member for several years. I totally support them and my right to decide when I die.

We warehouse elderly people

Jesus wept. Warehouse. Really?
Do we "warehouse" children with severe disabilities too?
The moment the sick and disabled are deemed to be too costly to care for you are heading straight towards Aktion T4.

I am sorry. I had a relative die this way. It was brutal.

We are currently watching FIL waste away. He has no quality of life. He can't walk so has to be put in a hoist to get in a wheelchair to go to the toilet. He can't really talk as can't remember a full sentence. He doesn't appear to enjoy watching tv. He just sits in a chair all day. He has a form of dementia so is also surrounded by similarly affected people on the home he is in. He soils himself most days to wears adult nappies.

A consultant recently said he could have days, weeks or months to live. They just don't know.

He doesn't want to live like this and gets distressed. My dh gets distressed that he might end up like his dad.

He is on all sorts of meds to keep him from having a stroke or a heart attack - we have said as a family that he would be better off not on these meds and letting nature take its course.

That does not stop people losing every shred of dignity with things like dementia. No amount of care makes that an acceptable way to live for me.