'Assisted Dying'? Yes or No?

[WifeOfMacbeth]

Am thinking about this one at the moment.
Are you in favour? Against? Not sure?
I'm also wondering whether views change as we get older....

Yes.

Yes, good palliative care is sadly a pipe dream. Step onto an elderly care ward to see the reality.

This, unfortunately.

Yes.

I’m completely in favour of assisted dying. Right now, my dog has access to a more compassionate end-of-life option than I do. If I were facing a terminal illness, advanced dementia, or severe paralysis, I’d want the legal right to make that choice ideally through a living will made while I’m still of sound mind. I know I’m speaking from a place of privilege as someone who is currently able-bodied and healthy, but everyone deserves autonomy and dignity at the end of their life.

So the answer to poor palliative care isn’t better palliative care, it’s death?

That is horrifying. Our society has utterly failed if this is what people think should happen.

No, no, NO.

In your opinion.

So don’t choose it for yourself.

What right have you to insist that someone else lives with intolerable pain when they want to go?

This is how I feel too.

Yes absolutely.

I have an advanced directive, with the circumstances under which I want no intervention, but if I had the choice to take control of things, I believe I would.

Yes

I am absolutely in favour

Yes

I think it’s a slippery slope. If you decide you can’t be bothered to fund palliative care properly because it’s easier and cheaper to kill people, who else will you decide not to care for properly and kill instead? Disabled people? Anorexics?
The way this is being rushed through, without proper scrutiny, all because Keir Starmer made a promise to a celebrity who no-one voted for, is a genuine disgrace of our legislature. I sincerely hope it gets blocked in the Lords.

I was always in favour, but especially after recently watch my friend die in her 50’s from cancer. Though she wouldn’t have qualified even if it was legal as she was only diagnosed with cancer when it spread to her brain so she wasn’t of sound mind. Which in one way was a blessing. The last 10 days was horrible for everyone, and we all said if we could have ended it for her we would have. It just felt so degrading and horrible to make her suffer to the bitter end. As I sat with her and watched her beloved dog curl up on the bed with her it didn’t escape me that had it been her dog, we would have had his PTS weeks prior.

I would support someone doing it, but I would never assist in it... even taking them to the place.

Even with fantastic palliative care I still think people should have the right to decide on the end of their lives. My grandpa had amazing palliative care but he still suffered for longer than necessary knowing there was no way out.

Yes . Everyone is entitled to a dignified end .

No. It’s the slippery slope to eugenics.

People are deluded if they think that the bill will be tight enough - it won’t.

At the moment the talk is of terminal illness, but already on these threads we have people talking about how “when it’s extended to include….” So people don’t actually just want assisted dying in certain circumstances, they want it for all, and that includes being able to kill off the disabled and the mentally ill.

There was an article on the BBC the other day saying that an increasing number of MP’s have now changed their minds and are planning to vote against it.

Great in theory!

but in reality… I think we have to protect the most vulnerable in society… so no for me.

interesting … in Canada (2016) is now 5% cause of death. Which is 1 in 20!

Have a read of this.

x.com/doctor_oxford/status/1931587833866637817

There are actually a range of lethal drug combinations that are used to bring about the death of a patient in practice. I believe that the current proposals are to give drugs which the patient takes themself.
The Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers acknowledges that patients who ingest assisted suicide drugs can experience burning, nausea, vomiting and regurgitation, especially if the patient is experiencing difficulty swallowing large volumes of liquid. Nausea, oesophagitis, gastritis, severe dehydration or pathology of the gastrointestinal tract likely interfere with drug absorption.3 This is reflected in the data published by US states such as Oregon, where annual complication rates have been as high as 14.8% and patients are reported to have experienced difficulty swallowing or drug regurgitation, seizures and have even regained consciousness after ingesting the ‘lethal’ drugs.9digoxin, morphine sulfate and propranolol).

It’s not necessarily the peaceful, dignified end we imagine when we say we want assisted suicide.

I’m absolutely amazed how many people are confident we live in a society capable of and willing to make sufficient safeguards for vulnerable people if assisted dying becomes legal when currently newborn babies are legally routinely being removed from their mothers for surrogacy.

No. The slippery slope argument is strong. You only have to look to Canada and the Netherlands to see how quickly the criteria becomes slacker. It is also noticeable that high profile campaigners rarely go to Switzerland Instinct is to want to live as long as possible.

I am in favour of advance directives for opting out of treatment eg if I have advanced terminal illness and acquire pneumonia don't give me antibiotics.

I also believe we should not have to rely on the charity of hospices for quality end of life care. The NHS can do a lot better.

Yes

My father had a syringe driver the last three weeks of his life, unconscious from the moment it was fitted. So he basically just starved to death, whether he was truly unconscious or just unable to communicate or move I don’t know. I do know it’s not what he would have wanted and it served NO purpose.
He was told he had a stomach ulcer, he was jaundiced, weighed 7 stone, consultant said this is nothing sinister. He suffered for three weeks, he didn’t make his chemo appointment, he was always going to die.
None of us are coming out of this alive. None of you should have a say over how I die if I get the same cancer.

Why should you? Answer that.

Absolutely not.

apary from the risk of exploitation, I say this as someone who had a critically ill brain dead relative who was on the pathway, who later spontaneously woke up and was conscious, talking and lucid.

allowing any kind of assisted dying is a slippery slope. Improve and invest in palliative care, don’t vote through assisted dying.