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To hate this man who said 'cancer is the best way to die'

216 replies

Sallystyle · 01/01/2015 13:21

Stop wasting billions trying to cure cancer, it's the best way to die,' says former BMJ editor

So death from cancer is the best ... You can say goodbye, reflect on your life, leave last messages, perhaps visit special places for a last time, listen to favourite pieces of music, read loved poems, and prepare, according to your beliefs, to meet your maker or enjoy eternal oblivion.

Well, fuck him I say.

OP posts:
MrsDeVere · 01/01/2015 14:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

motherinferior · 01/01/2015 14:50

I too think that we have - somehow, and I for one certainly don't want to - to start thinking about end of life care, and palliative care, and quality of life versus prolonged life, and people's own right to determine the means and timing of their death.

Sallystyle · 01/01/2015 14:56

Mrs D Flowers

OP posts:
Toooldtobearsed · 01/01/2015 14:57

MrsD I am so sorry. I have been blessed never to have lost a child, and certainly not in those circumstances.

Sorry, I have no words

Sallystyle · 01/01/2015 14:57

There was meant to be flowers but they aren't showing up on my phone

OP posts:
ArsenicFaceCream · 01/01/2015 15:01

They are there U2

MrsD illustrates perfectly why the chap is a tactless publicity-seeking arse.

Aeroflotgirl · 01/01/2015 15:02

Even though, he thinks its a preferred way to die, how does he know unless he has been through it himself or with a loved one. I personally would to die unexpectedly, not be worrying or anxious about it. My gran was in a lot of pain the last couple of months in her life, I remember going to the hospital, walking towards her room and hearing her screaming in pain, when they were moving her to change her. It was awful. My dad too was in a lot of pain, it must have been horrid knowing that you were never going to see loved ones again, and anticipating that.

Susiesue61 · 01/01/2015 15:02

I work in a hospice and would tend to agree with him, in that, when I die, I would rather die of cancer than many other things. Not everyone who dies of cancer is in agony, and we often see them spending the last days or weeks of their lives with their family and friends and still able to enjoy some aspects of life.

I think talking about cancer as a single entity is nonsense. It comes in so many different types and different times of life - I don't think anyone would think dying of cancer as a child is better than dying later in life.

Aeroflotgirl · 01/01/2015 15:03

Yes Gran and Dad had cancer.

RoastingYourChestnutsHurtsAlot · 01/01/2015 15:06

Seriously going suddenly is no picnic and imo the absolute worst way to go - not far off dementia or a neurological disease like MS or MND. I feel for families who have to witness it and have to witness the treatment but this is why more open discussion is needed.

Aeroflotgirl · 01/01/2015 15:08

My neighbours aunt went out shopping with her friend last Christmas eve, had a lovely day, then went to bed and never woke up, that is how I would like to go. Not surrounded by anxiety, worry, stress, possibly pain, hospitals.

Mintyy · 01/01/2015 15:08

I would like to go like Clement Freud did.

limitedperiodonly · 01/01/2015 15:09

He might be there. For all we know he has a diagnosis of a terminal illness, or has a genetic link to one, but has chosen not to reveal it. That is his prerogative.

At the very least his byline pic tells me that he may have experienced the death of one or both parents and definitely grandparents.

Even if he's miraculously escaped this, this was appended to his article:

Richard Smith was the editor of The BMJ until 2004. He is now chair of the board of trustees of icddr,b [formerly International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh], and chair of the board of Patients Know Best. He is also a trustee of C3 Collaborating for Health.

That doesn't mean he knows everything or that his view is more valid than anyone else's.

But it does make me think that he's spent a lot of time pondering illness, quality of life and end-of-life care more than most people and that his personal view should be respected no more or less than anyone else's.

No one should read his article if they think it will distress them. However, I found it extremely well balanced and a valuable contribution to the discussion about terminal illness, hope, suffering and death.

motherinferior · 01/01/2015 15:12

Yes, I would imagine he has a fair amount of professional if not personal experience of illness and death. What with having worked as a doctor.

And while of course nobody's forced to read the piece, they shouldn't comment on it till they have, either.

Nomama · 01/01/2015 15:14

Without wishing to annoy anyone.... he is raising points that need to be considered. Yes, he may well have a work/money related motive, not unusual for anyone working in a health related field. But by advocating shutting him up, not having such debates what are we saying?

Are we saying that because some of us at any given time will be grieving we cannot discuss death, health treatments, euthenasia etc? Are we saying that anyone who dares must be shamed in to shutting up?

His blog was thought provoking, uncomfortable, as I would imagine some of his lectures are. But the man who is chair of Patients Know Best is not ignorant, naive or heartless when he raises such points. He is doing his job... and I would thank him for it rather than condemn him because some lazy meeja types have chosen him, and us, as their next victims of scandalisation.

expatinscotland · 01/01/2015 15:15

The problem I have with his blog post is that he makes these value judgements and never says what demographic he is pertaining them to.

And the final sentence is just . . . wank.

It really is, ' . . . stop wasting billions trying to cure cancer, potentially leaving us to die a much more horrible death.'

He really wrote that.

I find that stunning. My daughter died of pneumonia following allogenic stem cell treatment for her acute myeloid leukaemia in July, 2012. She was 9.

Due to lack of research, this is the only treatment that could be offered her to try to cure her, as her cancer was not curable with chemo alone.

Without further research and treatments, more and more children who have come after her with this disease are now dead.

Yet we can see how far research can come along helping those who have some form of cancers live very full, long lives compared to just 30 years ago.

How is this ever a waste? How old is too old for Dr Smith? If you're going to put a post with an opinion like that out there, what do you expect when you just leave it? He's like the MN equivalent of an OP who drops a bomb and then disappears.

Furthermore, there are quite a few forms of cancer that produce pain that simply cannot be abated. One of DD's friends from the unit had an aggressive lung relapse and despite the best care, she was, well, very uncomfortable at her end.

He makes a huge, sweeping value judgement with his final sentence based on what appears to be rather shocking naivete and then runs.

That's lazy at best, pretty twatty at worst.

limitedperiodonly · 01/01/2015 15:16

MrsD illustrates perfectly why the chap is a tactless publicity-seeking arse.

No.

He's not sitting on the sofa with Holly and Phil emoting about His Journey on Celebrity Big Brother's Dancing in the Jungle .

He was editor of the BMJ and chair of a patients' advocacy group.

I'd say he was eminently qualified to comment.

ArsenicFaceCream · 01/01/2015 15:20

Comment - yes.

Sweeping, widescreen genralisations -no.

As a medic he should know better than most that to discuss 'cancer' as a homogenous entity is meaningless.

As former BMJ editor who should have enough journalistic savvy to know how he is expressing himself and how he will be quoted.

ArsenicFaceCream · 01/01/2015 15:20

generalisations^

ArsenicFaceCream · 01/01/2015 15:22

Without wishing to annoy anyone.... he is raising points that need to be considered.

Agreed Nomama, it is how he is doing it that is problematic.

Nomama · 01/01/2015 15:24

Well, comment yes. Generalisations, why not? His audience is doctors... why does he have to word it to avoid shite journalists when he is talking to the medical profession, who will know what he is talking about and will all have a very different viewpoint than the layperson?

And, even given the ridiculous quotes, he is getting his point across, a debate is occurring, here and probably many other forums too.

ArsenicFaceCream · 01/01/2015 15:28

Generalisations, why not? His audience is doctors...

All the more reason.

Cancers differ, patients differ, treatments differ....

limitedperiodonly · 01/01/2015 15:30

Arsenic I am a journalist and recognise some others on this thread. One of whom is a medical journalist.

I guess they'd all agree with me that you say what you say, press send and then it's a hostage to fortune. Especially in an op-ed piece. I'm sure he's used to it. Medical reporting is just one of the specialist areas that are really badly done.

That article, which is a personal viewpoint, is extremely measured IMO and chimes with my experiences of the death of loved ones and hopes for my own death.

I also think it raises issues about resources - but not in a callous way.

I'm not asking anyone to upset themselves by reading it.

I am asking them to refrain from commenting on it if they haven't.

If you have read it and have a different opinion to me, that's fine.

That's the point of an op-ed piece.

Nomama · 01/01/2015 15:31

... who will know what he is talking about...

I did continue and clarify what I meant by that.

ArsenicFaceCream · 01/01/2015 15:33

And to spell it out (since references to beloved 9 yr old and 14 yr old DDs clearly didn't do it) one of the important variables is the extremely wide age range of people who die form cancer. Not so much true of Dementias or Cardiac issues for e.g..

And cancer can be 'sudden' (at least in the way it is experienced) with no time for long talks and nostalgic holidays etc.

And on and on....

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