Assisted dying

[LovelyBath77]

Please don't read if this upset you, but I think that it should be up to us when we choose to die, especially with an illness which isn;t going to get better. I don't want to have long term care and give all that money to it which could be left to my children, and definitely don't want to be in a position where you have no choice and considered incapable of making decisions.

I think there needs to be some change on this. AIBU?

I find it very disheartening that on threads like this, people who think they know what they would want should they fall ill, seem to view their opinion as equal to those of people who already have conditions which can qualify for euthanasia in other countries. It feels like men objecting to abortion, when they haven't had the experience of pregnancy.

We are telling you what will happen to us. Does your wish for a person, who is already dying, to avoid pain, mean that I, BBC and others like us, should end up dying as a result?

Because it will happen. We are in those shoes and are telling you we would feel we needed to walk that walk. You cannot safeguard us. It's not about family pressure, it's about society's views of us, the NHS's view of us, and our desire to avoid feeling like a burden.

Absolutely agree. Some Animals end their lives in a more humane way than some humans it's horrific.
You should be able to take a tablet and just slip away to sleep peacefully before things get so bad if you choose too

*Roomster - for starters, more research on adequate pain relief is needed. If people are in pain, they are quite simply not being prescribed enough medication. Sometimes, so much medication may be needed that death could be a side effect. This is how doctors currently handle euthanasia, and how my FIL was helped out of this world when he was in agony due to cancer.

I believe this is how an elderly relative of mine died. They increased her morphine or whatever to fatal doses to ease her pain. I was confused about whether that was legal? Though I do think it was the best option for her and what she wanted from what I've been told.

n some countries, patients are allowed to be sedated into a coma so that they can't experience pain and are completely unaware during their last days. Why can this not happen here? It would require a law change, but it could be done. There are ways of solving the issues without killing people.

What does that serve? You're in coma, waiting for fuck knows how long?

How is that better?

Roomster - but that is saying that the pain of living with MH problems, and the suffering they cause, shouldn't be alleviated. Some people's depression is so bad that if they were a dog you would put them down. And you would seek to prevent this, in order to make sure that the people you chose, could have euthanasia.

It is not assisted dying, but I have taken out an advanced directive to refuse treatment and have registered this with my doctor. It is to prevent me have life prolonging treatment if I have lost mental capacity - my doctor said he had also done this. Details can be found here

compassionindying.org.uk

In some countries, patients are allowed to be sedated into a coma so that they can't experience pain and are completely unaware during their last days

So would they put someone in a coma 20-30 years? Not every dying person has cancer and just needs their pain to be managed for a few weeks. Some people suffer for decades and pain is not their main problem.

BlueSun - yes it is legal. Drs can prescribe over the amount of morphine or other medication should the patient need it. If death happens to be a side effect, that is a risk worth taking at that point in life.

Chardonnay - people don't always have to have a purpose in life, you know! It would mean that people were not in pain, or aware of being paralysed etc. Without killing them.

i completely agree grommit, if we don't value the opinions of people in these situations or working with people in these situations more than our own, there is something wrong with that.

Things look different from the outside than they do on the inside when you're going though them.

As for the coma to relieve pain, clearly that would help a particular cohort of people in the last few weeks of terminal cancer and would not be applicable to other cases.

See, what we see differently is in the way you call it killing and I see it as assisted suicide.

I agree with Roomster not everybody is in severe pain motor neurone disease a person can be "locked in for years unable to move swallow or blink a coma wouldn't help them to die

Roomster - but that is saying that the pain of living with MH problems, and the suffering they cause, shouldn't be alleviated. Some people's depression is so bad that if they were a dog you would put them down. And you would seek to prevent this, in order to make sure that the people you chose, could have euthanasia.

I wouldn't be seeking to prevent it in order to make sure that other people can get assisted suicide. I would seek to prevent it because poster such as yourself say it could be abused.
You are being very contradictory as one minute you are objecting to the idea of assisted dying because it may be abused for those with mental health conditions and the next you are objecting to the idea that those with MH conditions won't be eligible for assisted dying.

Funny how some seem to think that being helped to be unaware until nature takes its course, is worse than killing someone. Says a lot about the type of society we are becoming.

What you have to remember, is that you would need to be willing to actually kill someone in order for them to be euthanised. How hard do you think that would be for the medical professionals involved.

I honestly think that laws on matters like this should be between medical professionals and people with these illnesses. People who actually live with these potential situations everyday. Not random members of the public who think they know what it is like or what they would want.

Mrs Jayy - the point is, they wouldn't be suffering.

Roomster - it is called being devils advocate and pointing out the flaws in your theory.

If euthanasia was really so easy to decide, and problem free, don't you think we would have it already?

one more thing occurs to me - for some of us who feel like it could be a necessary idea, we're basing this on our remembered emotional pain of watching our loved ones being in pain/demented/paralyzed, and our anticipation of our own future pain.

I do think that's less valid than the opinions of people currently going through this and the professionals involved.

Roomster - it is called being devils advocate and pointing out the flaws in your theory.

You're not playing devil's advocate though. You are just being illogical.

If euthanasia was really so easy to decide, and problem free, don't you think we would have it already?

They do have it in many countries though.

Chardonnay - those semantics would still result in you ending the life of another if you were a health professional. Funnily enough, not many of them are keen on doing it. Those Drs are still people and to end the life of another is a huge ask.

Who decides which conditions are eligible? Surely it should only be those of us who are experiencing this? It really annoys me the arrogance of others to think that they have all the answers. Unless you have one of these conditions, you don't!

We won't be a fully mature, civilised society until we can get over our squeamishness and face the fact that keeping people alive against their will is cruel and paternalistic.

The people who ask for it will have the conditions though, won't they? I'm not asking anyone to euthanise me now. I just want to have choices should I develop an illness that made my life unbearable.

NoLottery - thank you. That is exactly what I mean.

People projecting how they think they will feel in the future, if they developed certain health issues, should not eclipse the feelings of people who actually have these conditions now.

Roomster - you're right, I was being illogical. I have cognitive impairment as a result of my disability and it can muddle arguments at times.

Sometimes I forget the names of household items. I rely on spellcheck now. I had to leave nursing because I could no longer remember whether I had given patients their medication.

Funny really, because I was offered a p,ace at Cambridge years ago, and now my memory and cognitive ability is declining rapidly. I am 40. It is speeding up. So

I really think that people like me should have a damn sight more say on the law than someone who is thinking hypothetically.

Tbf i can totally see why we don't have assisted dying I just wish we did would save people having a membership to DIGNITAS and going to 1 of their places to end their life.

I understand your point of view, Grommit, but there are many publicised cases of terminally ill people who want it, and undoubtedly many more who are not public knowledge.

And I don't agree it's semantics, we clearly have different views on this.

Killing and assisted suicide are completely different things.

GrommitsEarsHurt - Your example of your FIL demonstrates that assisted dying in reality already happens, but is unregulated. Surely it would be better, given this, to have a properly regulated system?

I am sorry that your FIL had such a difficult end.

The law proposed by Dignity in Dying is that only people with a terminal diagnosis with 6 months to live would be eligible. Which rules out most of the conditions here people seem to be worried about (eg people with disability or mental health issues who are not terminally ill).

Morris - you wanting to request it in the future on the off chance you develop an illness, will result in people with those illnesses felling pressured into ending their life now. This is not moot. Many people I know with the same condition as me will feel obligated to choose euthanasia should it become available. To spare our family the burden on looking after us, and because society is treating us like shit with regards to disability payments, and making us feel a complete burden. Again, not moot, but actually how people feel.

Still, as long as you get what you want on the off chance that you will develop my disability in the future, eh?