To think euthanasia should be legal in the UK

[ThereWillBeAdequateFood]

Just that really. Many countries have legalised euthanasia for terminally ill adults. I think it’s about time the U.K. did the same?

It’s not right that it’s only an option for those with the money to go abroad to have this as an option.

Completely agree

No
Kill yourself if you want to, that's your right, but dont put that on someone else.

@Browniegal13

My friend of a friend is the same age and the same situation. It's an awful thing to witness. I'm so sorry for your loss.

Just throwing this out there but maybe palliative care needs to get better I'm an hospice nurse btw and there is always room for improvement

Kill yourself if you want to, that's your right, but dont put that on someone else

@hazell42 But what if you are not physically able to do it yourself? If it was legal with defined steps and procedures it would mean you could die peacefully and painlessly. Not causing yourself or your family/friends trauma by suicide.

I think there's a difference.

It's not an either/ or predicament though berry. Make euthanasia legal doesn't inhibit the opportunity to improve palliative care.

readytogogogo If euthanasia is legalised, I don't think there can ever be adequate protection to ensure that people haven't been pressurised into making that decision.

This has been my worry for decades.

I currently live in Belgium where they euthanise kids, and people who aren't terminally ill.

Where do we draw the line?

YANbU

At all.
I work for the ambulance service. It breaks my heart.

I think it should be legalised.

Yes

But what if you are not physically able to do it yourself? If it was legal with defined steps and procedures it would mean you could die peacefully and painlessly. Not causing yourself or your family/friends trauma by suicide.

That is a tragedy, however, it does not mean that they have the right to put that responsibility for killing them onto someone else.
That is such a burden to expect a stranger to carry for you.

In Belgium they will euthanise children with a medical illness, who are suffering and who will die soon.

Why would you legalise euthanasia on the grounds that is a kindness to help people out of this suffering and then exclude children from this mercy?

You can say the same about abortion, making it legal doesn't mean some are not coerced or bullied into doing it, but it's unconscionable to remove reproductive autonomy because some abuse it, yet it's okay to deny people bodily autonomy due to the morality and fears of others?

My mother died of cancer, denied pain relief by a district nurse with a god complex (literally the only HCP through her whole treatment who wasn't absolutely amazing). She spent the last 13 hours of her life screaming, literally screaming in agony begging for help. My dad and I have both been diagnosed with PTSD because we were the only people with her the whole time.

YANBU at all OP. Nobody should die the way my gentle, kind, lovely Mum did. Not even the worst person on earth would deserve that.

I think it’s a very complex area.

Euthanasia is different to assisted suicide.
Very few countries permit euthanasia.
Palliative medicine is cutting edge and improving weekly.
People don’t necessarily understand the dying process well and project their own feelings onto someone who may not be suffering. Lots of tabloids ranting about people being starved to death when the peaceful norm is for the body to start shutting down and food to be irrelevant at life’s end.
I’ve spent much time in many, many adult and children’s hospices. I have never seen anyone left in significant pain or physical distress. Most hospices are happy, welcoming places. They are experts in symptom control.
Surely euthanasia in someone without consent is simply murder? Isn’t that what The Shipman report and the Gosport review are about?

Interesting article
www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jan/18/death-on-demand-has-euthanasia-gone-too-far-netherlands-assisted-dying

That is such a burden to expect a stranger to carry for you.

Some strangers do not see it as in any way a burden but a necessary, vital and compassionate function they are carrying out.

Well, Cherry, there are some forms of cancer or illness which are simply not a pain free end. A child my daughter was on the onco unit with had a rare form of sarcoma. It spread to her abdomen, her lungs in particular, which became too overcome with tumour to vent her and assuage her discomfort at not being able to breathe well, and no amount of pain relief and even sedative seemed able to fully assuage this. It took weeks for her to slowly suffocate. She was 11.

Similarly, my cousin died from bone cancer and again, despite all the best in palliative care, he was unable to be completely pain free at the time of his death.

And some may not want palliative care, yet they are forced down this path unless they stockpile their drugs and are able to successfully end things because of the morality of others.

If I get a dementia diagnosis I’m off. Hopefully that diagnosis would be in time for me to do it myself. The thought of being forced to live the way my poor mum did for years appals me.

I completely agree to a certain degree, I am currently watching my Nans deterioration and it is heartbreaking to see. She is just slowly wasting away, she has a tumour and dementia, she is in her 90's. Seeing someone so independent and capable become unable to leave her bed. Refuse food for days, stopping taking fluids...it's all just so sad. She wouldn't want to be like this.

However I do worry about the legislation that would surround this, who would be the decision maker, how would it happen. There is alot to cover to ensure this is carried out correctly.

@OralBElectricToothbrush

It such an emotive subject and such a difficult thing to watch someone suffer that a lot of people would view it as a compassionate act

But many would suffer for it later. No one could take someone's life, even as a compassionate act, without it impacting on their own mental health at some point on the future

If I get a dementia diagnosis I’m off. Hopefully that diagnosis would be in time for me to do it myself. The thought of being forced to live the way my poor mum did for years appals me.

I agree! Try Exit International if you are over 50. I have a family member who had a dementia diagnosis and he was able to end things in Mexico before it got too advanced, thankfully, as he had no desire to progress further with that condition.

I cannot understand why this is taking so long to put into law. Making humans suffer agonising deaths for weeks on end makes no sense to me at all. Did anyone hear that amazing lady on radio 4 this morning? It made me cry on my commute (not a good look to arrive at work) but she was so articulate and clear about her and her husbands decision making. She said he had a good death which could have been a terrible painful death if he'd waited til the disease destroyed every part of him except his brain. That's a nope from me. I'll be off to dignitas long before that.

Absolutely agree.

I've been of this opinion the whole of my adult life and nothing is making me change my mind as I get nearer to the likelihood of my own death.

The only fear I have of dying is it being long, and painful.

I've never understood the whole idea of keeping people alive to the bitter end.

I love living and don't want to die but when the time comes when I do die I cannot see what I'd be gaining in lying in a bed in pain for several weeks or even a few hours when I could be released from it all quickly and painlessly.

No one could take someone's life, even as a compassionate act, without it impacting on their own mental health at some point on the future

That is simply not something anyone could know as 100% a fact. It's not. Some people see it as an essential and vital role and death as part of life. Some are truly not impacted in the way you want to believe, hazell.