Euthanasie, dont legalise in UK.

[MrsMarkieParkie]

I just read that 8% of deaths in Canada last year happened via euthanasia. This doesnt sit right with me. Also, as described in the article, the protocol seems mostly the same as the US death by lethal injection.
Do we want this in the UK?

@LangClegsInSpace I know that you are in favour of AD with safeguards. I know you want this to exist alongside excellent palliative care. On this we are in agreement.

But a lot of posters on here have shared how their loved ones have had to suffer because we don't have that legislation in place and I'm sorry, but you do come across as dismissive of their stories.

I find @LangClegsInSpace to be logical in what can be an emotive space.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11975825/I-took-stroke-hit-mother-83-die-Dignitas-Switzerland-day-police-banged-door.html

This is a family friend, I knew Janet and I know the family . This shouldn't be this hard when someone has made their wishes so clear .

Mandys original article was in the times and a lazy journo took it to the mail and changed the names , however Mandy is a well respected journalist and often writes for the mail so I'm guessing she took her story back as hers .

It is food for thought .

Well you can volunteer to give the ‘death injection’ maybe you can practise on one of your elderly relatives.

Very crass and dismissive throwncrumbs

Each to their own . That's not a reason to deny someone a dignified death if that's their choice .

And let's face it - doesn't have to be your choice .

No, we don't.

Just imagine.......the drug used to euthanize being available to wierdos and missfits on the black market.

All hell could break loose.

I'm about as religious as a fish driving a motorbike, so religion is not why I feel this way, it could be lethal in the wrong hands.

Well, that hasn't happened in Switzerland, or the Netherlands, or Belgium, or Oregon, or Canada. So your post is basically scaremongering.

I don't think Oregon has got this right. They give out the prescription and allow patients to hang onto it themselves to take at a time that they feel is right. Lots of people get the drugs but then don't take them.

At the time of reporting, ingestion status was unknown for 101 patients
prescribed DWDA medications in 2022.

Out of a total of 431 prescriptions in 2022. That's quite high.

More than 70% of ingestions in 2022 involved the drug combination DDMAPh, which consists of diazepam, digoxin, morphine sulfate, amitriptyline, and phenobarbital. The drug combination DDMA, consisting of diazepam, digoxin, morphine sulfate, and amitriptyline, accounted for 28% of ingestions.

These drugs have a street value.

The gap between prescriptions issued and deaths resulting appears to be getting wider year by year and it's not at all clear what is happening to unused prescriptions.

https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/PROVIDERPARTNERRESOURCES/EVALUATIONRESEARCH/DEATHWITHDIGNITYACT/Documents/year25.pdf

I don't think the UK would go for this model as we have very strict rules around controlled drugs. Any law passed here is likely to require the drugs to be dispensed only at the time of use and for a HCP to at least stay nearby (e.g. in the next room) if not directly supervising while the drugs are taken.

I’m not sure we will ever know if it does tbh. I’m not necessarily against MAID but, as a Canadian who has lived in the UK, I’d say the regulation is not sufficient compared to what those used to UK healthcare have come to expect.

There should be a separation between the assessor and the facilitator which is missing. Very little regulation is mandatory and in some areas assessor/ provider services are advertised online.

You can also keep trying multiple practitioners until you get your two assessors to sign you off without them having any record that you have previously been refused. Death certificates can record the cause of death as being the reason you sought MAID rather than MAID itself (at least in some areas). So, as I understand it, you could be recorded as dying of cancer when you had not received a terminal cancer diagnosis.

In most areas the death rates hover around about 3% or below of deaths but in a couple of areas they are much higher. Eg Vancouver Island is knocking at the door of 8%. There appears to be little discussion of why this is (just assumed older, affluent population) and a couple of doctors on the Island are very heavily involved in regulatory and training development and I can’t find being queried by the government.

The healthcare system is very different to the UK’s with a lot of individual clinics based outside of hospitals and many single practice family doctors, neurologists etc. I’m my experience there has been less involvement of social workers for vulnerable people. This has some disadvantages in terms of models of control and accountability.