Assisted dying debate next week… To think this is a relief. So glad they’re finally debating this important issue.

[Mavenss]

We will be able to see which MPs are for or against assisted dying.

This Monday 29th April, assisted dying will be debated in Westminster for the first time in two years. An absolutely incredible 203,000 people added their name to the government petitionspearheaded by Dame Esther Rantzen to make this happen, creating the largest ever parliamentary petition on assisted dying.

There will not be a vote on Monday, but this debate will be the last time before the General Election that MPs have an opportunity to show you that they are listening to our calls for safe and compassionate choice at the end of life. A majority of voters in every constituency support an assisted dying law.

The debate starts at 4:30pmand you can watch it live online through the UK parliament website.

YABU- it’s a silly idea, why are government even debating it? Assisted dying is a terrible idea.

YANBU - I support the debate and assisted dying (under the agreed circumstances)

I’m interested in the MN feedback here.

So you are in favour of assisted dying for the mentally ill including those who may not capacity?

Is it any different to if they decide to jump off a bridge?

I support an issue as important as this is debated in parliament

I don't support assisted dying.

I do support excellent palliative care.

Well yes.

Because you'd intervene to stop someone jumping off a bridge. By y'know giving mental health support or drugs for anxiety/depression.

You wouldn't stand there clapping and helping them up onto the bridge.

And there is my point right here about ignorance and prejudice about mental health.

It's kinda depressing I actually just had to post that last point too.

@dimllaishebiaith It's not for me to tell my child, or any other competent adult, whether their life is a burden to them or not. Obviously I'd do everything within my power to enable them to enjoy whatever life they had. If they wanted to choose death, though, I might ask them to delay to be sure - but I wouldnt stand in their way. That would be selfish.

@blossomtoes Where do you stand on the tragedy that befell Caroline March?

www.itv.com/news/anglia/2024-03-25/not-an-existence-i-want-rider-paralysed-in-fall-writes-poignant-farewell

Do you see a "good death" and beautiful expression of individual liberty. Or do you see a young woman with a serious mental health issue that time and treatment might have solved.

She was 31 when she went to Dignitas, only 23 months on from the riding accident that had paralysed her.

Did she not have a chance of a good life, and was her good death better?

@dimllaishebiaith I thank you for your story and wish you happiness and success. People like @anyolddinosaur don't get it because they cannot empathise with the fact of societal pressure on vulnerable people, nor are they willing to see it as a coercive factor undermining the "consent" that a person with severe major depression might give.

It’s none of my business. She made the decision that was right for her. Had you bothered to think about what I’ve said instead of trying to come up with gotchas, you’d have realised that’s the entire thrust of my argument. People who oppose assisted suicide are trying to inflict their views on everyone, those who would like to see it legalised want people to be able to make their own decisions about their lives.

@BIossomtoes that's actually very revealing actually about just how dangerous your views are. Not my problem / she made her choice? Nice.

That wasn't exactly the answer to my post was it though...

I rather think you didn't quote it for that reason

I support all three. 2 and 3 are both massively important, and it should not be either or.

This. Absolutely this.

Unless you think you can truly cure cure mental health issues then your telling someone they cannot decide what to do with their own body or life. So now not only do they maybe hear voices but now you deem them not allowed to decide they don’t want to live with that.

What a lovely life for them

Thank you

I think some people who have no experience of disability consider disabled people as "non people" or people who somehow deserve their disability and therefore it doesn't matter what happens to them

Which therefore makes it easy to propose laws that could cause major issues for people with disabilities because they are "non people"

I wouldn't wish my accident on anyone. But I do think some posters really don't believe deep down that could be them tomorrow. They somehow believe that they will be fine and so fuck those who arent

Like you say and inability to empathise

I wonder how many rich people will choose death?

All the evidence from Canada shows after only a short time that is is disproportionately vulnerable and poor people being killed. It's class war. The rich are trying to exterminate us.

This thread is truly frightening. It did not take long for the mask of “this is only assisted suicide for the perfectly sane with a terminal illness and only six months to live” to slip.

@dimllaishebiaith
I completely agree that there is a lot of discrimination towards disabled people. The U.K. Gov has repeatedly violated their human rights AND issued hate speech against the disabled. It’s no wonder that posters are parroting a lot of it.

@dimllaishebiaith I am able bodied though I have suffered and recovered from mental health issues at points in my life. I have a son with disabilities. I now understand as his parent what discrimination is. You have to really experience it to get it. The powerlessness. The pressure. The wall of structural barriers ranged against you. The never ending annoyance of others who think you're getting special treatment, because it costs more to give you access to schools, jobs and society at large.

Those who want assisted dying cannot admit to these issues, because to do so means they cannot have what they want (living their lives of privilege in which they cannot conceive of the idea that others will feel compelled to die as a duty to avoid burden on others, or as a solution to their MH problems).

The case for assisted dying is shallow and selfish and the damage it is doing in those countries that allow it is there to see if you open your eyes.

Wow, so you don’t think there should be any safeguards against euthanising the mentally incapacitated?

Yep.

The refusal to engage on how you can safeguard against this is as interesting as the full on openly pro-killing anyone who wants it.

As I say, it sadly doesn't surprise me.

We live in a world where the ability to consider anything but 'I' or 'Me' is increasingly difficult to comprehend due to echo chambers and critical thought is actively discouraged as somehow being unkind...

well it is more than full on killing anyone who wants it, but openly admitting we should kill anyone that says they want it, even though we know it’s a feature of their illness and not really what they want.

What’s your safe guard tho?

Sorry we don’t think you have the right to determine what to do with your own life and body so we insist you must keep living even though you feel it’s torture?

We also won’t financially support you because you could be a faker, we also don’t give more than 12 weeks support really. Call us when your ready to be normal again…

that’s my dads life.

Lots of people who attempt suicide don't actually manage it. And they get better and have great lives.

This idea that you feel suicidal and not only can you not be stopped but hell we should give you a hand doing it instead, is kinda problematic in that context.

How do YOU decide which person is going to recover and which isn't? Never mind talking to everyone as if they are mean for not wanting to enable suicide in people who may not have capacity to make decisions due to a mental health crisis.

That's a failure to understand mental health crisis and mental health generally.