Assisted Dying

[Nordione1]

I dont know what section to put this in. Im more upset about the vote for it than I thought I'd be. I feel like we have crossed a rubicon somehow.

I am really relieved with the result. People should have the choice. I don't think that it is up to other people to say that others can't do it just because they wouldn't want to themselves. I have been surprised at the defensiveness and lack of insight by many of the naysayers

That was a distressing case which illuminated the difficulties but I think the doctors got it right. It didn't stop people causing the doctors extreme distress when they were doing their best. That's not to undermine the distress of Charlie Gard's parents.

I need a heart transplant. I am going for an assessment next week. Should the NHS be funding such surgery? Or should transplant patients opt for assisted dying instead?

I wish you well with your transplant surgery but you surely know that the change in rules on organ donation to make it opt out rather than opt in show that the NHS absolutely don’t plan on telling people to die and the idea that this will happen in the future really is just scaremongering and fantasy. People probably warned that the state would compel abortions too, yet that doesn’t happen.

But they couldn't have their family around them or say goodbye because their family would be implicated in their death, commiting suicide isn't anything like AD.

@ismu

of course it should be in the people’s hands. I wouldn’t want anyone else to have control over me, my body and my life - would you? No? Well, stop trying to tell suffering people with no hope of getting better that they cant have autonomy over themselves.

After watching my dad waste away over 7 months and watch my best friend nurse her mum to the end, I am in favour.

Have you ever seen and read the LCP? I absolutely agree that is was horribly misused but the concept and the document itself was not wrong. Actually it brings up again, one of the reasons why I am pro this bill. People were put on the LCP by clinicians without discussion with the person or with their relatives and certainly without their agreement. Clinicians are making decisions about "assisting" their patients right now. The hugely vast majority of them are doing it out of care for their patients and a deep ethical belief that what they are doing is right but mostly are doing it without agreement or discussion because they can't admit to doing it.

Yes, this. By all means, disagree for yourself, that's fine, but don't say others can't decide for themselves. We don't tell women they can't have body autonomy if they are pregnant (please God, we are not Wade v Roe, we're Britain). Let people at the end of their life have autonomy, PLEASE.

I think it's a fantastic step forward, about bloody time.

Having both cared for my dad who had dementia and seeing my poor mum lying in a bed, paralysed and unable to speak or swallow food after a stroke for over 4 years, I completely agree with this.

I'm 100% for it. Someone should be able to choose when and how they go. It will be so tightly controlled. You wouldn't keep a dog in the discomfort that some people have to endure.

We can only ever discuss AD hypothetically until we are given the diagnosis of a life limiting, degenerative illness.
Giving people an option to end things on their terms isn't wrong, but it's a double edged sword and needs to be approached with caution.

I'm from a family who die from leaky hearts, and cancer. My DDad has both at the moment. He's lived for almost ten years with it, thanks to offering himself up for drug trials and having the will to LIVE. It's not been easy on him because he does get depressed sometimes, but he has always come back. If he one day says, I'm tired, it's time to go, I would support him, 100%.

We've seen our relatives in our family struggle on for far too long with terminal illness. There should be the option to be allowed to die on our own terms. In fact, some do, they commit sicde. It would be far better to be done in a controlled way, a calm way, & without having to travel. Of course you may opt not to be helped and that's fine, because everyone is different, but there should be a choice.

I completely agree. It is absolutely open to horrific abuse. I’ve reassured my parents today that I will care for them in their final days and NOBODY will be there to push them into taking anything.

@Thepurplepig

but what if THEY want to take it?

@LuckySantangelo35 it shouldn't be in people's own hands. It should be done as a last resort when people are actively dying, by doctors, with prior consent and recorded as such.
Putting AD into people's own hands looks great, like some kind of consumer choice. But it's abdication of care. Doctors should not be prolonging life artificially-but they should be working to ensure excellent palliative care and quality of life, including unrestricted use of medication when life is no longer bearable due to illness.
If we had an honest discussion about death as part of care, and how to improve care services in general this might be a step in the right direction.
For all the posters who are so keen on "having their right to die"- I can't find any human rights article to support this. There's a real element of the leopard face eating about those who think they would be able to make such momentous decisions for themselves and wouldn't leave it too late, or so it too soon.

Do you really, genuinely think this is what this bill means? That people will be 'pushed' into taking something that will cause their death?

@ismu I would personally support this

It should be done as a last resort when people are actively dying, by doctors, with prior consent and recorded as such.

But what you’re asking for there is euthanasia. Which would probably be a harder thing to legislate for than assisted dying.

This is how I feel. I don't know how I would have felt if I hadn't experience the trauma of watching my mum die in agony and fear, but I did and I know damn well that I don't want to put my own children through the same.

I agree with You

People are really glossing over the issue that if you are wealthy you can join Dignitas and travel for the peaceful assisted death you want.
It's only the working class who are forced to die slowly and painfully even if they would wish to be assisted to die faster and more peacefully.
People are talking about how people may be manipulated but as it stands they are already being manipulated and let down.. they have no choice over how they die and they are reliant on shoddy NHS care.
Everyone regardless of financial bracket, should have a choice over how they die.
Why should you be forced to die a miserable slow death in hospital when you could die peacefully surrounded by your loved ones, when you choose to?
I cannot fathom how anyone wants to take that choice away from people.

@IKEAJesus euthanasia is what most people are asking for- look at all the posters saying they don't want to die with dementia, when my time comes, don't want to go on etc.
Actually most people find they do want to go on, if they have the right care. The life force is very strong.
When it isn't and you are actively dying, or in end stages of dementia, the current bill won't help. DNR is a blessing for people in this situation.
Having to make a choice to kill yourself on an arbitrary timescale is a very hard thing to do.

Removing artificial life support is different to assisted dying. Withdrawal of life support (eg ventilation) is with-holding treatment which clinicians feel is unethical because the burdens of treatment are large and the benefits very small (eg because the patient cannot experience pleasure, may be in extreme pain and cannot get better). The decision is purely what is in the patients best interest and it only goes to court when the patient does not have capacity and there is a difference in opinion between the treating team and parent/s. This is only in a few cases. I personally think it's an incredibly important safeguard we have in the UK to make sure that treatment is always in the best interests of the patient.

ISMU

You say "it shouldn't be in people's own hands".

Why not? Who has the right over your own life if not yourself?

Then you go on to say "doctors shouldn't prolong life artificially" - but that's exactly what all doctors do, all the time! All medicine is prolonging life artificially otherwise you'd have to let nature take its course!

I don't understand the "leopard face eating" reference at all, sorry.