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.

The misinformation as well as the lack of information. There are people who literally have not read a single source of information apart from the tabloid press and social media. Mind blowing that people are so firmly in favour of a bill they haven’t even read.

in my experience it is.

You/your sister believe that children should be able to be euthanised?

This is what I'm afraid of, certain medical professionals already thinking about how to expand the bill and target more vulnerable people.

@ThisAquaCrow

No-one will be requiring anyone to do it.

If no doctor wants to do it, then AD will not happen.

Hopefully there are doctors who are prepared to do it.

Except that living with a terminal illness literally causes depression. So how in the hell are doctors going to filter out the terminally ill and depressed from the terminally ill and not depressed when there is no requirement for them to refer them for a psychiatric assessment?

Digging down into these numbers is really quite alarming.

Of the 59% who support assisted dying both in principle and in practice:

74% think it should be legal for non-terminal conditions

24% think it should be legal for reasons of mental health

27% think it should be legal for children

15% think it should be legal for any reason the patient wants

75% think it should be legal for people who are no longer mentally competent, based on their previously expressed wishes

Only 50% think it is necessary to involve a high court judge

Only 33% think it should be a requirement that the fatal substance is self-administered

41% think it is fairly or very likely that eligibility will be expanded beyond just terminal illness

32% think the initial safeguards are likely to be loosened

25% think it is likely that significant numbers of vulnerable people will be pressured into applying for assisted dying by people who stand to benefit from their death

46% think it is likely that significant numbers of vulnerable people will decide to apply for assisted dying primarily because they feel that they have become a burden to others

23% think that the availability and quality of palliative care will become worse

36% think it is likely that society will come to expect that some people should be opting for assisted dying rather than palliative care

Yet they still support it in both principle and practice! It's clear to see there will be pressure to expand the law and weaken the safeguards, regardless of the effects on significant numbers of vulnerable people.

I have incurable cancer and some other nasty chronic illnesses which impact my quality of life. I am happy that I will have this option should it become unbearable when my treatment options are exhausted and I am ready to give up.

It's not scary at all. It's the process that has worked in this country for hundreds of years. it's the process that countries all around the world use. Are you seriously suggesting every adult in the UK needs to read every line of every proposed bill? Nothing would ever bloody happen then would it, and you would bring entire life to a standstill as nobody would be able to work etc.

It's funny how you only criticise the supporters of the bill for not having read it. You seem to give a free pass to those rejecting the bill...

I would expect the MPs to have read what they are voting on.

As someone who has been given the terminal diagnosis and lived as well as exh being given a terminal diagnosis because the NHS wouldn’t pay for his treatment. I wouldn’t be surprised that this is a money saving idea to save the nhs a few pennies

Exh lived after we paid for everything

Clearly you don't know what a straw man argument is. Clue, it's more your second sentence than anything that poster said. No one is equating the value of human life to that of a dogs. What people are saying is our society shows greater compassion to dogs than it does to humans.

It’s a 38 page document on a life and death issue. EVERYBODY should read it. But it’s becoming abundantly clear that many people haven’t.

And if you refuse to read it, you have no basis for arguing either for or against it.

I can understand why some people, such as the parents of disabled children being worried about their ability to advocate for themselves surrounding this. However I've seen both my parents die very very bad deaths, and a friend commit suicide, causing untold worry to relatives and friends due to the way they went about it ( missing for weeks). I would very much like to be in charge of my own death due to this. I saw my mother basically choke to death, whilst in hospital, no one dare give her enough pain relief for fear of overdose. Naah not for me , if I can choose a peaceful death for myself I should be able to.

You’ve clearly missed the posters who say ‘I can put my dog down-I want that for myself’ Ergo. Equating.

That’s quite scary to contemplate @Yalta

Glad to see you’re demonstrating that terminal diagnoses aren’t foolproof.

I generally trust medicos to know their stuff and get it right. I have faith in science but I also know that medicine and science are not always able to predict completely accurately.

I have read it and think it’s a good starting point, and completely agree with what it is trying to do. There obviously need to be some tweaks, which is perfectly normal for a bill at this stage, and I’d like it to be a bit clearer in terms of the timing of administering the medication after the court stage, but there is nothing in there that personally gives me cause for concern.

I felt such relief when the outcome of the vote came out. Having recently seen someone I absolutely loved die a horrendous death, awake for much of it, and not really fully responding to pain relief. I'm also glad that this bill has focused minds on palliative care and am hopeful that this will improve things for those who are dying who don't choose assisted dying too.

At 12 years old my grandad begged me to smother him when we visited him in the hospice, that's my last memory of him. He eventually choked to death, while vomiting up his own shit, in front of my mum.

Anyone who wants to force people to endure a death like that because they're scared of a completely hypothetical future scenario are, at best, selfish gits imho.

@ismu

Even with AD in this bill, no one has a right to end their lives.

Isnt that the whole point of the bill? That people do have a right to request to end their life? To exert freedom of choice? Yes the judge has the final say but if the judge agrees, then the person has exercised their right to end their life. That’s what the legislation will allow.

You don’t quote your source for this information, would be interested to read it if you could post a link

@Getitwright

Source please

Yes I do, it's in the post I quoted. Here it is again:

https://ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net/documents/Internal_AssistedDying_241120_exefTJ4.pdf

Thank you, I must have missed it.