To think voting for assisted dying legalisation could be a huge mistake???

[MyLimeGuide]

In Scotland they are voting to legalise assisted dying. Looking likely to pass. I am worried this will come to England now. Kier is already proving he doesn't care about old and disabled people so this scares me.
Obviously there are 2 sides but how can people be so ignorant? If passed this could be one of the biggest opportunity for corrupt evil behaviour of saving money on the NHS, care, people literally getting away murder, playing god! No not good. It's so scary.

Have you actually read who it affects? It doesn't apply to people with depression. Have a read of the guidelines.

OP I agree with you. On a superficial level it seems a good idea that people have freedom to choose their manner of death. Looking a bit deeper into what has happened in other countries that have adopted this legislation, it is worrying to say the least. I think that subtle coercion, inadequate care and ableism will all come into play here.
i would like to see an audit of those who’ve chosen assistance. My thoughts would be that they are people who need help rather than death.
Changing attitudes to benefit claimants and reluctance to pay taxes or even to let people spend their own money on care all make me worried about the future.

This

As an "old" and "severely disabled" person who currently has no intention of ending their life, but would like the choice to do so if I lacked quality of life and had a terminal illness, it can't come soon enough. I am disgusted that I can make humane decisions for my dog, but not for myself.

Yes, fully agree.

YANBU OP. I hugely distrust the motives of politicians, how convenient for them to be able to save huge amounts of money properly tackling issues with the quality of adult social care and palliative care whilst cleverly making it seem like a choice/responsibility of the individual alone.

I think society’s current attitudes towards the elderly/anyone with less than perfect health is quite frankly appalling and disgusting.

There are a lot of problems with it as evidenced in other countries. It's been shown that vulnerable women in domestic abuse relationships could be in danger and so on.

I'm very opposed to it.

They’re already ‘allowed’. Suicide isn’t a crime any more.

I feel very strongly that forcing people to live in agony is torture. These laws can't be passed quickly enough in my view. The prevention of pain free death is often led by organisations with strong religious doctrine. Suffering is good for the soul etc. I do think it needs robust checks and balances but I really hope it comes in before I lose my marbles or get a painful untreatable form of cancer.

You clearly haven’t done any research on the proposed legislation, nor can you have any understanding on the unimaginable pain and suffering of those with terminal illnesses and their families. Watching someone you love die in drawn out tormented agony which is unresolvable and not being able to do anything to help was the worst experience of my life, which I hope never to repeat nor to experience myself. If it offends you then fine don’t do it, but don’t you dare deny others personal autonomy by your hysterical rantings.

Not YET. The pathway in other countries like Canada has been successive amendments to include other groups, including people suffering depression. In some countries, they've included under 18s.

Thankyou. This worries me, let's face it, people don't actually care its so obviously ALWAYS about the money.

Too many vulnerable people will be coerced into ending their lives. I wouldn't trust the safeguards. People with disabilities are scared. Why not invest in high quality palliative care?

It's a really complicated issue, but I don't believe they should be even considering this until they have improved palliative care. Good palliative care should be a basic right and a given, not hit & miss depending on where you live. Hospices should always be an option and if people want to die at home then there should be good support available. Nobody should be dying in pain - we absolutely have the ability to prevent that. Until these things are in place too many people will feel the need to opt for assisted euthanasia rather than take their chances with NHS support or lack of. However this costs money, so the government will always prefer to allow people to choose their own death earlier, instead of investing to prevent them feeling that to be necessary.
Too many people are vulnerable to coercion for this to be a viable solution for me. And I say that having watched my partner died of cancer 18months ago.

Keyword - invest.

We have it in most states of Australia for the terminally ill only. I have not read of any issues with it so far and it’s not been that controversial.

I can currently be kinder to my pets than to my mother, who basically existed (not lived) in a care home for years disintegrating physically and mentally before our very eyes (something she would have hated). With the right protections in place I am very much for assisted dying.

Isn't this thread you created all about your individual imaginative situation?

I'm really struggling with the idea too.

I understand how awful it must be for those who want to die, but my experience is that the will to live is strong and even those who think now that if life became intolerable they'd want to die, might feel differently of it happened. .

DH died long slow death in terrible pain. He was completely bedbound for the last six months and there were times he was very distressed. It was incredibly hard to watch and caring for him and trying to make him comfortable was very stressful. However, he still enjoyed having friends to visit, watching a TV show together, playing a game with DC and was definitely not ready to die. He was someone who'd have previously said "if I get like that shoot me".

People will argue that assisted dying legislation will have no impact on people like him, but I do think if it was an accepted option he could well have decided that ending it all was his best option, not because he wanted to die but to relieve the "burden" of caring for him, which he knew was taking its toll.

It think elderly people seeing their estate swallowed up in care fees will see it as a good option to protect their DC's inheritance too, and whilst maybe that should be their right, do we really want that world?

No I'm not in this situation. I just wanted info and people's opinions.

I don't think you understand how the legislation would work.

We put animals to sleep on compassionate grounds, but we force people to die awful, painful, humiliating deaths.

We shouldn’t be so afraid of death, people should have the choice to live an awful life or choose death, when they have their own agency.

I think people really need to look into how assisted dying has developed over time in other countries before calling OP hysterical,

it’s been expanded way beyond terminal illness, there’s people who have used it for depression, eating disorders, homelessness etc.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/17/canada-nonterminal-maid-assisted-death

this wouldn’t happen under the models proposed in both Scotland and England though. You would need to have a terminal illness to be eligible, and also have the mental capacity to request an assisted death. So to say it could apply in cases where people have depression is just scaremongering OP

I sincerely hope it does.