To be very anxious about the assisted dying bill?

[bipbopdo]

I’m surprised by how anxious I am about it. I don’t agree with it at all and I’m not sure there will ever be enough safeguards to justify making it legal. As it currently stands, it’s theoretically possible for someone with anorexia to qualify.

It took less than ten years for Canada to expand eligibility well beyond the original criteria. Assisted dying now accounts for one in twenty deaths there. I’m scared that could happen here.

Sorry that you’re feeling so anxious. Personally, I fully support assisted dying.

They will be people who were going to die in the near future anyway just after a lot more unnecessary pain and suffering.

Sorry, you're feeling anxious about it. The Bill still has to pass through the House of Lords though before it becomes law.

I look forward to it becoming law. Shame it’s still 4 years away.

My Dad was desperate to die because he was in so much pain and really suffering at the end. It was traumatic for him and for us.

We had to have our dog put to sleep not long after. We couldn't let him suffer.

It's crazy that you can put a dog out of its misery when it all gets too much but you can't help a human have some peace.

I fully support the bill as long as enough checks are made and Doctors can sign it off.

My understanding is that you need to have capacity and a terminal diagnosis within six months. If you have watched close family and friends die from cancer, it is hard to see why this Bill is a bad thing.

If palliative care and pain relief were more effective and better than they are currently, this Bill might not be needed.

Why are you scared? Let people chose to end their lives if they are suffering and in pain. How does this affect you?

I'm anxious about the implications. I hope the Lords throw it out.

Me, too.

I’m pretty sure you’ve never seen someone suffer with absolutely zero quality of life, otherwise you would be anxious that it didn’t go through

Since Harold Shipman, doctors just haven’t been able to prescribe enough morphine to keep pain under control for some terminally ill people

I'm sorry you are anxious about it but I'm in favour of assisted dying. I certainly don't want people keeping me alive when I'm unable to feed myself, wipe my ass or recognise my children. I'd like to go before I get to that stage. Assisted dying is about me having that choice.

Sorry you’re anxious, OP. Are you in a position where you feel the bill might affect you? As @unsync says, the bill is designed to provide safeguards, and choice. I'm in favour of it. To me it's like abortion - if you don't agree with it, you don't have to do it, but that doesn't mean you should strip body autonomy rights from other women. Likewise assisted dying - if you don't approve or agree for moral or religious reasons, that's absolutely fine, and I support your right to have no part of it. But that shouldn't mean that no-one else can choose it. I especially think of people with life limiting illnesses, living daily with unimaginable pain and discomfort. Who are we to sentence them to that sort of existence if they don’t want to be here anymore?

A long, drawn-out, painful death? No thank you. I’d much prefer a peaceful end at the time I choose, surrounded by loved ones.

The assisted dying bill has plenty of safeguards on place. You won’t just be able to bump off Uncle Brian at will because you want to get your hands on his millions.

We treat our pets better than we treat humans, and that needs to change.

I’m anxious about becoming so ravaged by dementia that I am physically & mentally abusive to my loved ones and have my shit & piss dealt with by strangers because I’m in nappies

I think I am generally supportive of the bill for physical illnesses. But it did give me pause when I read about Shanti De Corte and I need to explore my feelings about it a little more. So I think I can understand where your anxieties are coming from OP.

Me too. Unfortunately this bill would be of no help to us if that happened to us. I’m entirely in favour of it, we should all have autonomy to choose the manner of our own death.

You are absolutely right to be anxious. And yes, I’ve been with someone at the end several times and have a life-limiting condition myself. I don’t trust their so-called safeguards.

I’d like to see it with elderly people with dementia too.

it’s a horrible existence.

It’s not the same, but if you have a Health and Welfare Power of Attorney, you can add a paragraph to say in which circumstances you do not want any life-saving or life-prolonging treatment.

It was a priority for me, in an era when keeping people going no matter how poor their quality of life, seems so often to be the default. Though having said that, I know it’s often the relatives who ‘can’t bear to let Mum go’ - when the medics may well think that letting Nature take its course would be kinder.

I'm far more anxious of dying in pain and a drawn out horrible death.

I’m very anxious that it won’t become law because of unelected Lords…

Its not going to be compulsory OP, just an option for those of us who don’t want an extended period of undignified, painful, excruciating suffering at the end of our lives.
I’m fortunate that we have the financial means to go to Switzerland or similar if the situation arose, but I’m very pleased that it, hopefully, will be available here in a few years.

You've obviously not witnessed someone you love dying from motor neurone disease OP.
I fully support the bill.

@BIossomtoes
A close relative was diagnosed with dementia at 70 and I’ll get flamed for saying this but luckily they died not long after of an related condition

Dementia would not be covered under the current proposed criteria as you need to be terminally ill with a maximum of a 6 month prognosis and the mental capacity to consent.

I it’s a personal choice and whilst you may be worried about it there are safeguards including the team of elope who will agree you can do it. There is also criteria who have to meet. I know someone who nursed her mother toward the end of cancer, the mother literally screamed in pain whenever she moved, despite being on the strongest pain killers allowed

i also firmly believe that it already happens with those terminally ill and 9n the highest level of pain killers whose time is near any way

we treat animals better than we treat other humans at the end of their life