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.

Yes, this.
Again comparing it to abortion - we don’t offer one to every single woman who goes for her first scan or midwife appointment! But women who need access to it know that it’s there if it’s needed.

You don’t have to utilise the bill if you don’t want, OP. But you don’t get to dictate what other people do with their bodies and their lives, it’s simply none of your business. HTH. @bipbopdo

I hope you're right. However we should be able to do it in this country, without the expense of travelling to Switzerland. In my opinion it should be available and affordable.

My FIL said the same thing for years. Strangely he’s lost the appetite to do it now the time has come. I think we’re an inherently optimistic species and most people think they’ll have more good days.

I genuinely think the answer is to improve palliative care before we even consider assisted dying.

Hopefully they’ll put that back in in the Lords.

I'd be happy to see an amendment where it had to be requested.

Wow you really are jumping the shark.

With two children who are resident doctors there are many things about the health service which make me anxious. What may happen in the future if we go down this slippery slope is not one of them.

Absolutely 💯 agree. I made that point on another thread. An example of health inequality.

Agree. Wasn’t it 500 excess deaths a week the last time it was reported by the media? Why isn’t everyone anxious about this? Why aren’t people demanding we have a system which stops these unnecessary deaths?

Can you not see how this becoming law has an impact on everyone? Regardless of their feelings about it?

If I want to have the freedom to end my own life at a time of my choosing my own decision is paramount as far as I'm concerned.

Even if that makes life more dangerous for the most vulnerable in society?
Even when you can already end your own life at any point you choose?

Legal abortion has an impact on people as well whether or not it's the choice they make. But someone not wanting to live in a world where someone else can legally make a different choice from theirs doesn't feel like a valid reason to withhold that choice.

I wouldn't have the wherewithal to end it safely and painlessly under medical supervision. I want that choice to be available to me if I request it.

Regardless of the impact that this law would have on others?
And in the knowledge that there is no guarantee that AD is painless?

Legal abortion is an interesting parallel because there are lots of examples of forced sterilisation before safeguards were developed to protect people from it.

It’s not just a case of anyone suicidal or terminally ill marching (or being wheeled) in and dying straight off. You have to be assessed for months.

That was true in Canada too until they relaxed it

No point in getting on that plane. You have to have capacity and six months or less for Dignitas, they wouldn’t accept you.

This is what worries me. In the case of the Paralympian who was told that she could have assisted suicide, various officials have said that the Canadian guidelines were broken - but no one would have known but for the fact that the Paralympian held firm and protested about what had happened to her.

Pegasos

I’m not shaming anyone. It’s a fact that the only option now is to prepare for the possibility of a long and drawn out death for yourself or a loved one. Assisted dying gives another option. You don’t have to take it. It’s a choice. Where is the shame in that? I don’t want a long and drawn out death but if a loved one did, I would respect their choice and be by their side if they wanted me to be.

I support it. I worked in a hospice for 15 years and whilst we did our absolute best to alleviate suffering I have still seen loads of people die horrible deaths.

Thank you so much. I didn’t know they existed.