Possible TW - do you see yourself choosing Assisted dying?

[Threefullskips]

I hope this isn't too dark, but I've been thinking a lot about the legal and moral discussions in changing the legislation around assisted dying. And however we feel about it, it will be happening. In the context of NHS strain (and failure) , 'the market' taking care of the needs of elderly and infirm now more than families, properly prices, war on the horizon, increasing economic precarity - in a decade or so, we will all know people who have chosen to die by assisted dying. Is it something you have thought about? I hate to admit it, but I suspect it will be how I choose to go. And it feels like a defeat somehow. I'm perfectly healthy right now! Just looking into possible futures. This is a huge cultural change that will define our century imo. Sorry if this is too dark but I have tried to warn in title, I feel it surely merits a bit of discussion. Not sure what the AIBU is - AIBU to think more than 50% of the population will die this way in 50 years maybe?

Maybe I would I was diagnosed with dementia.

I’m a big chicken licken though. And I wouldn’t want my husband/daughters to find me, because that’s trauma.

Well why isn’t this the same for vets? When people say “better a day early than a moment too soon” because it is considered a kindness. I genuinely don’t think it’s any different.

100% this is a choice I will consider

No. I have a progressive disease and intend to off myself when the time's right. I do not ever want people (outside of armed services in combat) given legal powers to kill. That opens a dark and ugly doorway.

We already have this power over ourselves.

Yes, absolutely. I hope so much that I will live long enough for this to be possible. Having lost 4 friends in the past 3 years (I'm 52), I am praying that my family won't have to go through watching an agonising death that could have been prevented. They tried heroically in hospice to "get on top of" one lovely friend's pain. They rarely could for long.
It was appalling for everyone and nothing short of cruel to prolong such misery when there was no hope.

No, never, and I am very sad that this will now be a consideration for every ill, depressed or vulnerable person from now on.

I believe that life is a gift and we do not have the right to end life. I hope my children are never pressurised into feeling they should end my life “for my own good”.

We aren’t animals. So the argument about putting animals to sleep is completely irrelevant.

Having seen several relatives come to the end of their lives, I do think that money and effort should be put in to palliative care. I fear that AD will mean that even less attention will be paid to the dying.

Depends what type of cancer really and how much it's spread. If it starts ulcerating or something it can be horrendous. There are photos of people who left squamous cell carcinoma for years and the images are very much NSFW. Leaving it up to nature can be very distressing.

But it's not any sort of consideration for every depressed person-it's not open to them at all!

Your children won't be pressure into ending your life-only you will have that option and it sounds like you've already made it very clear you're against that. If you want to hang on til the bitter end in as much suffering as this world has to offer then that's still very much your choice.

I believe that life is a gift and we do not have the right to end life. I hope my children are never pressurised into feeling they should end my life “for my own good”.

I believe life is an utter curse and seeing some of the things I have at end of life has only made me more sure of it.

Sorry you feel that life is a curse @Firefly1987. Genuinely.

Because it's not as easy as you are making out. You can't just take some pills and it's lights out, you'd probably just be violently sick and then end up getting your stomach pumped. And surely a lot of people would want to say goodbye to their family in an official setting where everyone has that opportunity. My grandad died in hospital before any of us even got to see him that day and say goodbye. It happens a lot with natural deaths. You certainly wouldn't get a chance to say goodbye if you took matters into your own hands-unless you told your family beforehand, thereby putting them in a very risky position.

I have previously been very ill with unmanageable pain, and the idea of having the option to die is nothing but comforting for me. If it came to it I would. No doubt.

Thanks. Assisted dying would cut out a huge amount of suffering and there would be so much less trauma for those left behind. I was so happy when it passed the first stage. I'd still rather have not been here but if they bring AD in at least I know I don't have to go through unbearable agony at the end.

My Mum is being offered similar. She's almost 90. They keep telling her she could have another 10 years in her and my Mum is like, "I don't want to live another 10 years. I want to go to my husband!" Living long is not always living well.

I agree with @GarlicHound that when the time comes and I am in so much pain that I choose not to go on then I will end my life. I have an end of life condition and keep enough barbiturates to do it several times over. When you are child free and live alone its easy enough to organize so that you wont be found and resuscitated.

I have cancer and my treatment so far is going very well but I also live in a country where assisted dying is lawful and it's definitely something I will consider if things don't go the way I plan

Exactly
I have mid stage Parkinson’s at 63, when I can’t cope, I want assisted dying

Yes. I’ve seen family with dementia, cancer, decades of being in agony due a chronic medical problem and then the final months so high on morphine and still the NHS insisting on dragging “life” out as long as possible.

I would choose to avoid those outcomes, I would not want my family to see the barbaric way we sometimes treat our most sick and vulnerable.

I agree with many on here...yes, it's absolutely a choice I would make. I should be free to decide when I want to die, so I have the dignity to die gently and painlessly, at my choosing. Not have to suffer long drawn out efforts to keep me alive in agonising and debilitating circumstances.

However, it should be my choice and my choice alone. No-one should be pressurised to die early because they're 'expendable'. But by the same token, nor should anyone be pressurised by society/medics/the NHS to stay alive when they don't want to either.

Sign me up right now!

I think there is a lot wrong with this bill, feels like zero safeguards. I am deeply concerned that this will affect vulnerable people. Having said that if it’s there I think I would strongly consider using it.

But I think the fear of death is a lot stronger than people think it is. I’ve watched a few people die, some went peacefully in their own time, some struggled knowing it was coming. I don’t think a single one of them would have chosen an assisted death if I’m being honest.

Absolutely. I am a nurse and both of my parents died horribly. Dad has MND and mum had COPD and lung/brain cancer and where we lived at the time did not have VAD. (It does now). In Australia the percentage of people who qualify (and are signed off) for the VAD path who actually end up using it is very, very low because our access to palliative care and consistent pain relief is very good. I would still like to have the choice available to me in case I am too sick to qualify for VAD and actually feel like I needed it.

Yes I'm not sure if any of my family would've used it-then again we never had the convo as it wasn't an option back then (unless you count going to Dignitas) so I don't really know. Survival instinct is really strong in all of us though.

People keep saying there's no safeguards yet it feels like there's very strict criteria-what do you feel is wrong with the current bill?

Although I do want this for myself and am seeing some deaths that confirm it would be the right choice for me, I’m aware that very few people really make a choice to shorten their lives when the time comes, even with diagnoses that would fill most of us with dread, except perhaps in the very final weeks. I wish for myself to encounter a doctor like that woman in Gosport who was extremely quick to ease people out with a few syringes of morphine, but she’s probably been/going to be prosecuted and I can’t say that’s wrong, obviously, she was likely responsible for a high number of early deaths without any wishes recorded by the patients. I don’t think most doctors are going to risk their licences for me, and why should they.

Theres a difficult crossover between symptom control and cure. Like the skin cancer operation for an elderly lady above, there are some procedures that are preferable to just letting the disease happen.

Having lost my husband to suicide, I know I don’t have the physical courage to do what he did. I am not convinced that an ‘easy’ death really exists any more than I would tell a woman she’d had an ‘easy’ birth. It’s always a tough passage in some form imo.

Having watched my dad die yes I’d take AD. However I’m not sure about hell and I’d never consider suicide as I’m scared of there being a hell. My concern would be if AD is viewed as suicide and then I’d end up in hell. Not entirely rational I know!

100% I would chose AD. I've had money put away and ringfenced for years to pay for a trip to Switzerland should the need arise. Hopefully our politicians finally overcome their cowardice and the pandering to religious bampottery and get on with bringing it about here so the Switzerland palaver becomes unnecessary.