I was in hospital for a serious infection last weekend and while I was lying on a trolley at the front of the ambulance admission queue, I could hear all the handovers. I was there for about three hours and they were doing my tests etc while I was waiting to be moved somewhere else. About 80% of the people were over 85 and some of them were called "social admissions" where they were being taken to A and E by an ambulance because there was no other option to keep the person safe.
I was listening to them shouting out, most of them were very confused and not in a good state. And I just thought, I don't want to get like that.
I've never thought I'd want assisted suicide before. I always thought until now that I'd want to just take whatever life threw at me and see how it all turned out, and savour every drop until the last minute. But I'm starting to think that's not likely with the unnatural lifespans we face and the way our brains seem to degenerate.
I don't want to sell the home I've worked so hard for, to pay for care to prolong a life I don't want to live and won't even be aware I'm living. What's the point of that?
Now, additional complication, I have bipolar disorder so I wouldn't want assisted suicide to be too easy. It would need to be regulated very VERY carefully. Not just handed out. But not impossible to get either. I don't think it's fair that you can't get assisted suicide if you have dementia and people with a history of depression shouldn't be ruled out as candidates on that basis if there's no current clinical depression.
What are your thoughts? How could we make assisted suicide workable? Or is it an impossible task in a country where the health system has a vested interest in there being fewer elderly/mentally ill people? Should we even try?