To think this is NOT a good example of why the law should change around assisted suicide

[LydiaBennetsUglyBonnet]

www.itv.com/news/granada/2022-07-21/pensioner-who-killed-wife-in-suicide-pact-calls-for-law-change?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1ETDQNfb1DFNtznBTAi__qpBa-ivcvynJSwwAFXzaP3gFv6nRnyvsS_YU#Echobox=1658433729

A 71yo man slit the throat of his wife, who had cancer, and then tried (but failed) to kill himself. He claims this was a suicide pact.

he was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter earlier this week. He is now apparently campaigning for a change in the law around assisted suicide.

Now this case has utterly perplexed me. The UK definition of manslaughter is:

”a person is guilty of involuntary manslaughter when he or she intends an unlawful act that is likely to do harm to the person, and death results which was neither foreseen nor intended”

He did intend to kill so I’m not sure how that works out.

He’s getting loads of support on social media and some very supportive comments from the judge.

Personally I just don’t get it - ”assisted suicide” in such a violent and painful way, followed by the suicide of someone who is NOT terminally ill is not, IMO, a good example of why the law should change. I don’t necessarily disagree with the principles of assisted suicide, I think if we must have it it should be heavily regulated. This man says “nobody should have to go what we went through”. But he wasn’t ill, and it was such a horribly painful death for her. And being unable to live without your spouse, as he claims, can’t possibly be a good enough reason to have to legally commit suicide.

Am I the only one who thinks this is a horrific case and can’t understand why he’s getting so much support?!

Yes. That was the decision made by a family friend with MND who chose the option before deterioration removed the choice, plausibly some years too early.

I don't agree with his methods but I'm sure if there were less brutal methods available he may have considered them.

If his wife was perhaps immobile and weak, the logistics of other methods may have been an issue.

It's a horrible subject and can't imagine the turmoil they must have both been in to come to that decision, and it feels crass to discuss the quality of their suicide methods.

Overall I believe in assisted suicide, while I am not comfortable with the idea (who is!) That grief is adequate reason to take your own life, until I walk in his shoes I don't feel I can judge.

I have watched a parent die from cancer. No I would not have wanted to slit her throat. Absolutely horrific and I doubt very much this was an assisted suicide.

I agree with what most of you are saying, I believe assisted suicide should be available as an option with tight controls, psychiatric assessment etc. With this case the method is very disturbing, if they had agreed between them then why didn’t they leave evidence of this - letters and video of her explaining her plan to die.

I actually think this case is a good example of why it is needed. To me the whole thing, including the method is suspicious, if assisted suicide was legal the man would have no defence for what he did. His wife would have been able to have consented to a much more dignified death or made it clear she didn’t want that. Or if it was all as he says it was, he would not have needed to attempt suicide to avoid a prosecution.

Legalising and heavily regulating assisted suicide would provide terminally ill people with a lot more protection in my eyes and is urgently needed in this country.

I'm already occasionally wondering how I can top myself should I become terminally ill*

I dread dementia most of all but I don’t think Dignitas will take anyone even in the early stages of it as they fear the children puppeteering their parents with a view to the inheritance or avoiding caring for them.

I meant painless relative to your suggestion of overdosing on OTC tablets, which would likely be something like paracetamol. That would cause severe internal pain as your liver shuts down and could last for days. So days of painful dying versus a minute or two of pain?

Man murders wife and gets away with it. Horrific.
It can't be suicide if she didn't do it herself.
No woman would consent to their throats being slit, if it was a pact to end her life, then a less brutal way would surely be suggested.
What a surprise he survived....don't they always?

Right a detailed living will stipulating that following a formal diagnosis for dementia you no longer wish to receive antibiotics for any infection (only pain relief), if you are immobile and/or incontinent you'll sooner succumb to infection than to dementia itself. Not ideal but in the absence of legalised euthanasia it's better than nothing.

You know you can still have years living a good life with dementia? Plenty of people live alone.

Yes, but equally your life can turn into a living hell, particularly in the middle years when there is an awareness of what is happening, and then later when for some people they live in absolute terror every day.

In the absence of legalised euthanasia where individuals can stipulate the point in their disease pathway where they deem their quality of life too poor to continue then sadly people will need to, and currently do end their life sooner by means of refusal of treatment, suicide, dignatas, and more discreet assisted suicide by family members than a knife in the throat. This in my opinion is an important argument in favour of legalising euthanasia.

Yes, but equally your life can turn into a living hell, particularly in the middle years when there is an awareness of what is happening, and then later when for some people they live in absolute terror every day

EgonSpengler - yes, I’ve made a living will as detailed as I can.
I so agree about life turning into a living hell. This is what happened to my mother. She changed from being a wonderful, intelligent, empathetic person to a bad tempered unreasonable person who was incredibly rude to her family and lovely carers. Then the dementia took over and she spent a further 3 years with no quality of life at all and was either silent or sometimes screaming.
It was very painful to witness and must have been much worse for her.

I’d stockpile drugs in a secret place but I have absolutely no idea where to go about getting hold of such things.