Debbie purdy has just lost her case

[Idrankthechristmasspirits]

I think i agree with the courts on this one. I think it's one hell of a moral and legal minefield if it becomes legal to assist suicide.

Any thoughts?

link?

sorry, there wasn't one. It was breaking news this morning, will look tomorrow for a decent article and post again.

Purdy case

Looks like they came to a sensible compromise - prosecutions in these tragic cases serve no one.

Wrong. She is of sound mind and is suffering from a degenerative illness. She has the right to decide whether to end her life.

However, I'm no getting into his argument again after the Daniel James thread.

Thats the biggest issue for me as well Riven. Why should anyone feel under pressure to die? And i do feel (rightly or wrongly, call me cynical) that if it was legal there would be an awful lot of people feeling an awful lot of pressure....

I agree it's tragic sponge, but one persons living hell is anothers meaningful life.

Idrank, totally agree with you and agree with the concerns about pressure being put on people who feel like a 'burden'

I suppose it all depends on your personal experience - I watched a close friend die in agony of a brain tumour, begging to be allowed to die with dignity .

If her husband had helped her then what public benefit would have been served by prosecuting him?

It is so hard isn't it, to find the right balance?

I watched her interviewed today on the news and she seemed to be suggesting that in her case the law as it stands could lead to her taking decisions earlier than she would otherwise want to. I guess she was saying that she would possibly take her own life while she was still able, rather than leave her husband to take the consequences.

She did also make the point that if suicide is no longer illegal, it seems strange that assisting suicide remains an offence. But then you run into issues of consent being properly and freely given, and all sorts of public policy issues. I'm not really surprised the judgment was expressed the way it was.

Wrong decision by the courts imho. How on earth is it humane to allow people to suffer when they've had enough and feel they have a poor quality of life?

But Thunderduck, the court didn't have any choice - it can't rewrite the legislation. All it could do was give a very very strong direction that each case would be looked at on the merits in terms of whether a decision would be taken to prosecute. I'm not saying it's ideal, but I thought it was a compassionate judgment in the circumstances.

Perhaps it is the best they can do, but the law really needs to change, though obviously appropriate safeguards must also be in place.

Very wrong in my view. I know they said in their ruling that they would be backstop to make sure no one actually went to prison but to be honest I think the Court of Appeal ducked the issue and so have politicians for far too long.

I expect this to go to the House of Lords and I hope the Law Lords make a sensible clear ruling. There is a legal principle that if a law is not being enforced or widely flouted by common agreement it is no longer legally prosecutable and becomes defunct.

In my view we are fast a approaching a situation where society will by common consensus refuse to force people to live in pain/ill health or just senile and instead allow them to die with dignity.

Society recognises that Govt is not keen to pay for their care and is just dumping it all on relatives who are often themselves old or ill. Most people wil regard that as unfair and jury's wil refuse to prosecute and the CPS will refuse to bring cases.

After watching my father die of motor neurone disease (a horrific degenerative disease where he slowly lost all function and was aware of it all), I joined the organisation "Dignity in Dying". I fully support Debbie Purdy.

If it happened to me, I would want to be able to make the decsion about when and how I wanted to end my life and to ensure that if I needed help it would be there with no danger of prosecution for my loved ones.

I think if an able bodied person is entitled to take thier life then it is quite wrong not to allow a disabled/ill person to do the same thing just because they can't.
My Mother has told me very clearly that she has no intentions of carrying on into her dottage if she is in pain or immobile. She knows she is no burden to me. It is entirely her choice, just as it is her life.
It disheartens me that she will be forced to make this choice before it is necessary because she will want to protect me.

I am very much pro introduction of physician assisted suicide...
people say a person feels under pressure to end their life, as to not be a burden...but someone like this woman may decide to take her life earlier than she otherwise would...how is that any better?

Oh and verygreenlaw...it is already that way, i.e. that every case will be looked at seperately and than the decision will be made if they proscecute or not?

I know, if anything is going to change it will be a very carefully thought through affair.
Written an essay about this a while back and read through Lord Joffe's proposed Bill...but doesn't look like it will ever be passed ...

I know that should I end up suffering with a terrible and painful and debilitating desease, I think I rather take the "easy" option and die, but no, I wouldn't want to make that risky decision and implicate anyone else in it, incase they suffer the consequences for helping me...but yeah, that might mean that I would have to make the decision sooner rather than later,before I would be unable to do it....

I can really see both side of the argument, but think there should be a better solution.

iven...like I said it would have to be highly regulated, etc...and it wold have to come from the individual, iykwim....because only the individual can make that decision, iykwim....people deal so differently with their conditions.
Obviously care for people with disabilities and longterm debilitating conditions MUST be improved, and things like pain management clinics and equipment has to be freer available, etc...!

Little highjack, sorry:
Riven, have you still got the problem with finding an appropriate rain solution for your dd an her wheelchair? Just wondering, as I will soonish go to a big exhibition (naidex) and I would be happy to keep my out for you, if you like!

But how would you regulate the regulators? And who would decide that a person truly wants to die of their own free will if they are severely depressed or if they are in severe pain that is not being managed correctly?

There are too many ifs, buts and maybes for me to see it as a viable but more importantly failsafe option.

Oh right Riven...I seen those wheelchair macs . I also saw an umbrella that you can attach to teh wheelchair handles (I presume those are possibly more for the person that pushes the wheelchair.)

Idrank, well, if a person is not depressed and not in that much pain yet, but knows that this will be inevitable to happen, than that person could make a preliminary decision.
But, like I said, in the first instance care/painmanagement etc...has to be made more available etc...!

for those that are interested in Lord Joffe's bill proposal
here

I'm curious to know if there has been any studies or investigations into death rates in countries were it is already legal? Sweden is it?

Have there been more disabled people assisted, or has it mainly been degenerative disease cases?

That might alleviate some concerns, or might prove some points?