Assisted dying

[lyb]

A friend's wife recently went backto Austraila to celebrate her mum's birthday and say farewell a few day's later.

Her mother, at the age of 88, was obviously getting more frail, but still had all her mental faculties and had made the decision to take advantage of Queensland's new laws on assisted dying.

Two days after he 88th birthday, her two daughters were with her at the hospital as she was euthanised. One daughter sat with her while the other (my friend's wife) found that a bit too much and had to leave the room for the act.

This subject is coming up in the UK, with Keir Starmer having promised a vote on it to Ester Rantzen, the broadcaster diagnosed with terminal cancer.

What do people feel about this? Is this a way people would like to go themselves? People they know?

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[Fenway Frank]

Not for me, too many grey areas

 

[morty]

Agreed. And I do not want one single MP anywhere near any legislation decisions.

 

[Rock The Boat]

No. This is just the thin end of the wedge. The State will encourage this to happen more and more in the future as is already happening in Canada and the Netherlands. And I say this as someone who has had someone very close to me die in very distressful conditions

 

[morty]

No. This is just the thin end of the wedge. The State will encourage this to happen more and more in the future as is already happening in Canada and the Netherlands. And I say this as someone who has had someone very close to me die in very distressful conditions

I think, to a certain extent, we kind of already have this, in all but name. Palliative care, whilst not actually pushing people, really is almost assisted dying. You hear stories of people with a morphine pump kind of encouraged to take as much as they like, and if it is too much, then all good.

But I agree, a very contentious subject that could be open to manipulation.

 

[PukkiParty]

See, I don't have any issues with those who are terminally ill calling it a day to avoid the painful death on morphine.

The problem I have is what it is a gateway or springboard to. In Canada they are now extending it to mental illness from 2027, including depression. People can, and often do, recover from depression, and it all feels a bit Third Reich when they weeded out the mentally feeble or whatever it is that they considered them to be.

It feels all too convenient to the state to have the mentally ill terminate themselves so the treasury doesn't have to adequately fund their care and treatment. I'd be vehemently opposed to assisted dying / suicide for treatable diseases, e.g. depression, but that very much feels like what comes next.

 

[lyb]

See, I don't have any issues with those who are terminally ill calling it a day to avoid the painful death on morphine.

The problem I have is what it is a gateway or springboard to. In Canada they are now extending it to mental illness from 2027, including depression. People can, and often do, recover from depression, and it all feels a bit Third Reich when they weeded out the mentally feeble or whatever it is that they considered them to be.

It feels all too convenient to the state to have the mentally ill terminate themselves so the treasury doesn't have to adequately fund their care and treatment. I'd be vehemently opposed to assisted dying / suicide for treatable diseases, e.g. depression, but that very much feels like what comes next.

I’d definitely share your concern re extending it to mental illness and not just terminal or chronic physical ailments, and I think it’s right to have a healthy concern about the potential for things to be taken too far on any subject, especially where life and death is concerned, but I think there’s a parallel to be drawn with abortion where a similar ‘slippery slope’ argument was used to oppose that; permissiveness on abortion hasn’t run amok as a result of the legalisation of abortion;I don’t see any reason to fear an excessively enthusiastic approach to assisted dying finishing up prevailing just because the worst sufferers can be given a helping hand off this mortal coil if they want it badly enough.

 

[Fen Canary]

I’ve no problem with it personally, if somebody wants to go then let them. It’s not for me to decide if their life is worth living, only they can make that choice.
I’d draw the line at mental health as that can fluctuate and by its very definition you’re not in control of your faculties to make an informed decision. However if somebody is living in pain with no hope of improvement, or terminally ill and going to suffer a miserable drawn out death then let them have at it

 

[The Raptor]

Have this team signed up for it? They started brightly as they often do but unless they score early they always seem to concede and give up for a bit...