Conveniently avoiding the fact that by not allowing that CHOICE, protected by a structure of strong safeguards, to those who face a truly ghastly end .. such as my grandfather, grandmother, mother, and 2 old friends, for all of whom the best available palliative care simply wasn't adequate .. he is actively consigning considerable numbers of his fellow humans to a very unpleasant inhumane end-of-life experience. Greater numbers for certain than would be at risk of any sort of abuse of a stringent assisted dying system. We have the wonderful tools these days to enable a peaceful end for those who are dying anyway. We use them for our beloved pets. We don't even know if our pets would want it but we decide for them out of compassion. With humans it is a different issue. We would NOT decide for them. It would be only for those who - in advance - have expressed the wish to be allowed that peaceful end should they find themselves in unbearable pain and/or mental suffering when terminally ill, and who wish to avoid the long-drawn out awfulness that through their condition (be it a cancer or auti-immune condition etc) some will inevitably face.(because palliative care sadly still has its considerable limitations) and who can still express that wish when the time comes. No one is going to make that decision about or for them. It is very dishonest to use emotive language to suggest it is something that would be done TO them by, and on the decision of, others. It is entirely about ones right over ones own life and death.
There really is something so bloody corrupt about society......The STATE allows wars to rage, supply weapons to despots, have a totally divided society that sends the poor to food banks. Societies that treat groups of people as 'less' - Travellers, Homeless, Roma, Blacks, Indigenous people and the poor generally.
We can kill so many in our horrible disgusting wars but to die peacefully after suffering a protracted painful disease oh no! That, at least in most of the World, is seen as wrong.......we really are a f***ed up species.
And yet and yet……..Life at ANY price seems to be the name of the game when you are ACTUALLY dying. The medical establishment MUST STOP seeing death as a failure.
Nurses tell how it is......Most Drs keep shtum. I am fed up to the back teeth with people defending Drs saying ‘well, assisted dying is against the law’.. YES it is against the law BECAUSE the medical profession REFUSE to vote in favour of it….then MPs go along with the medical stance. It really is all a closed circle.
We have to somehow break it. I see Drs as Drs, NOT moral philosophers. Do the mending of us of course, when we need it, that is their job. But stop meddling in the dying of us.
That is all we are asking......suicide is not the answer as it can go horribly wrong and most of us have no access to the right drugs.
Personally I DON'T want Drs there BUT the law stipulates they are the ones who can write prescriptions so we need them for that purpose alone.
Dignitas
In my husband Andrew’s case the Dr saw Andrew twice over two days. Then wrote out the barbiturate prescription, which was then given to Dignitas.
When my husband died at Dignitas NO DR was present.....just the WONDERFUL nurse and her colleague assistant.
My husband had the civilised death he chose rather than the living hell the UK would have chosen for him.
Conveniently avoiding the fact that by not allowing that CHOICE, protected by a structure of strong safeguards, to those who face a truly ghastly end .. such as my grandfather, grandmother, mother, and 2 old friends, for all of whom the best available palliative care simply wasn't adequate .. he is actively consigning considerable numbers of his fellow humans to a very unpleasant inhumane end-of-life experience. Greater numbers for certain than would be at risk of any sort of abuse of a stringent assisted dying system. We have the wonderful tools these days to enable a peaceful end for those who are dying anyway. We use them for our beloved pets. We don't even know if our pets would want it but we decide for them out of compassion. With humans it is a different issue. We would NOT decide for them. It would be only for those who - in advance - have expressed the wish to be allowed that peaceful end should they find themselves in unbearable pain and/or mental suffering when terminally ill, and who wish to avoid the long-drawn out awfulness that through their condition (be it a cancer or auti-immune condition etc) some will inevitably face.(because palliative care sadly still has its considerable limitations) and who can still express that wish when the time comes. No one is going to make that decision about or for them. It is very dishonest to use emotive language to suggest it is something that would be done TO them by, and on the decision of, others. It is entirely about ones right over ones own life and death.
There really is something so bloody corrupt about society......The STATE allows wars to rage, supply weapons to despots, have a totally divided society that sends the poor to food banks. Societies that treat groups of people as 'less' - Travellers, Homeless, Roma, Blacks, Indigenous people and the poor generally.
We can kill so many in our horrible disgusting wars but to die peacefully after suffering a protracted painful disease oh no! That, at least in most of the World, is seen as wrong.......we really are a f***ed up species.
And yet and yet……..Life at ANY price seems to be the name of the game when you are ACTUALLY dying. The medical establishment MUST STOP seeing death as a failure.
Nurses tell how it is......Most Drs keep shtum. I am fed up to the back teeth with people defending Drs saying ‘well, assisted dying is against the law’.. YES it is against the law BECAUSE the medical profession REFUSE to vote in favour of it….then MPs go along with the medical stance. It really is all a closed circle.
We have to somehow break it. I see Drs as Drs, NOT moral philosophers. Do the mending of us of course, when we need it, that is their job. But stop meddling in the dying of us.
That is all we are asking......suicide is not the answer as it can go horribly wrong and most of us have no access to the right drugs.
Personally I DON'T want Drs there BUT the law stipulates they are the ones who can write prescriptions so we need them for that purpose alone.
Dignitas
In my husband Andrew’s case the Dr saw Andrew twice over two days. Then wrote out the barbiturate prescription, which was then given to Dignitas.
When my husband died at Dignitas NO DR was present.....just the WONDERFUL nurse and her colleague assistant.
My husband had the civilised death he chose rather than the living hell the UK would have chosen for him.