My mother died in great pain and drugged up on pain killers waiting for an operation under Thatchers waiting lists. I watched helpless and sometimes wanted her to die to escape the pain. That guilt still haunts me today and will never leave me.
My husband ended his own life early after a period of horrible suffering and knowing he wouldn't recover. He couldn't even discuss it with people he loved or get any professional support because we would be legally culpable, and suicide is seen as something to be prevented at all costs.
The Romans used assisted dying, to aid the passage of many wealthy nobles within the Empire. Assisted dying however is emotional complex debate. Many of us reflect on our own mortality. And would like an option to help ourselves if, we need to use it. We should be able to put our names in early
As someone with 2 degenerative diseases, and having watched too many loved ones die over a long period of time...I am a huge proponent of assisted death. Wasting away sucks for everyone. A quicker death is always easier to deal with.
On the Dark side of this is the mental illness side. I read about a 17-18 year old Austrian girl who had depression and anxiety who was granted assisted suicide in a Switzerland clinic. This seems so wrong in this case.
While i am for assisted dying, it should preclude sole psychiatric reasons for doing so. I read about a young girl (17)from Austria who had severe depression who some genius psychiatrist granted assisted dying for on this sole reason. She went to Switzerland and died. So sad and wrong. Agree?!
After witnessing my grandmother deal with vascular dementia, I’d say that if I were diagnosed with an incurable disease that would rob me of my agency I would absolutely prefer assisted dying. I’d like to die still able to comprehend the world and not in a slow way that hurts the people I care about
I would have liked to have seen both my parents have a choice. Both died of cancer. Both experienced levels of pain that was uncomfortable to see. Nursing staff were good, but limited by convention. I would not have put my dog through what they experienced towards the end.
During Covid, the government killed those they deemed unworthy of life with forced DNR’s. I’m all in favour of assisted dying. I just worry it will be used to “save tax payers money.”
My best friend, with terminal cancer is scheduled for assisted death in less than 2 weeks. As hard and heartbreaking all of this is, I’m grateful that she has this option rather than suffering and losing her dignity.
I have now been with 3 relatives at end of life. Each endured 3-4
days of discomfort and confusion that benefitted neither them nor those who loved them. I would take the option of death with dignity to avoid that without hesitation.
I wish this topic was more present in our public policy conversations. There are so few states in the US that offer this as an option for people who are suffering unnecessarily. Hoping that when my time comes, it will be more widely accepted.
For the ancients, the suicide of Ajax and Mark Antony was also quite moral and logical. If you have been dishonored, shamed, from their POV, your life had lost its value. I guess, as a lifelong student of the classics, I also have absorbed some of that viewpoint, albeit I am now 83.
I live in a state that allows death with dignity. Working at a state hospital, my fellow social workers and I (volunteers) assist families and MDs through the complicated legal process. Half the patients who get the script, never take it. Knowing they can and thus have control brings so much peace.
I am just waiting for the rest of the sane world to catch up. My mother and aunt both were able to choose to end their pain. No hassle, no guilt. The dr and nurses knew what to do. It was peaceful and painless. Of course, you still mourn. But I at least know they were really at peace.
In five years time I will be out of money and resources. The safety net is fraying. We saw during austerity what this did to people. 330,000 excess deaths. Flies in the face of every life counting. So it will be starvation or dignity. I will go with dignity.
Personally, I'm in favour as long as the individual has capacity and genuine choice. But having seen people (who said they didn't want to) hang on for many months in pretty horrible situations, I'm amazed at the human will to live. Or is it fear of death?
I’m in favour & am unconvinced about the slippery slope argument or the pressure on ‘burdens’ argument. 6 months would have been some respite for my mothers last 3 years in huge pain & immobile from her Parkinson’s and transparent skin. There was no shortage of funds, she was 93.
In Radio 4 episode ‘The Oath’ you suggest that oaths are transcendent. That the gods sort out matters that concern them. Do you think that applies to the classical Hippocratic Oath, which summons Apollo & all the gods & goddesses? If not, who’s governing medical ethics?
I’m for assisted dying. I watched my darling mother, a beautiful exotic women, die of Bone cancer. She was an atheist. She begged me to go for best part of year before she finally gasped out her last breath in my arms, in a charity hospice at 04:00 in the morning. Mercy for dying!! FFS!
Watching loved ones die is never easy, but there are times when death is the best option, as it is inevitable in any case. I still grieve the loss of my Grandmother, almost 50 years later, but she WAS in pain, and suffering from Alzheimer's, so I accepted it.
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days of discomfort and confusion that benefitted neither them nor those who loved them. I would take the option of death with dignity to avoid that without hesitation.
Assisted dying cannot come soon enough in my opinion.
@wmarybeard.bsky.social