I hope we have this by the time my numbers called, I really don’t want to suffer for weeks on end like some I have seen go.
> woman who ended life at Dignitas urges change to UK law
From beyond the grave?
We put down our pets when they are in pain because we love them and don’t want to see them suffer. Why do we not expend this to people? I know for a fact that if I’m terminally ill that I’m going out on my terms, why not just make it easier for those facing a painful death?
I read on the daily mail a comment along the lines of
Why should we legalise this so we can wheel all old people to die because someone decides we aren’t fit enough
This is the type of person who’s actively against this
This debate is obviously very polarising. However I feel that if you get asked on a surface level “Should euthanasia be legal?”, an instinctual answer to give is “of course”, because who on Earth would allow somebody to go through so much pain when by their own choice, they want to die? That used to be mine too. However the deeper I read into the topic, it’s unbelievably complex to the point that I reversed my position and I’m against it. Even if it were to be implemented, it opens up a whole range of other complicated moral questions.
Before anyone jumps in with “you would not think that had you needed to watch the suffering of a loved one”, my father died of cancer less than a year ago. So I’m aware of that.
Yep we do. My father passed away due to cancer. When he died it took him three days of struggle until he did die it would have been kinder to help him pass and not have him struggle in pain until the body finally gave in.
I lost my mum very recently due to cancer, the way she suffered and the things she said in the last few days will haunt me for the rest of my life. All you can do is try to stay strong while you sit helplessly and watch it run its course. Without a change in the law, I think if I’m ever diagnosed with cancer and it becomes terminal, I would rather just take my own life than be admitted to hospital and lose the ability to end it when I’ve had enough.
She’s too posh to suffer:
“I’m not scared to die,” she said. “I’m scared of dying in pain.”
Yet millions of people live every day with chronic pain from incurable yet not fatal diseases.
This kind of business needs to be behind a paywall.
We need to invest in biomedical research for chronic illnesses instead of palming patients off with useless CBT and ‘positive thinking’ courses.
Long Covid and MECFS patients are so ill and desperate for help they’ve spent thousands on a billboard campaign! It’s shameful!
I’m probably going to opt for this eventually. Other choice is wheezing out my last few hours in a hospital bed so doped up I have no idea where I am. I want to go on my terms before shit gets really bad. It’s a shame I can’t do it in my own bed at home with loved ones. This country really does need to seriously discuss this. Along with punishing people who helped those in need.
A discussion is one thing but rushing into change in a system easily abused is a reckless a foolish thing to do.
My sister, a nurse, frequently deals with family who insist on there being a declaration about DNR but when challenged to produce such a document for their elderly relatives never mention it again.
I don’t want to empower this.
I have absolutely no issue with the right to end your own life. My mum has a terminal neurological disorder, she is inevitably going to suffer a slow and horrible decline until she is a shell of zero consciousness; she has openly said, she wishes she’d looked into this before she got to where she is now. She’s a former doctor, specialising in, irony incoming, neurology. She firmly believes, as do I, that the Dignitas model is ethical, kind and compassionate. You can’t rock up and say “I want to die”. There’s layers of screening, psychological assessment and other factors before you get to that stage. It is a system that is as fair and compassionate as it can be.
My only concern here, with the shit show of our current NHS and all the f**kery that has occurred in the last decade, is how can the system be trusted? We have seen people on waiting lists for 4+ years have their referral magically disappear and be cancelled, because someone somewhere has nebulously decided the impact on their stats is far worse than the effect on a persons life. We’ve seen cancer referrals go 3/4/5 times over the mandated maximum to see a specialist. There’s constant issues that make me extremely nervous that, even if this is something that will be offered, what’s the chances it will be completely mismanaged, used as a viable alternative for treatment for people with illness that are difficult to control or mitigate.
This isn’t a point of conspiracy, and I’m not blaming the NHS for the state it’s in, but I wouldn’t trust the powers that be to open a tin of beans, in case they took out an eye, so how can we trust something as final and serious to a system that is currently broken. Just my two cents.
>visit doctor with problem
>only treatment available on nhs is death
> RIP
I’m not going to stop posting about this till we get an assisted dying bill passed so if you’ve read this story, prepare to read again. And I’m not sorry it’s so long.
Last year my mum went to her GP with a cough. They referred her, she had a scan, they diagnosed her with throat cancer that had spread to her lungs, there was no treatment option and she died. It only took 5 weeks from that initial appointment so there was very little we could do or prepare. She waited a a week and a half to tell us because my nephews were staying and she didn’t want to ruin their visit.
In that short time she was quite stoic, our family has black humour that became gallows humour I guess. As her illness progressed, she wanted to go to Switzerland. It takes months to organise that, there was no chance it would be a thing for her.
We knew that it was likely a short battle but we didn’t expect it to be that fast. I live a few hours away and she visited me for her Grandson’s half birthday (his birthday is in winter so we wanted to celebrate in sunnier times). We had a lovely day with cherished memories. It was obvious she was unwell but she was mobile and could chat away. People were kind to her, we didn’t make it a big deal.
A week later I was even uuming and aahing if I should go to visit at all as she seemed alright and having a young child who was playing up would mean my poor wife would be on her own if I left them. But my brother text me and said I better go to see her. So I did.
She was bedbound, barely conscious, asking for her grandmother – or so we think because by then her voice was gone, the cancer had spread and robbed her of communication. She was thrashing around in bed, the morphine we were given was weak so wasn’t taking much of the pain away. I got to watch my mum, one of the people I love most in the world, thrive around in agony and beg for her grandma who had died ages ago. I tried giving her drops of water but it never really helped. My brother came and there was one glimmer at the end of his visit. She sat up, hugged him, smiled and laid down again. Then it was back to before.
All afternoon and night.
I called the emergency nurses out and they were fantastic, they settled her, gave her real morphine and she calmed down.
For an hour or so.
They came back out two more times. Each time they settled her, they were brilliant with her but we were getting desperate. My dad asked if they could just dose her full of morphine. Of course they can’t just do that. But we were lost and watching a loved one in that state makes you desperate. They tried a catheter in case she needed the toilet. We assumed that was daft because she hadn’t been drinking or eating much at all. But it was a full bladder. That’s what was adding to her discomfort. How could we know? They sorted her once again, set her up so my Dad could sleep beside her (which he had not been doing as she was breathing so horribly he couldn’t sleep). I don’t even remember the third time they came because I was so exhausted all my brain registered was that someone had come in and I fell asleep instantly again.
My dad knocked on my door at 5am that morning to tell me she had passed away. On their 44th wedding anniversary with her husband by her side. We consider that lucky. Not everyone gets to die at home. And this was only 18 hours or so of this. Some people have this for days.
She picked Moon River as her funeral song.
If you’re against this, I hope that you never go through what we did. It will haunt me for the rest of my days. And I’m quite a practical person – parents should die before their kids. I accept that. But I wouldn’t have let a pet go through that ordeal. If you truly in your heart believe your family would use a loophole to kill you and take your money then you must live an incredibly lonely, miserable life that is devoid of love. I would have done anything for my mum.
I regret not asking my mum what she wanted us to do. I’d have held a pillow over her face if I thought that’s the right thing to do. But I couldn’t face that she might fight me at the end. I should have asked her and I’d have held my hands up and admitted it after and faced the consequences.
14 comments
I hope we have this by the time my numbers called, I really don’t want to suffer for weeks on end like some I have seen go.
> woman who ended life at Dignitas urges change to UK law
From beyond the grave?
We put down our pets when they are in pain because we love them and don’t want to see them suffer. Why do we not expend this to people? I know for a fact that if I’m terminally ill that I’m going out on my terms, why not just make it easier for those facing a painful death?
I read on the daily mail a comment along the lines of
Why should we legalise this so we can wheel all old people to die because someone decides we aren’t fit enough
This is the type of person who’s actively against this
This debate is obviously very polarising. However I feel that if you get asked on a surface level “Should euthanasia be legal?”, an instinctual answer to give is “of course”, because who on Earth would allow somebody to go through so much pain when by their own choice, they want to die? That used to be mine too. However the deeper I read into the topic, it’s unbelievably complex to the point that I reversed my position and I’m against it. Even if it were to be implemented, it opens up a whole range of other complicated moral questions.
Before anyone jumps in with “you would not think that had you needed to watch the suffering of a loved one”, my father died of cancer less than a year ago. So I’m aware of that.
Yep we do. My father passed away due to cancer. When he died it took him three days of struggle until he did die it would have been kinder to help him pass and not have him struggle in pain until the body finally gave in.
I lost my mum very recently due to cancer, the way she suffered and the things she said in the last few days will haunt me for the rest of my life. All you can do is try to stay strong while you sit helplessly and watch it run its course. Without a change in the law, I think if I’m ever diagnosed with cancer and it becomes terminal, I would rather just take my own life than be admitted to hospital and lose the ability to end it when I’ve had enough.
She’s too posh to suffer:
“I’m not scared to die,” she said. “I’m scared of dying in pain.”
Yet millions of people live every day with chronic pain from incurable yet not fatal diseases.
This kind of business needs to be behind a paywall.
We need to invest in biomedical research for chronic illnesses instead of palming patients off with useless CBT and ‘positive thinking’ courses.
Long Covid and MECFS patients are so ill and desperate for help they’ve spent thousands on a billboard campaign! It’s shameful!
https://x.com/lcmebillboards?s=21
I’m probably going to opt for this eventually. Other choice is wheezing out my last few hours in a hospital bed so doped up I have no idea where I am. I want to go on my terms before shit gets really bad. It’s a shame I can’t do it in my own bed at home with loved ones. This country really does need to seriously discuss this. Along with punishing people who helped those in need.
A discussion is one thing but rushing into change in a system easily abused is a reckless a foolish thing to do.
My sister, a nurse, frequently deals with family who insist on there being a declaration about DNR but when challenged to produce such a document for their elderly relatives never mention it again.
I don’t want to empower this.
I have absolutely no issue with the right to end your own life. My mum has a terminal neurological disorder, she is inevitably going to suffer a slow and horrible decline until she is a shell of zero consciousness; she has openly said, she wishes she’d looked into this before she got to where she is now. She’s a former doctor, specialising in, irony incoming, neurology. She firmly believes, as do I, that the Dignitas model is ethical, kind and compassionate. You can’t rock up and say “I want to die”. There’s layers of screening, psychological assessment and other factors before you get to that stage. It is a system that is as fair and compassionate as it can be.
My only concern here, with the shit show of our current NHS and all the f**kery that has occurred in the last decade, is how can the system be trusted? We have seen people on waiting lists for 4+ years have their referral magically disappear and be cancelled, because someone somewhere has nebulously decided the impact on their stats is far worse than the effect on a persons life. We’ve seen cancer referrals go 3/4/5 times over the mandated maximum to see a specialist. There’s constant issues that make me extremely nervous that, even if this is something that will be offered, what’s the chances it will be completely mismanaged, used as a viable alternative for treatment for people with illness that are difficult to control or mitigate.
This isn’t a point of conspiracy, and I’m not blaming the NHS for the state it’s in, but I wouldn’t trust the powers that be to open a tin of beans, in case they took out an eye, so how can we trust something as final and serious to a system that is currently broken. Just my two cents.
>visit doctor with problem
>only treatment available on nhs is death
> RIP
I’m not going to stop posting about this till we get an assisted dying bill passed so if you’ve read this story, prepare to read again. And I’m not sorry it’s so long.
Last year my mum went to her GP with a cough. They referred her, she had a scan, they diagnosed her with throat cancer that had spread to her lungs, there was no treatment option and she died. It only took 5 weeks from that initial appointment so there was very little we could do or prepare. She waited a a week and a half to tell us because my nephews were staying and she didn’t want to ruin their visit.
In that short time she was quite stoic, our family has black humour that became gallows humour I guess. As her illness progressed, she wanted to go to Switzerland. It takes months to organise that, there was no chance it would be a thing for her.
We knew that it was likely a short battle but we didn’t expect it to be that fast. I live a few hours away and she visited me for her Grandson’s half birthday (his birthday is in winter so we wanted to celebrate in sunnier times). We had a lovely day with cherished memories. It was obvious she was unwell but she was mobile and could chat away. People were kind to her, we didn’t make it a big deal.
A week later I was even uuming and aahing if I should go to visit at all as she seemed alright and having a young child who was playing up would mean my poor wife would be on her own if I left them. But my brother text me and said I better go to see her. So I did.
She was bedbound, barely conscious, asking for her grandmother – or so we think because by then her voice was gone, the cancer had spread and robbed her of communication. She was thrashing around in bed, the morphine we were given was weak so wasn’t taking much of the pain away. I got to watch my mum, one of the people I love most in the world, thrive around in agony and beg for her grandma who had died ages ago. I tried giving her drops of water but it never really helped. My brother came and there was one glimmer at the end of his visit. She sat up, hugged him, smiled and laid down again. Then it was back to before.
All afternoon and night.
I called the emergency nurses out and they were fantastic, they settled her, gave her real morphine and she calmed down.
For an hour or so.
They came back out two more times. Each time they settled her, they were brilliant with her but we were getting desperate. My dad asked if they could just dose her full of morphine. Of course they can’t just do that. But we were lost and watching a loved one in that state makes you desperate. They tried a catheter in case she needed the toilet. We assumed that was daft because she hadn’t been drinking or eating much at all. But it was a full bladder. That’s what was adding to her discomfort. How could we know? They sorted her once again, set her up so my Dad could sleep beside her (which he had not been doing as she was breathing so horribly he couldn’t sleep). I don’t even remember the third time they came because I was so exhausted all my brain registered was that someone had come in and I fell asleep instantly again.
My dad knocked on my door at 5am that morning to tell me she had passed away. On their 44th wedding anniversary with her husband by her side. We consider that lucky. Not everyone gets to die at home. And this was only 18 hours or so of this. Some people have this for days.
She picked Moon River as her funeral song.
If you’re against this, I hope that you never go through what we did. It will haunt me for the rest of my days. And I’m quite a practical person – parents should die before their kids. I accept that. But I wouldn’t have let a pet go through that ordeal. If you truly in your heart believe your family would use a loophole to kill you and take your money then you must live an incredibly lonely, miserable life that is devoid of love. I would have done anything for my mum.
I regret not asking my mum what she wanted us to do. I’d have held a pillow over her face if I thought that’s the right thing to do. But I couldn’t face that she might fight me at the end. I should have asked her and I’d have held my hands up and admitted it after and faced the consequences.
But I shouldn’t have had to think that.