Historic vote to legalise assisted dying on a knife edge

20 comments

1. There are no sensible reasons for it not to pass. Some people hate change

2. That does sound like a particularly nasty way to die.

3. This may not pass today, but it’s a huge step forward that it’s even coming up for a meaningful vote, and if it doesn’t pass this year it surely will in the near future.

   As with other issues like gay marriage, changes to the divorce laws, etc it takes time for Parliament to catch up with public sentiment and sometimes a few gos at passing legislation. And a decade after it IS passed, everyone will wonder why it was ever contentious.

   It’s a profound social change and I’m happy to see the government addressing it this early in their tenure.

4. I think anyone who has had a grandparent die of Dementia or Parkinsons etc would likely be pro-assisted dying. Rightfully so. Why make a person go through many years of agony? Let them be at peace.

5. I’ve seen some people assume assisted dying is like the Futurama suicide booths, which baffles me. If you’re dying, and get an option of quick, peaceful and with time to put your affairs in order, or slow, debilitating agonising or vegetative while everyone you’ve ever cared about watches every ounce of you dissappear you better believe I’m picking option one.

   A lot of christian resistance too (though I’m personally an atheist) but is that what Jesus would want for God’s children? To slowly drip away piece by piece either in pain or drugged to the point you’re not you anymore, or would jesus say “go my child, enter my fathers kingdom and know peace”. I don’t know a lot about the bible but from what I’ve heard I reckon he’d be doing the second

6. I oppose it because it opens the floodgates for unscrupulous relatives to off people for their own financial gain.

   Yes, people can be that heartless. I used to have an elderly neighbour that lived a really frugal hermit lifestyle. When he passed away and people discovered that he had hoarded a small fortune over the years, estranged relatives that hadn’t even bothered to contact him over the decades were swooping in like vultures for their slice of the pie. The council flat even got burgled a few times (after it was already cleared out.)

7. I’m surprised by this because nobody I’ve ever spoken to about this issue has ever been against it

8. As long as the guardrails are there to prevent shit like in Canada I’m all for it. 

   However I am wondering it those would work the NHS being on its last leg. 

9. I’m currently in Australia and my Dad chose voluntary euthanasia. I didn’t even know it was legal here. He had a terminal brain tumour. I ended up being there when he passed away.

   It was awful seeing him suffering. His body was holding on while he was in mental turmoil and distress. He was bed bound and had terrible quality of life. He was demanding to end things.

   I don’t know how I personally feel about voluntary euthanasia but I think in my Dad’s case it was a mercy. He was suffering horribly.

10. The right to die a peaceful and dignified death when facing incurable and unbearable suffering is, to me, a fundamental human right that ought not be denied in a free society.

    This law falls short of that, but it’s a start and if it passed the law could be expanded in the future. It’ll still help ease the suffering of some people, at least.

    Fearmongering opposition, while understandable, is largely based on a false understanding of its implementation in Canada, Belgium, and The Netherlands. Would I do it exactly the same as in Canada? No, I’d have a few more limitations on the ‘legitimate’ justifications (e.g., not allow people who are doing it because they feel a burden to others, as that doesn’t constitute unbearable suffering), but I’d also allow psychiatric causes as is the case in Belgium and the Netherlands but not in Canada.

    It is intolerable that I must spend years circling the drain with an ever-decreasing quality of life if I get dementia when I’m older. It is intolerable that I must be stuck with an incurable disease that gives me a very low quality of life without a way out, even if I’m not terminally ill.

    Let’s start here and expand the law in a few years when people are more comfortable with the idea. The arguments against it are not based on sound evidence.

11. Is “assisted dying on a knife edge” polite for stabbing, is this what you’re trying to legalise now? I mean no disrespect; I understand that the good old knifing is an integral part of your culture. I just need to know whether to wear chainmail on my next visit

12. What terrifies me is the thought of a scenario which isn’t even addressed by this law: what if I become paralysed, have maybe 20 years ahead of me, but all to be lived being able to move only my eyes and mouth? This was the story of Mar Adentro [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sea_Inside](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sea_Inside)

    I understand that this is hugely subjective, but the decision of whether that life is worth living should be up to me, not up to other people, and especially not up to religious zealots whose religious values I have every right not to share

13. I refuse to believe anyone who is protesting this has actually read the bill.

    “Don’t make doctors killers” – this bill provides a legal framework through which doctors can voluntarily provide a service to consenting adults.

    “The slippery slope is real” – slippery slope to what? Consenting adults suffering from terminal pain or illness not having to suffer any longer?

    This bill is so narrow in scope it only really includes cancer patients or those with a serious disease. It requires verification from two independent doctors that the patient is likely to die within six months anyway. This explicitly excludes cases of paralysis and locked-in syndrome, in which patients have nearly no quality of life whatsoever. If anything I thought protests would be arguing for the bill to increase in scope.

14. I emailed my MP who was asking for views.

    The TL;DR is that when my Nana had cancer, her quality of life was basically zero for the last three months of her life.

    I’m very likely to get cancer – 3 of my grandparents had cancer and all three died of it, my dad currently has cancer. Between the four of them there are 9 different types of cancer. I want the right to choose.

    I don’t want my last few months on this earth to be the cycle of UTIs, hospital stays, and being off my tits on morphine that my Nana had. All that treatment when she was always, inevitably, going to die. I don’t want that.

15. My only real objection to this is people being pushed or manipulated into it.

    My gran spent her whole life not wanting to be ‘a bother’. Everything she did was for her family, not herself. It would have been easy to persuade her, even indirectly, that if she went *now* then her son could pay his mortgage off and her nephew could live in her house and all round everyone would be better off.

16. I was all for this being passed until a friend of mine who is disabled and has various health issues expressed a concern I don’t have an answer for.

    If we bring this into law, how do we ensure that people like him, who require significant state support, are not pressured into “doing the right thing”?

    This law can be created with the best intentions in the world, but can we be certain it wouldn’t be abused if/when the cost cutting populists get into power?

    I’m really not sure.

17. You wouldn’t let an animal suffer.

    You’d put it to sleep/euthanize it.

    but people can, is it wrong to ease a persons suffering.

18. My mum had MS, and she died in February this year. She was bed bound for the last 8 years of her life, and she was miserable. During the last year of her life, she developed uterine cancer, and she was IN AGONY. I still hear her screaming, saying she couldn’t do this anymore, and I remember how helpless I felt, knowing that I couldn’t do anything for her. Twenty years ago, we discussed this, and I know she would have wanted to end it way before she finally passed. She wanted to go out with dignity, not alone and in pain. I fully understand this is a difficult topic. This is something that should be regulated and only available for limited occasions, but forcing people to live to the end of their natural life can be cruel

19. Oh great, another debate where both sides see themselves as the objective moral good, and their opponents as evil unempathetic monsters.
    Why can’t people take a side in a debate without also painting the other side as the devil any more?

20. Covid showed NO WAY can the state or good grief… the NHS be trusted with assisted dying.

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