[Politics] Euthanasia

[jcdenton08]

Seeing this comedy skit got me wondering about people’s views in 2024.

Sorry if this subject is too close to the bone for some, particularly those who have known people who have gone through it. Hopefully you haven’t clicked, having read the subject title; but if this subject is sensitive please click away from the page.

Personally I am 100% in favour. Everyone should have a fundamental right to choose.

 

[Chicken Run]

Initially i was dead against

 

[chip]

For some people it is the only thing they have any control over. I agree, it is a fundamental right and no one decision but their own.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Yes please.

 

[A mex eyecan]

spending an awful lot of time visiting family in two dementia care homes has clarified my mind on this. Always was on the fence, seeing so many countless old folk who don’t know if they are Roy Rogers or Napoleon, scared, confused, crying, pissing and shitting themselves. Being visited by family, if they are lucky, who then come out afterwards and feel like bawling their eyes out. Paying 8,9,10k a month for this privilege.

In my opinion, nobody but nobody, has any right or moral high ground to say anyone else does not have the right to choose the timing of their demise. If you feel strongly enough that such an endurance is the right thing, then fine choose it for yourself but let others with a differing view to yours choose what they want.

 

[Deadly Danson]

spending an awful lot of time visiting family in two dementia care homes has clarified my mind on this. Always was on the fence, seeing so many countless old folk who don’t know if they are Roy Rogers or Napoleon, scared, confused, crying, pissing and shitting themselves. Being visited by family, if they are lucky, who then come out afterwards and feel like bawling their eyes out. Paying 8,9,10k a month for this privilege.

In my opinion, nobody but nobody, has any right or moral high ground to say anyone else does not have the right to choose the timing of their demise. If you feel strongly enough that such an endurance is the right thing, then fine choose it for yourself but let others with a differing view to yours choose what they want.

This x 1000.

 

[Mustafa II]

Obviously it should be legal, while being approved by trained medical professionals.

If I received some terrible news that the rest of my days I'm going to lose my body, mind or be in extreme pain, I'm ending it before it gets to that point one way or another. Would be far more civilised to peacefully go under a doctor's supervision, rather than some poor bastard having to scoop me up into biohazard bags.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Yes please, I want a one way ticket to Switzerland if I get Dementia or better yet somewhere closer to home.

 

[JetsetJimbo]

My answer to this used to be a very confident "yes, of course" until I started reading about how it works in Canada

 

[Weststander]

Yes. With a load of safeguards.

 

[Deadly Danson]

One way or the other I'm not, NOT going to go through what my parents with severe dementia are going through so it would be nice if society would be civilised enough for me to do so quietly and with dignity at a time of my choosing.

 

[Frutos]

Watching my grandmother being taken piece by piece as a result of Alzheimers clarified my mind on this a long time ago.

Should I go down that road I'd rather be able to deal with things at a time and place of my choosing, but If it had to be a one way ticket to Switzerland then so be it.

She wouldn't have wanted to end up as she did, and I won't let it happen to me.

 

[A mex eyecan]

Should I be so unfortunate as to develop such a wicked illness and euthanasia is not legal here then if possible Switzerland is my best hope. However should that not be realisable for any reason I have already decided how i will end my days myself without leaving any mess for anyone else to have to clear up, or an unfortunate train driver or such like have flash backs of.

I think I’ve spoken of such a scenario so many times my family and friends wouldn’t be shocked by the event. I even think I’ve decided the location where I couldn’t be found and be stopped.

Anyhow, enough said, hope on hope it will never to come to that.

 

[portslade seagull]

spending an awful lot of time visiting family in two dementia care homes has clarified my mind on this. Always was on the fence, seeing so many countless old folk who don’t know if they are Roy Rogers or Napoleon, scared, confused, crying, pissing and shitting themselves. Being visited by family, if they are lucky, who then come out afterwards and feel like bawling their eyes out. Paying 8,9,10k a month for this privilege.

In my opinion, nobody but nobody, has any right or moral high ground to say anyone else does not have the right to choose the timing of their demise. If you feel strongly enough that such an endurance is the right thing, then fine choose it for yourself but let others with a differing view to yours choose what they want.

I second this after my dad spent time in hospital and then care home immobile, incontinent, unable to swallow as his brain had forgotten how to which left him at 10st when he passed last week from the 17st he started off at.
Not sure who benefits from situations like this probably the pharmaceutical companies who make profit from medications, it certainly wasn't my Dad who wouldve absolutely hated what he'd become

 

[A mex eyecan]

I second this after my dad spent time in hospital and then care home immobile, incontinent, unable to swallow as his brain had forgotten how to which left him at 10st when he passed last week from the 17st he started off at.
Not sure who benefits from situations like this probably the pharmaceutical companies who make profit from medications, it certainly wasn't my Dad who wouldve absolutely hated what he'd become

you have my total sympathy and understanding. Thoughts with you.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Yes. With a load of safeguards.

This. I’ve never been worried by those who express fears that they will just turn off the life support to free up the bed, or to harvest the organs, BUT it obviously needs to be strictly controlled with lots of checks and balances.

no doctor I’ve ever met would play fast and loose with it, ….. but then there was Harold Shipman.

 

[cheshunt seagull]

I was very much in favour and as someone with incurable, but not yet terminal, cancer this may become a very real issue with me. I have voted don't know and would probably vote yes if pushed but would want to see the detail first. My concerns have been raised by the way I have seen some people treat ageing parents when faced with a lucrative inheritance; arranging poor quality care etc. I would worry about what the temptation of a payday might do and the pressure they might apply. This hasn't been my own family but has been people I would never have expected to behave like this. Being able to stop being burden on your family might be a welcome choice for the ill person but at what point do you think that you have outstayed your welcome and should go. I think there ought to be a means by which people in great pain and distress can choose to end their lives but not without plenty of safeguards. The way the situation in Canada on assisted dying is developing is also not encouraging.

 

[Silverhatch]

Watching my grandmother being taken piece by piece as a result of Alzheimers clarified my mind on this a long time ago.

Should I go down that road I'd rather be able to deal with things at a time and place of my choosing, but If it had to be a one way ticket to Switzerland then so be it.

She wouldn't have wanted to end up as she did, and I won't let it happen to me.

Make sure you write an Advanced Decision and log it with doctors, in your health record and with friends. Dignity in dying do a template.

 

[Zeberdi]

Palliative sedation to assist patients in end of life care with a painful death has been going on for decades for patients with terminal cancer - Morphine is gradually increased until the patient slips into deeper sleep and then the “last dose” is given - I have never had an issue with that..

There’s probably strong arguments that we should be managing pain better in people with non-terminal but very painful chronic health conditions but even in that scenario, a 40 year old with ALS or other motor neuron/neurological diseases that results in severe decline of physical function, should have the freedom to choose. PAS (physician assisted suicide) and palliative morphine treatment has societal and human dignity value imo. My father died at home with his family around him and after his morphine had been upped steadily over the previous 76 hours - he went peacefully and having not been in too much pain as a result (although the pain of his heart stopping was evident on his semi-conscious face)

My support is for those who are younger too, with very painful terminal or chronic life conditions. I myself have discussed this a number of times with doctors in recent months due to the longterm severe pain level and fatigue and increasing loss of mobility due my incurable neurological conditions - I can completely understand how one can get to a stage that carrying on living is just exhausting and quality of life is so diminished when you have incurable illnesses that it is simply too hard to struggle on with - you have just had enough. I have been close to that point many times in the past year and said only last week to my GP that although I don’t feel suicidal, at times I am simply ready to stop living (like a very elderly person lying in a hospital bed, at the point that they are just ready to ‘let go’.)

So I support it fully - my choice is increased morphine doses until the “last dose”.

Anyway probably not in one of these though - they are too reminiscent of “eugenics and social Darwinism “ for my liking. I would wonder how far off into the future could it be before we saw these available at our nearest shopping mall along with AI medical diagnostic clinics?

“You have been diagnosed with alzeimers/cancer/MS - you will find the suicide pod in the first room on your left should you chose to exit life now - if not, please leave the way you came in”

 

[Pevenseagull]

Depends on how tomorrow goes.