Assisted dying

Pleased to see that the Scottish Parliament are going to discuss this again, and maybe about to change the law. During my medical career, I was regularly horrified at the way I was forced to keep people alive, with no hope of recovery, and who no longer wanted to be here.
Medical opinion is slowly changing, and now there is majority support from the public.

 

Isn't there a time and place for such conversations? Some people may come here because gardening is their solace, an escape to keep them sane as their close relative might be going through such a time. I speak of someone who's husband has Stage 4 Lymphoma.

 

There's a whole Pandora's box of moral and ethical issues here.

For the record, I agree with it in principle.

But there needs to be foolproof procedures in place to ensure such a decision is only made for the right reason. There must NEVER be a case where grandma has loads of money to pass on and is going to die soon anyway, so might as well encourage her along so we can make an offer on that bigger house we've seen.

 

If other countries can sort out safe guards I can't see why we can't.

I always get annoyed when religion is brought into the subject.

 

I am not trying to cause offence, but this is a non gardening thread, and I clearly labelled what it was about, so people could choose whether to read it or not. I am sorry if I have upset you.

 

The UK doesn't seem to be very good at anything lately though. We seem to fail at everything. We can't even build a railway, and we invented them.

 

Agreed we hesitate on every thing.
But this has been brought up in Parliament on a few occasions and the MPs always take the easy way out.

 

I understand this is off topic, so there's no need to apologise. Being highly sensitive over such issues is just part of the course when someone you love is facing such issues. It's surprising how many adverts we see and hear for budget funerals for instance. For what it's worth I've always agreed with assisted dying ever since I watched my mother suffer. But when you find yourself up against such decisions, it's surprising how you want just 'one more day', just 'one more conversation', just 'one more hug'.

Selfish? Maybe!

 

I agree with assisted dying, and also that there need to be careful safeguards. It has to be the decision of the person themselves (in discussion with their nearest and dearest, and/or their doctors, if they want), and if a person isn't capable of making the decision and hasn't made their wishes/intentions known in advance, then they need to be treated as they are currently as the default. If someone doesn't think it's right that's fine, but they shouldn't be able to force their view onto others.
In terms of Scotland possibly changing the law before England, at least it's not as far to travel as Switzerland so it would be a step in the right direction.

 

I was reading earlier this week about a 15 yr old girl in New Zealand with a mental age of 15-18 months and severe untreatable epilepsy who has developed a very aggressive form of cancer which, without treatment, would kill her within 4-6 weeks. The mother wants to withhold treatment as it will be painful and distressing for the child, involving forcible restraint to administer. Doctors want to treat it. A judge intervened on the side of the doctors.

I find that so upsetting. Just because you can intervene doesn't mean you necessarily should do so.

 

That is the crux of the matter, @ViewAhead. Throughout my medical career massive advances have been made, but sometimes as Drs. I feel we do things because we can, not because they are in the best interests of the patient.

 

I'm in favour but don't see it happening anytime soon because politician's will be in charge and they are more worried about votes than humanity. I think it should be a referendum where the population decides as it affects everyone.

 

In the past, the government have always been guided by the drs. who have been heavily against it, but things have changed, and there is now a slight majority of drs. in favour.

 

We put animals to sleep if in a bad way, so why not humans, but as stated above with must have strong but fair laws/rules with it

 

I think if/when the law is changed, there needs to be some accepted formal legal way for everyone who wants to, to be able to register our intentions and expectations, and the conditions in which we would want to be assisted to die, (and change it at any time for example if new treatments become available to treat a condition that we may be suffering from, or if we just change our minds). Then both doctors and family would have some clue as to what we want in the event that we are not able to tell them at the time.
Of course the situation is different if it's a young child or other person who never had the mental capacity to decide for themselves what they want - they would not be capable of opting for assisted suicide and perhaps no-one else should have the right to choose it for them. I think that's different from withholding potentially painful or distressing treatment that would prolong life but not improve quality of life.