Anyone have any thoughts?

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19341722

This post was last modified: 08-22-2012 11:51 PM by Some_Bloke.

My thoughts:

I'm annoyed at the loss of his legal battle, disgusted. I agree with euthanasia for one thing but I just hoped that he would be able to get the lords to change their minds.

In many cases convincing a Conservative is impossible, really...

Hopefully in the future, others will challenge the high court. I know they will...

I don't see it as an issue for the courts, to be honest.  What is required is a change in the law, and I believe that such a change will happen, but don't know when.  However, high profile cases like this ensure that the issue is kept in the public eye.

Lord Joffe has twice attempted to introduce legislation through Westminster and Margo McDonald, MSP, tried and failed to change the law in Scotland a year or so ago, and is again trying to bring forward an Assisted Suicide Bill in Scotland.

I don't see this as a party political issue.  Previous consultations on this have consistently shown that medical staff are most opposed to it, which isn't really surprising as they would be the ones to carry out the wishes of those who sought to die.  

I, along with between 80-90% of the UK population, am supportive of legislation to permit assisted suicide with appropriate conditions and safeguards in place.

A couple of years ago, I met with the parents and brothers of a man in his thirties who had travelled to Switzerland, where the organisation Dignitas, assisted his suicide.  It was very difficult for his family and they were divided as to what they felt about his decision.

This post was last modified: 08-23-2012 12:46 AM by Marcia.

Dignitas unfortunately has a history of "helping" people who are not truly competent to consent due to mental illnesses such as depression.

When we are helping completely healthy normal people end their lives, then I'll support "right to die."  As it stands, it's just eugenicists preying cynically upon the difficulty of formerly able-bodied people adjusting to disabled lives.

This post was last modified: 08-23-2012 09:54 PM by Lang.

The medical profession's role is to provide care, comfort and cure, to set out to take a life is outside of it's  mandate and doesn't (I feel) fit with medical ethics.
Refusing food and fluid or refusing treatment is a nataral way to resolve a wish to die. Research indicates endomorphins are produced which will help make the dying process comfortable.
I believe comfort care should be an ultimate medical priority in care of the dying - and sometimes when seeking to create comfort a patient will find peace in death.

As long as the objective in care is to create comfort, treat pain, nausea, anxiety, depression then there should be no need for a decision to deliberately set about to kill.

That's what I would be worried about. Plus, adult children would probably pressure their aging parents into euthanasia because they don't want the responsibility.

Anyone who would encourage their parents to a premature death just because they don't want the responsibility (of looking after them?) is likely simply to walk away.  Adult children aren't required to look after or be financially responsible for their parents.

Society (as a group) could evolve to make people (who are the end of their lives) feel that their time is past and they are costing society money to provide for them and look after them when they are no longer functional and contributing members of society. It's a slippery slope.
I once looked after a lady, who had suffered a stroke, and she wanted to die. Caregivers, wanting to do what they thought was right, pushed food onto her. This patient had the right of free choice.

This patient would to rattle the bars on her bed at night in desparation and anxiety. Horrible way to live.


The force feeding was stopped. Family supported their mum in her wish to die. Food and fluid was offered, and refusal was accepted.
Comfort care measures were put in place.

All medications were stopped, except for pain relief, anti anxiety, and antidepressants. When the patient understood what the medications were for - she started to take her medications again.


With the appropriate medical care, and respect of her choice to die, the patient became settled and relaxed, and for the first time since her stroke she began to smile at her family again.

For her last days, she seemed relaxed, relatively contented.

This is an ideal, and sadly not reality for all dying patients. Denial of death combined with a wish to cure and an inablity to analyse ethics - too many people aren't afforded the right to die peacefully.

This post was last modified: 09-06-2012 12:25 AM by Chamuel.

My granny had a friend who, like the lady Chamuel describes, chose to die and refused food.  She had Parkinsons's and had decided that when the time came that she could no longer feed herself then she would prefer to die.  She was in a nursing home, and the staff respected her wishes.  She also was cared for well in other ways and made as comfortable as possible during those final weeks and days.  It was her decision, and her autonomy was respected.

That's great to hear Marcia.