You've been watching Emmerdale haven't you?
Tough this one after seeing this
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...hett-film.html
I'm against it but then I'm not in pain or terminally ill.
You've been watching Emmerdale haven't you?
I'm very much for it. I'm also for the idea of offering counselling before you make that decision, but in the end it is your own life. Only you can judge whether it's worth continuing or not. I just worry about teenagers (and others not able to think rationally) making snap decisions....
I didn't see the documentary so I can't comment on whether it was glorified or not.
Terry Pratchett was on the box about it this morning - always good to see Our Tel.
Errr. That's my contribution.
I watched the documentary last night and found Sir Terry and his PA an interesting pair to watch, one who clearly supported assisited dying but not in its present form and the other not supporting it at all.
There was an MS sufferer who was 42 and clearly had doubts about dying at this particular time. he had travelled to Zurich and found it a beautiful place which he had wished he had had more time to explore. He felt he had to die at that particular time as he would soon be too unwell to travel. He died the next day.
Then there was Mr Smedley (from the can manufacturing family). He clearly did not want to be a burden to his wife and decided it was his time. We were allowed to see his two assessments with the Doctor prior to him travelling to the house to take the drink and die. I don't believe this was glorified at all, in fact it was a bit harrowing, but i thought it was well documented so that we could get an insight into the final moments of what had been a journey for this husband and wife.
The documentary didn't change my mind. I'm in favour of assisted dying.
I find it difficult to believe that Dignitas, a not-for-profit organisation has to charge £10,000 per client, and I do think that as the service is not provided in this country people are ending their lives earlier than need be.
It's situations like this that bother me. I wonder if he would have been in such a rush to kill himself if he knew his wife would get the support she needed to look after him at home as his condition worsened.
I am more in favour of better assistance to live than better assistance to die.
I didn't know it costed so much. A quick bit of research finds this page, which breaks down the costs as follows:
Dignitas joining fee: £133 (200 Swiss francs / CHF)
Annual membership: £53 (80 CHF)
Preparation for an accompanied suicide £1,994 (3000 CHF)
Doctor’s fees £665 (1000 CHF)
Costs for completing an accompanied suicide £1,994 (3000 CHF)
Funeral services & cremation £1,329 (2000 CHF)
Completing official procedures (optional) £997 (1500 CHF)
To be honest I'm not sure why people go to Switzerland to die when there are quick and painless ways of dying without assistance, especially asphyxiation by inert gases (nitrogen preferably, or helium). I know some people genuinely do need assistance but many are able to go to a hardware store and buy the required things.
I hope I haven't upset anyone by saying that.
I agree that better assistance to live would enable some people to continue living in some cases, but sometimes the pain is just too much.
Last edited by meghann; 14th-June-2011 at 02:42 PM. Reason: typos
[QUOTE=Double Trouble;589439] I wonder if he would have been in such a rush to kill himself if he knew his wife would get the support she needed to look after him at home as his condition worsened.
QUOTE]
In this particular case, money clearly was not an issue and he could have afforded a whole ward to care for him and suport his wife, and given the size of the house the west wing could clearly have been given up to care for him and there would still be room to hold a state dinner in the rest of the house.
The problem is these people were clearly 'with it' and wanted to die long before their symptoms became to debilitating
The wife of one wanted to buggar off before he died ??
Tough call
Why not just jump off a 30 storey building ?
I'm not sure wether your trying to be funny ??
Well, if you can't laugh at death and absurdity.
That reminds me, I wonder if the Darwin awards have had any more entrants recently...
That's exactly the sort of thing that makes me understand why they want to do it.
After all, like it or not, a spotty teenager with their whole life in front of them can throw themselves off a bridge because their girlfriend dumped them or because they failed their exams, but someone with very poor quality of life and nothing but pain and mental anguish in front of them isn't allowed to do that simply by virtue of the fact that they physically can't do it on their own.
I was trying to be serious, but I wasn't sure if I'd succeeded or even if it was appropriate to write something like that, hence the pre-emptive apology. I'm happy to have it removed if people think it was inappropriate, but I was aiming for a useful contribution to talking about the right to die.
Jumping off a building isn't entirely reliable, causing a lot of pain if it fails; and it's not very peaceful (which is important to some people).
I have done a fair amount of reading on this subject. Asphysxiation with a so-called exit bag is "recommended" (not the right word) as a painless, reliable and peaceful way to die, and it's cheaper than Dignitas. Which is why I mentioned it.
In 1990 my sister's boyfriend asked her round to the block of flats he lived in for a coffee. While she was in the lounge drinking it he went to the roof and jumped off. In the few days prior to this he'd taken her around trying to find other suitable ways/places of doing it. He was 19 and just fed up with the world.
As far as Terry Pratchett is concerned his particular condition means he's got a dilemma. His condition needs to be bad enough to justify ending his life. When his condition is bad enough it will also mean he's no longer in a position to have the judgement to make a decision to end his own life. This means that the decision to end his life would need to be made by a 3rd party. That, of course, is murder.
Some time ago, I had the very unpleasant task, of recovering the body of someone who had jumped off the Clifton suspension bridge
Please, if you are going to end it all, do think of the people who sold you the stuff in the hardware store or if you do jump off a 30 storey building, the guys who have to clean up afterwards
If you do take a trip to Switzerland, at least you friends know whats going on and you have a chance to say goodbye
It is murder. Perhaps there could be some kind of provision for this in living wills (I know at the moment they only enable you to deny treatment, rather than make active decisions about when to die). Perhaps you could have a directive that once your quality of life or cognitive abilities fall below a given threshold, which can be measured using some kind of test, then you want to be euthanised.
Of course, the big problem with this is that there's no way of knowing whether you would still want to be euthanised at the time.
I seem to remember watching another programme with TP since his diagnosis in which he investigated the probably path of his disease. I have a fairly strong memory of him realising that he would reach a point where he wouldn't be able to care about it any more.
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