I'll die when I choose

[tiN]

Watching the news and saw the MSP, Margot McDonald, trying to get a law pass that you should be able to choose when you should die when your very ill.

IE: Being able to commit suicide when your terminally ill???

And I dont agree with it.:NoNo::NoNo: In my opinion, as if she is legalizing suicide.

What is your opinion about this?

[benb]

I suppose they want painless and cheap death through legalisation. It should be on a case by case basis via a court.

Cheers

[KeithD]

If you haven't spent years in chronic pain/suffering then 'normal' folk have no right to say what other can and cannot do.

If an animal is ill, it is put down, if a human is ill, it's pain/suffering is prolonged. :Erm: Something not quite right with that!

[cheesewiz]

Watching the news and saw the MSP, Margot McDonald, trying to get a law pass that you should be able to choose when you should die when your very ill.

IE: Being able to commit suicide when your terminally ill???

And I dont agree with it.:NoNo::NoNo: In my opinion, as if she is legalizing suicide.

What is your opinion about this?

I work in a nursing home with people with dementia some are okay some are really worst than you thought. They can't do anything at all even eating. I'd rather see them die than being like a living dead. You just feel bad seeing them helpless at all and even their family has no time to visit them or they are just waiting when they are going to die.

I think its not legalizing the suicide, just giving them a choice to end their life the easiest way than living with the pain that will kill you slowly like self torture, in my humble opinion.

[nigel]

I don't have an opinion on this as such...but I would like to raise the question.."Are we saving these peoples lives or are we preventing them from dying with dignity?" 'cause I think that's the nitty gritty of it..

[GaryFifer]

Nope. Life is precious. I live with that axe over my head. Still got cancer in remission, but never know.Suffering proves life is still there. Unless all avenues of cure have been explored, it is selfish to snuff life out.
As for that press made phrase-"Dying with dignity" it hides the real thing lie of being scared of living in a nappy for the rest of your life.
As for your family they should be taking care of you, if dementia happens. It is their duty. Marriage is for better for worse. Why is not parents get the same respect?
Anyways, doctors have to deal with these decisions on a daily basis, so I think they know how it feels to try and weigh up so many factors.

[adam&chryss]

for me.. i don't want to die old and ill. if i've seen my kids grow and settle i'm ready to die... i don't want them taking care of me and seeing me in pain coz i know they will be in pain too... no bad/sad memories will be left. this is just for myself, if given a choice to die. :)

[KeithD]

Life is precious.
Not really. We only exist to produce offspring, and then die. Simple as that. Eventually the human race will die out as with all other living organisms at some point.


Unless all avenues of cure have been explored, it is selfish to snuff life out.
The life belongs to the individual, and they can do with it what they many, live or die. Why should others decide to prolong the suffering of others just because we can, we had enough of the Germans doing experiments like that in the last war. :NoNo:



Anyways, doctors have to deal with these decisions on a daily basis, so I think they know how it feels to try and weigh up so many factors.

But they don't. The majority work on the basis of text books, and 3rd party experience. They do not suffer the same illness they are trying to deal with, hence when you get ill, you'll find you will be tried on many medications....that is the doctor GUESSING what he thinks is wrong with you.

[joebloggs]

As for your family they should be taking care of you, if dementia happens. It is their duty. Marriage is for better for worse. Why is not parents get the same respect?
.

have you got a family member with dementia or needs nursing 24hrs aday? and you think their family should take care of them, its their duty, sorry i don't have an extended family like you might have or the waltons have, who can manage btw them. well i'll tell you what i'll go and look after my mom 24/7, and you can feed me kids and pay my bills :xxgrinning--00xx3:

most people with dementia, stroke victims are older people, so how can say a husband in his 70's or 80's care for his wife who needs care 24/7 :NoNo:

nhs is from the craddle to the grave, and if you got dementia they will dump you on social services, where they will at worse, they will force your partner to sell the home they live in, at best put a charge on the home if you cannot afford to pay nearly £500 a week for a nursing home.

there is an old saying, ' you owe your parents nothing, but your kids everything'.................

the sick have a right to free nhs care, they and their partners have paid their taxes.

as for suicide , i think you will change your mind if you was in constant pain 24/7 and you know you have not long to live, like kieth said if it was an animal the humane thing would be to put it down. and its the persons right to choose when they die.

[walesrob]

Thing is though, where do we draw the line? How many more "special" cases will there be?

[joebloggs]

doctors make decisions whether to let people die or to try and keep someone a live, so why shouldn't someone who is going to die, be allowed to decide when and where they want to die?

vets end the suffering of dying animals, it makes me :cwm23: when i've taken a sick pet to vets, fist question they ask is how old is it ? :NoNo: (i always knock a few years off ) and then ask me what's wrong with it :doh

[GaryFifer]

Interesting experiences and views.What about our psychology student?Thanks for that. Life is precious boss. We are we live and we die.Don't be so clinical about it.Trust me when you got a baby you how special it is. I just mean it from that point of view.

Well I suppose if many did not prolong the suffering of measles,mumps and other diseases we would not have all those wonderful vaccines out there for our babies. It is just progress with a moral cost.

What about our psychology student? I agree with you Joe about Dementia. I wish the standard of care was so much better and there was a place you can trust. But care homes have been privatised alot good and bad. Why should my mom regret going into those places.

Why should someone be allowed to decide to die? Because at the time, their mental state of being might not be right. I mean what if one change ones mind. Just like going for a wedding. You would be late for the funeral!

Well from another point of view. Suffering? what is the definition for this law they are going to make? Its going to have to cover alot of things. I try to get the ball rolling:

Suffering itself is not evil, for it has a good purpose, to let the person who is suffering know that something is wrong, i.e. that something is causing pain.In making humanity free with the ability to shape one's own attitude, God has left each person with choosing how they will respond to suffering. Suffering is valuable. Anything worth having (such as family, friends, honor, love, knowledge, virtue, etc.) is worth suffering for, and the person is purified through perseverence and struggle in their motivation towards attaining this good. Choosing to accept suffering through one's attitude for a greater good is a good thing. If it is worth suffering for a greater good, than God is benevolent in allowing it. For to remove suffering would remove an essential tool for humanity. What would life be without the battles? What would matter if worthwhile was easily obtained? What would life be without choice? Free-will and consequences means evil and suffering, but also the ability to love and be loved; and any love worth having means free-choice.

[PeterB]

Indeed, doctors do make these decisions all the time.

When the doctor recommended withdrawing life support from my Dad, he sought approval from my mum and me. It was a distressing time and the doctor was very convincing. However, there have been many times when I've regretted not attempting to do more to extend his life.

[aromulus]

It comes to the point where, I think, one dithers on making such important decisions more for his/her own hurt feelings, than try to alleviate or end the pain for the loved ones.

That is why, doctors recommendations to turn off machinery seem to be impartial, even if, in one's mind, are unfair.

I would not like to vegetate in a bed, in constant pain and discomfort, fed and watered by small tubes and generally being an emotional burden to my lot.
What would be the point for them to keep me alive but selfishness and a mistaken opinion that things may get better.
Oh, yeah, some people do recover from a coma from time to time, even after years, but that is different.

Cryogenics...... What a load of claptrap.......:NoNo:

[PeterB]

In my father's case, he fell and broke his hip. During the operation to set the fracture, some fluid went to the lungs and he contracted pneumonia. It was the doctor's advice that it was impossible to treat both the hip and the pneumonia at the same time which led to the advice to withdraw support.

I still wonder whether there was negligence involved, and the medical staff felt that death would distract us from pursuing this.

Although not able to talk very easily, he was still able to recognise. and respond to, the family 15 minutes before he 'died'. This was just four days after the fall which broke his hip.

[KeithD]

You can watch someone die tonight on Sky with Motor Neuron disease........something that you have all your marbles with at the end, but not control over your body, and you eventually die slowly & painfully towards suffocation, or drowning in your own fluid.

My mates sister died from the above, the kids had to say goodbye weeks before she died, as they moved her out the house away from them so they didn't have to watch her suffer the remaining weeks. :NoNo:

What about the old folk, those who work in old people's homes see on a regular basis people suffering, no family, visitors, all they want is out, so they just give up, and don't eat/drink, so have to suffer a miserable lonely existence for their last few days.

[DaveyWallis]

To commit suicide has been legal for many years, 1961 I think. (What did they do prior to that? Throw the dead body in jail?)

It is the assisting somebody to commit suicide that is illegal.

In my opinion it should be legalised for those that are really suffering. I know that if I get in that condition I would like to pass over with dignity rather than live longer as a vegetable or in constant pain.

Andy

[joebloggs]

in the care home my mom is in, many are zombies, they don't know where they are, what their doing :cwm24:, they just sit there all day, everyday. and slowly one by one they die.. my misses said if she ends up like that to shoot her :doh

when my mom had her break down, i was told to go and see her asap in hospital, a doc and nurse from a&e took me to a room (been here b4 so i knew what they were going to say), they told me, she had little chance of pulling thru, she was in a coma and had a stroke. and said there was nothing they could do for her, and ICU wouldn't take her :furious3:, so later that day, she ended up on a ward where ever they had a free bed, i take it to die.

but they wanted permission off us, if she got worse, then they would just let her die, they told us it was the best thing for her, she could have suffered brain damage etc, i didn't know what to do, but my brother said, no way you do everything you can for her, no way you will let her just die.

the consultant on the ward she ended up on, told us she was in a serious state, but he would do all he could for her, thanks to him and the nurses they were able to stabilize her, she was still in a coma, my misses said she would come out of the coma in 3 days, after sitting with her for most of the 3 days, watching the heart monitor rise and drop, wondering if she would pull thru, on the 3rd day she started coming around, they had manage to bring her back fron near death, weeks pasted in hospital as she slowly recovered, while in hospital, she broke her hip, colasped, caught a serious bug... and looking back those in a&e were wrong she didn't have a stroke, i even told them, i had seen her moving here arms and legs..

but 2 years later shes doing ok, and it was her birthday on the 7th of dec, shes 79 now :xxgrinning--00xx3:.. just wanted to say no matter how bad things seem, still have hope... :rolleyes:

[IainBusby]

I have always thought that people should have the legal right to apply to a court of law to have an assisted suicide. That person should be able to convince a judge that it is truely there own free will and that they have not been pressured by anyone to do this. They should also be able to call witnesses, including doctors to give evidence about their quality of life and that their condition is permanent or terminal.

Then, if he is convinced, the judge should be able to give them a legal document that will protect the person or people who assist them in bringing their life to a dignified end. This would remove all of the grey areas that surround this subject and give people real rights about their own lives, and deaths.

It's just common sense really, as Keith said, if it was an animal we would do this out of kindness.
Iain.