Assisted Suicide
 

What are your thoughts on this? should it be legal in the UK ?

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

Yes- absolutely

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

No.

Why should we have to dispose of all of those old people coming from abroad to die? It's bad enough having to process the nuclear waste - think of all those false teeth in landfill.

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

could you do it ?

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

I am not talking about elderly old folk passing on sooner than they should due to natural causes etc, but young people who have been severely disabled due to accidents and want to die (Emmerdale story line).

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

I could, but only once.

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

to someone else!

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

That's a difficult one. I think I'd be willing to do it to myself when the balance tips, and I think I'd be able to do it to a loved one if s/he had no or very little mental faculties left, but I'm not sure I could do it if s/he was still compos mentis...

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

it is very much down to the situation at the time, but if someone wanted to end their life and needed your assistance ....

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

there was a really interesting programme on last week with terry pratchett looking at this very question, as he has alzheimers...it followed two men going to the clinic in switzerland in order to die (one was in his late 70s i think and had parkinsons, the other only early 40s with motorneuron disease)...

it was done with great dignity, and both men seemed to be fully at peace...the really sad thing was that both were dying before they wanted to/needed to...the issue is that anyone doing it has to be of sound mind and be able to administer the poison themselves, and both wanted to die whilst they could still do this, and before it was too late...

not sure i'd be strong enough to let/give my blessing to a loved one to do it, but i do think people should have the choice when their quality of life has become untenable due to illness etc...

MM, xx

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

What, other than a couple of current bored members?

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

Bluecat-

Ok I appear to opening up to the world today, my mum is terminally ill - a slow progressive illness and we have had this converstaion and it is a converstaion I wish noone else to have to have and until you are in the situation it is impossible to decide what you would do.

So, Yes, If I had to I would do it, as much as it would break my heart. My brother feels differently to me but at the end of the day my mum knows her limits. She was diagnosed the year I was born so has had a lifetimes worth of struggling so when she feels she has had enough I think you have to respect that no matter how hard it is for those left behind. Her mental state is kosher and will remain so as much as anyone elses.

Every case is individual and should be treated as so.

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

I won't comment on your situation because I can't and couldn't comprehend how hard that must be.

My question is for the last bit, who should make the decisions? Court of Law? In slow progressive illnesses someone can make the decision early, but in an accident where 'quality' of life is lost and the person is deemed unable to make their own decision, then who should get to?

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

can you remember the name of the programme? will download it

edited, found it, downloading it now

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

It was Panorama on BBC1

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

Its already done partially in the UK, with DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) notices pinned to some patients' beds. Not sure who has authority to make the decision on that, though.

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

Big respect to Kittycat. Thanks for being so open and honest in all your threads today, your mum must be very proud of you.

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

Didn't know that.

What about when someone is lay on a hospital bed being kept alive by machine...?

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

sorry to hear this :( but at this stage she could commit suicide if she wanted to (god forbid) I am thinking more of paraplegics who want to end their lives

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

it wasn't but anyway :)

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

then tests are done to see if they are brain dead and the machine is switched off

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

If you don't have a living will already then I suggest you get one.

At the end of the day you have to believe in the good of people and that your wishes will be carried out by those you love with no hidden agenda. Of course this leaves the door open to abuse, however for the majority of people there is no getting rid of a family member or thinking of insurance payouts. At the end of the day (most)people want the best for their family members and would make the best decision possible.

For me terminal illnesses in final stages, brain damage, long term coma are my switch off times. If I broke my back and was in a wheelchair then I could cope but the above are my cut off point where I would want to stop being fed and let to die.

The Hippocratic Oath is about improving the quality of life - prolonging life for the sake of it when there is no quality is not humane in my book.

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

Only if done in the same way it is done in other Countries, where I think two doctors have to be in agreement and the act itself is done by them, not by a family member.

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

Elmer,

I was having a converstation on something similar with a colleague today.

As my mum always says to me her illness has ruined her life she doesn't want it to ruin mine as well. So live everyday as if its your last as you never know whats around the corner.

:)

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

That wouldn't be assisted suicide would it though, as the person whose life was being ended wouldn't have made the decision to do so, unless they had made a Living Will stating what should happen in such a situation.

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

Sorry, you are right, it was a BBC2 special, here is the link, hope it works

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13768354

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

think it's like that in Holland, it needs to be done by a doctor which makes sense as it must be the hardest thing for a partner or family member to do.
Doctors can of course refuse to participate, I lived in a religious area back home and a lot of my friends who had lived there all their lives changed doctors at some point just for that reason as they wanted one that would agree with participating.

I am all for it...quality of life is more important than life, you make the desicion yourself if you want to, not 'God' or anyone else.

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

Depends on where you live. I am aware that doctors and nurses in the UK and Australia do assist patients in dying.

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

doing it now, there was also a newsnight debate on following the documentary

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

So in that instance they have scientific evidence / proof / whatever to say that this person will have no quality of life or will never be awake again etc.

My point is knowing when someone in a near similar state wants to or does not want to die.

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

but the issue is that they face possible murder charges the way the law stands...that's why on this programme, even in this swiss clinic, it's the person who has to administer the poison themselves, not even the doctor can do it for fear of a law case...

MM, xx

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

Yes should be legal.
An adult should have the right to do what they want with themselves as long as they don't infringe on the rights of others.

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

that is where the assisted bit comes in isn't it? they ask for your help to kill them?

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

Is suicide legal here? (UAE or elsewhere in the ME)

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

In America they first give them a sleeping drug, then they take the lethal dose, by the time it does it's job they are already unconscious (allegedly)

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

definitely a no no

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

That's suicide, not assisted suicide? So is suicide haram?

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

When my mum passed away there was a lady in the next room who had a rare wasting disorder where all the muscles stop working slowly over time.

She petitioned the government for her right to die when the time came that her life was not livable anymore and they said no....so her family had to watch her waste to nothing in the most undignified way imaginable.

It should be strictly regulated but it should be legal. Why should a government have the right to tell you when and how you can die? No to mention the wasted resources keeping someone around who really is past recovery...bad for them and their family.

N.

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

both are haram

Re: Assisted Suicide
 

you will think the government would agree to it from a financial point of view :)