First I think Assisted Suicide is a misleading description of a person choosing to end their suffering so henceforth I refer to Assisted Death.
The clarification of the ruling on Assisted Death is of Paramount importance to many subscribers to this site. Indeed the Report is giving a hint of certain relaxations. This will be welcome news to many in acute pain with conditions beyond help. It will also give comfort for those not at this stage yet .
Additionally there is hope for those who would normally have the prospect of depending on morphine etc to get from day to day not forgetting the stress and hardship it gives to loved ones.
I Hope you will all beam in on this and make your views known. It will give many of us the opportunity to snub this disease before it beats us!!
I Have put these views to the Macmillan Cummunity Team and they have requested me to write this Blog to try and monitor the amount of feeling by subscribers, so I ask you all to make your contribution which will give Macmillan a sound base from which to make representations to the Government, Vernon Cooper (Kidney Cancer)
FormerMember
Thankyou Jazzcat,i thought i was talking
out of turn in my reply statement, i agree
with everything you said, and i still think
there are many people who will find this a very difficult subject to comment on.
Like Lucylee said above I find this an extremely difficult subject to deal with, I so admire all of you who are terminal and have accepted the fact that this is the case, and have strong views on how yoiur life ends.
As a sister of someone who is terminal I have spoken to her about this and she feels the exact same as all of you and I admire that too so much,
Would I assist her if she asked me to end things for her?, to be honest it would scare the hell out of me, and I don#t think I could ive with myself If I did
Would I want to watch her suffer and in pain? most definately not
This is a subject that has so many different opinions and is the view depends very much on whether you are the patient or a family member/carer.
Hi Jo you raise an important point of view, in the discussion the views and opinions of everyone need to be respected and no one should be coerced or feel presured to support an action they are uncomfortable with. Only that way can a safe option be available to those who wish to use it.
Although I consider myself very lucky to currently be in remission (whatever that really means) I have watched people die from cancer and I'm not convinced that they were "perfectly comfortable" as told by the nurses and doctors, in fact I'm sure that they were lying.
I have a living will and both of my sons will prevent me from being kept alive by artificial means if there is no chance of me surviving and especially if I am obviously in severe pain.
I have also built up my "kit" and if necessary I will use to end my own life, providing of course that I still retain the capacity to make that decision.
Obviously I hope to live long enough to see both of my sons settled and happy and to have the chance to cuddle some grandchildren.
I totally resent any interference by government and their bureaucrats to tell when I can die and to have the power to force me to live my last weeks in severe pain.
