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
Hi everyone,
Like Jo, I am not the patient, in my case it is my husband.
I am no stranger to death from cancer as I remember my father suffering for three years before passing away when I was 16 years old. For the last year of his life, he spent most of it in hospital. During his final hours, I remember him slipping into a kind of coma - unable to speak or see, but still able to hear. It makes me wonder, as Trevor C states, can we believe that they really are as comfortable as nurses and doctors state. I'm not saying they are telling lies, it's just that.......... how do we really know??
Although I believe that we should be given the choice, personally I don't think that I could "assist" my husband. At the moment, my instinctive reaction is to try and "save" him. I know deep down that I can't do that, so naturally I want to prolong his life as much as I can.
Perhaps I am being selfish, but then again, when my mother suffered a subdural heamatoma, we were asked if we wanted her revived should she stop breathing (apparently given age of patient, lot's of hospitals have a "no revival" policy unless family states otherwise), but given her medical history, age, and probable outcome, we said no. From that point all the nursing staff did was to keep her comfortable. After 3 or 4 days we noticed she was eating less and drinking less. Eventually she fell into a coma (whether it was drug induced or not - I don't know) and basically a week to the day after being admitted, she passed away. I have to admit that for nearly a year after that, I went through a hell of a time blaming myself and asking if I had made the right choice.
So you see, although I believe people have a right to make decisions with regards to if, how and when they die, when it comes to the crunch............... I think it will take a very strong and brave person to actually assist. Perhaps when the day actually arrives, I may change my mind, but for now, I honestly don't think I could.
