Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => Other Health Discussion => Topic started by: honeybun on May 10, 2013, 07:32:21 PM
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Following on from the worried about getting older topic.
What is your opinion on the thorny topic of euthanasia?
Honeyb
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At the right time in the right place .......... you mean for humans rather than animals? If a person is known to have a life shortening illness where the pain is uncontrollable, then yes.
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Totally agree.
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:thankyou: I have a dread of pain, especially when I know that it can be eased. But the medics are so stuck in keeping to the 4 hourly regime or not topping up as required ::)
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Yes for us and not our pets.
I think we should have the right to choose how we end our lives. But if we are not capable but have told our loved ones what we want. What should happen then.
Honeyb
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If it was a beloved pet.....would you do the kindest thing.
Honeyb
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It already happens when 'someone' decides to switch off a ventilator when someone say in a road traffic accident is paralysed and becomes 'brain dead'.
A lot of dying people are on morphine infusions, and the dose is increased gradually, and eventually the person just drifts off.......In this way, it is allowed to happen, rather than forced, by either the person themselves or anybody else. Unfortunately vets can't give pets morphine. 8)
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Right circumstances, I'm all for it. My MIL was doped to eyeballs on morphine at the end as we had informed the staff we didn't want her suffering, which she didn't.
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I made that decision for both of my parents and it was a calm and dignified ending. It can only happen though if the person is on some sort of treatment. This can then be withdrawn and the morphine pump put into place. It usualaly takes forty eight hours from then. It is not an easy decision but if you consider them and their situation rather than how much you, yourself, will miss them it becomes much clearer as to what you should do.
Taz x
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FIL couldn' t bare to watch his wife suffering. In fact he wasn't there at the end. He'd nipped home for something to eat, we'd left to head up here. I said on the way home that she wouldn't see the rest of the day out. I was right. She went just as Hubby's dad was heading back.
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I think everyone has the right to die in a dignified way. Its not right to keep someone alive as long as possible, when they have a terminal illness, are in dreadful pain or have no quality of life.
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Small pets are given an overdose of barbiturates I believe. Quick and relatively painless. I am not good at pain, my threshold is low. I think people would 'enjoy' their final months/days better if they knew there is a regulated relief from pain when it is required.
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I think it is cruel keeping people alive when they are suffering - not just for them but also their nearest and dearest.
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It already happens when 'someone' decides to switch off a ventilator when someone say in a road traffic accident is paralysed and becomes 'brain dead'.
A lot of dying people are on morphine infusions, and the dose is increased gradually, and eventually the person just drifts off.......In this way, it is allowed to happen, rather than forced, by either the person themselves or anybody else. Unfortunately vets can't give pets morphine. 8)
You are soooooooooooo correct been doing this for years way back in to the 40s maybe even before
In hospitals they used to be called the famous night nurse or Doctor all to ease paon to end a life with dignity
Yes if I had a terminal illness so bad that pain releif was no longer working end it for me Ive told this to my family
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I agree as well if its an incurable disease and there is no quality of life left you should be allowed to go out with your dignity intact I have told my OH and children this.
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I can see no point in prolonging suffering and pain when a person is terminally ill or has no quality of life and has expressed a wish to be allowed to go (locked in syndrome as only one example).
It may be a bit difficult if someone has had a car crash and is comatose or brain damaged and physically disabled but still alive.
I could not imagine being alive and lying in a bed unable to communicate or move for the rest of my life.
My mum and dad have living wills (well Dad is dead now). We used his will in hospital to ensure he had as quick and dignified an end as possible and they did not continually try to keep him alive when he would have faced an horrendously slow death from the extent of his cancer and surgery.
My friend wanted to go to Switzerland but finance and circumstances did not allow it. He was well looked after in a local hospice towards the end and his pain and journey was eased.
I share the belief that life is not just to be alive - but it is to have a quality of life.
And also the point made by Taz - that it is about the person suffering and not the people they will leave behind.
Trying to write the rules would be a nightmare!!
Fx
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It should also be realised that those left to mourn need to know that their loved one had a 'good death' with as little pain and still keeping dignity. It isn't only the dying to consider.
Someone I know went to Dignitas about 10 years ago, his sister took him ...........
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Do you know if it was a good experience CLKD? This only works of course if there is enough money to make the trip over there and they are well enough to administer the fatal medicine.
Taz x
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People need to be well enough to administer the fatal dose, but many seriously ill people just can't physically do this. It really highlights the cases which have just gone to the High Court today, where severely disabled people want the right to have their lives ended by a doctor, without the doctor being accused of murder.
There was the recent case of Tony Nicklinson, where the court rejected his request. It was horrible to hear his screams / moans when the verdict was delivered. He died not long after, I suspect he starved himself. There didn't seem to be a lot of care, consideration or respect for him.
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So expensive to have to resort to having to use Dignitas. However, I can understand why people would choose such a way to end things. I sincerely hope I never have need of it myself or any of my family. So much better to just fall asleep and not wake up.
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Not yet though!!
Taz x
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Not today - too much to do ;). From seeing his sister speaking on TV it was reasonably 'good' but it left her with a nasty taste because it meant their last months were spent planning ..........
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I belong to a UK pressure group called "Dignity in Dying" which campaigns for change in the law regarding euthanasia. I would recommend the drama "A Short Stay in Switzerland" starring Julie Walters - a moving true story about a woman doctor's decision to go to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland to end her life due to a degenerative neurological disease.
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I remember watching that, an excellent drama. Also watched docu when Terry Pratchett visited Dignitas with someone who wished to be there. That was very hard to watch.