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But you are saying if they want to do it they can, but they cant, not easily at home.
Because the worst bit was that last week or so. Its hard to explain but everyone kept saying it will get difficult but that difficult bit happens overnight. Like I said earlier a couple of weeks prior she was having fresh air in the garden than BANG she went down over night ish.
By the time she was in the real bad way she wasnt with us if you know what I mean. Sorry but I just cant explain it, hopefully you get the jist of what im saying.
But we aint there yet, so why talk about things that we haven't got ?
Ask me when that time is here, all I can do at this time is give you my view on what I have witnessed.
It depends on whats wrong with the patient, you cant just say suicide and expect that to work for every patient. It depends on the seriousness of their illness etc
Because its lack of knowledge, patients are NOT told whats going to happen when they only have weeks to live. They dont know how bad things will get, they are not informed of how the breathing will go, how they will go to skin and bone, how they will not be even able to swallow, how they will be in some kind of pain and if I am ever in the position where I am imformed that I have a terminal cancer like my Mother then I am pretty sure that I wouldnt waste away, I would end it sooner. I would not go through what my Mother went through and I would never let my remaining family see me go down as quickly and as horribly as my Mother did.
The hospital staff were great as were the carers, but they need to start being truthful and honest with patients and families and give great detail of what exactly to expect in the latter weeks of terminal cancer.
Have you ever been close to someone who has died of a terminal illness like lung cancer ?
Because hopefully we would all agree that better palliative care is desirable, no?
What would you do in the case example I gave?
Yeah of course id agree palliative care could be better and if I was free from pain in the same situation and basically I was left to sleep then of course id agree with what you are saying.
I wouldnt wanna be in any kind of pain or suffering and if I was guaranteed that then there would be no need for euthanasia......but thats not the case is it.
I wouldn't expect a doctor to kill someone, but people should have the choice to put themselves out of their misery.
Better palliative care would be desirable, but I find the argument rather bizarre in all honesty. Why is it any better to keep someone so doped up they don't know what day it is than to let them die peacefully? If you're basically unconscious anyway, just ticking the clock down, then really, what is the bloody point?
So don't try and pretend that palliative care is all about doping people up and leaving them to it. Quite pathetic.
The fact is that at the end that is exactly what it is about.
I quite agree that making the end as late as possible is desirable, but the point still stands that if someone is dying of cancer they are eventually going to be too weak to do anything except lie there and wait for death.
Making that point as late as possible is desirable, but that point will inevitably come. At that point they should be allowed to choose to die, and be helped to die, instead of waiting another few days or even weeks for the body to conk out.
I've seen very close family die of cancer, so don't try and be a patronising doctor either.
"That point" so arbitrary that it makes any potential legislation on the matter extremely difficult to enact and monitor.
Death is part of life, and the process of dying is inevitable. I suggest that your argument is based as much on your feelings in watching the demise of the person, as it is on the wishes of the person themself.
If someone doesn't want it to happen then it shouldn't.
I appreciate the arguments about floodgates and precedent, and I do think they have a lot of merit. I quite agree that palliative care is far more important then euthanasia, but there is always a point when the only palliative care left is leaving someone zonked out at best on a bed ticking down the hours. At that point I think it would be better to put them to sleep, if that's what they want.