Living Will

[watervole]

 I have seen my mother-in-law dying slowly when her expressed wishes were to die quickly (she had bowel cancer, there was no way she would recover and the last two weeks were slow and messy).

My mother is not far from the end, I suspect. She has multiple issues and is frail. She too has said to me that she would like to be allowed to pass away.  She said that they make us stay alive for too long.  (It's that phrase *make* that is the killer. The NHS will provide operations, great hospital care, but they keep on treating, even when removing it would be in line with the patient's wishes)

Molly was an atheist, my mother is Christian. Religious belief doesn't seem to be a factor.

I feel exactly the same way myself.  If I reach a stage where I am incontinent, immobile and with no chance of ever being fit and healthy again, then I will want the right to ask for an end to my life.

Some countries/states are gradually introducing legislation for assisted dying, I hope that the UK will eventually join them.

Yes, we need protection for those who don't want to end their life, but we also need protection for those dying in pain, embarrassment and boredom.

I can still hear Molly saying to me "I'm bored." She was blind, she could do none of the things that had given her life pleasure for 80+ years.  She was confined to bed, incontinent and in pain. Yet she had to spend two weeks in that condition against her expressed wishes.  She was an intelligent woman in full possession of her faculties, as is my mother.

When will we get the right to choose when to die?

Comments

[kotturinn]

Are you a member of Dignity in Dying who are campaigning along those lines?

My mother let go quicker than we thought (she was always determined of mind), but Dad didn't/couldn't for various reasons and family and hospital danced round each other for quite a while before both sides were clear on the DNR.

[kotturinn]

Oh, and forgot the other branch, Compassion in Dying, wrt making advance decisions.

[la_avispa]

In this respect animals have more than humans... My mother was lucky to die quickly of cancer - only two weeks in bed and nearly no pain. But my father-in-law was confined to bed for months and he did want to pass away quicker. It was rough.

[sallymn]

They're brought in a new assisted suicide law in Victoria, I can't see it happening in my state for a long while...

I agree, there need to be stringent safeguards but keeping people alive and suffering when they just want it over... is cruel.

[eledonecirrhosa]

Both my Dad and my godmother expressed the wish to die when they became permanently bedridden and unable to do the simplest things for themselves. Dad had a DNR but it took months for him to fade.

He had a terminal, inoperable illness. What was the point of letting him linger on and on?

[suenicorn]

So sorry to hear about your Mum. Thinking of you!

Yes, the Assisted Dying law got through the upper house recently. There are a lot of ifs and buts and you have to have lived in Victoria for a certain amount of time to access it, which I suppose will prevent people from coming here for just that purpose. But it got through.