It's consistent with your faith, and I respect that. Glad we agree on one aspect :) (I knew someone who turned down chemo on the grounds that she'd rather enjoy what was left of her life. She'd had chemo before and knew just how bad it was)
Yes, pressure can be applied, though I believe the UK law would make that difficult. Yet your friend was able to hold her own and have her wishes followed. Strong belief can achieve that.
Pressure, sadly, can go both ways.
When my mother was dying (in a month of pain and delirium that was horrifying to see), my dad was actively researching anything that might give her a few days extra life and pressuring the hospital into doing it.
I do not believe that would have been her desire (we'd discussed the subject a year before when she'd nearly died), but I think my Dad saw it - like he did most things - as a puzzle to be solved and a fight that was somehow winnable.
For himself, fighting for every possible moment of life, was a natural choice. He would never have asked for assisted dying, no matter what was killing him.
For my mother... He should not have fought to give her MORE days of horror. (When I saw her, she didn't recognise us, but was babbling away and batting at things that weren't there. Yet there was still a trace of her remaining. When I mentioned the name of my dead sister, I saw a tear form in her eye. She was aware to some small degree, which made it so much worse.)
no subject
Glad we agree on one aspect :) (I knew someone who turned down chemo on the grounds that she'd rather enjoy what was left of her life. She'd had chemo before and knew just how bad it was)
Yes, pressure can be applied, though I believe the UK law would make that difficult. Yet your friend was able to hold her own and have her wishes followed. Strong belief can achieve that.
Pressure, sadly, can go both ways.
When my mother was dying (in a month of pain and delirium that was horrifying to see), my dad was actively researching anything that might give her a few days extra life and pressuring the hospital into doing it.
I do not believe that would have been her desire (we'd discussed the subject a year before when she'd nearly died), but I think my Dad saw it - like he did most things - as a puzzle to be solved and a fight that was somehow winnable.
For himself, fighting for every possible moment of life, was a natural choice. He would never have asked for assisted dying, no matter what was killing him.
For my mother... He should not have fought to give her MORE days of horror. (When I saw her, she didn't recognise us, but was babbling away and batting at things that weren't there. Yet there was still a trace of her remaining. When I mentioned the name of my dead sister, I saw a tear form in her eye. She was aware to some small degree, which made it so much worse.)