Why can't the person who has chosen to end their life do it... It's 2024 so there are surely ways and meansI get the romantic bravado of it all, it seems so simple and nobody wants to think of dying in pain or having to be fed like a baby but there a deeply practical, legal and moral issues at stake here.
You are asking a medical professional to administer a lethal dose whose oath is to neither hasten nor delay death. How can you possibly force them to do so just because it’s lawful to? You can’t so you won’t be pitching up at your local hospital and going through the process - you’ll be needing to travel to a specialist centre - assuming that you could staff it with enough people who are willing to do this.
Then there is a whole debate to be had around consent. You need to have all your faculties and be able to make an informed decision at time of administering it. Medical professionals cannot rely on a pre signed piece of paper to say you agree as you may have changed your mind and they can’t confirm or otherwise so they won’t do it. To overcome this you will be choosing to die whilst you still have a reasonable quality of life.
Once you make it possible for a medically fit person to be killed you open up all sorts of moral and legal issues.
It is certainly an important debate the country should have and be heard to have. I doubt many people have really thought it through and that’s before you get the religious nut jobs involved.
There are indeed already "ways and means" .Why can't the person who has chosen to end their life do it... It's 2024 so there are surely ways and means
You're also assuming that some medical professionals haven't "assisted" with a person's end before... I'm sure that there are many instances out there where a person's end has been "promoted" because of unacceptable pain and suffering...
Nobody has any right to decide if someone who makes this very hard decision is doing it for romantic reasons. As for moral, legal and practical? Again, what has that got to with anybody else?
That’s my point. It shouldn’t. Whichever government in charge at the time should be solely in charge of making sure it’s policed properly, not deciding wherever it’s right or wrong for the person deciding.I can guarantee Mrs MB won’t administer any drugs to help you or anyone else kill themselves irrespective of your legal rights. So it’s got everything to do with someone else.
Why can't the person who has chosen to end their life do it... It's 2024 so there are surely ways and means
You're also assuming that some medical professionals haven't "assisted" with a person's end before... I'm sure that there are many instances out there where a person's end has been "promoted" because of unacceptable pain and suffering...
Exactly what I was alluding to...There are indeed already "ways and means" .
I personally witnessed medical professionals ( allegedly) "hastening" the end of life of my family members with terminal illness.In each case I know 100% it was what my family member would have wanted.
We put animals we love to sleep to end their pain and suffering but won't do it for human beings.
They even ignore DNACPR when they choose to ,despite the patient's clearly documented wishes.
Your choice and very easy to say unless you have actually lived through that sort of event... If my loved one had been helped on their way to end suffering I'd be reporting nobody...You can kill yourself already - why should a medical professional help you? If someone’s death has been hastened a law has been broken and if you have any evidence of that you should report it.
During normal disease trajectories if someone is in unacceptable pain and suffering at the end of their life it’s because they have been failed by whatever specialist services they engage with in the NHS. There are numerous drugs available to medical professionals to ensure a peaceful death.
That’s my point. It shouldn’t. Whichever government in charge at the time should be solely in charge of making sure it’s policed properly, not deciding wherever it’s right or wrong for the person deciding.
Your wife might not be up for it, that’s her choice.
Thankfully I’m sure there would be others to take her place.
Your last paragraph is ultimately where I stand. It is complicated and it is open to abuse which is where I’m coming from when I say policed properly.And that’s why no one is rocking up to their local trust to get this “done” if it should become legal. It will be a single place somewhere in the country.
You say policed properly… what does that even mean? That the person wants to die right now? How do you prove that without that person having capacity and thus a provable quality of life?
There is a danger that we look at the idea of assisted dying too simplistically. For the record I’m not opposed to it as a concept.