Assisted Dying. For or against?

Yes.

Its a yes please from me.

Most certainly yes.

A definite yes. It would make our later years so much more relaxed, if we knew that if things become unendurable, we could opt out.

Yes definitely.

It's a Yes from me

Perhaps there should be a National vote amongst the over 60s to resolve the issue, I’m sure it’s the relatives that want granny kept going no matter what, rather than what granny wants.

Yes definitely if it is organised along the same lines as Medical Assistance In Dying is in Canada.

Thank you for your replies Doodledog and Polarbear.
Not being a medical person I’d say I wouldn’t but then I’m putting that responsibility onto someone else aren’t I?

That’s exactly my concern. I would hope that doctors and nurses would never be put into a position where they had to end someone’s life against their own professional ethics and against their own better judgement.
It is all very well talking about euthanasia being carried out in other countries, but if assisted dying were to be legalised here, it would presumably be carried out in NHS hospitals.

Remember what happened with the Liverpool pathway, which was introduced into NHS hospitals with the best of intentions?
Its use was discontinued because hospitals were given targets and patients were put on it without proper informed consent.

A yes from me too . I would not want to “hang on by a thread” for month after month causing distress to me and my family . Henry Marsh’s books are excellent .

Why would it have to be in hospitals Janeainsworth? If it were me I’d want my death arranged in the comfort of my own home, with family there if they wished.

Medics can opt out of certain procedures such as termination of pregnancy at present if they want. Sure there could be a way of managing this.

Yes. Sorry to be crude but if I couldn’t wipe my own bottom I wouldn’t want to be here.

janeainsworth

Can I ask those of you who are in favour of assisted dying, would you be willing to inject someone with a drug in the sure knowledge that it would kill them?

Making a distinction here between that situation, and giving someone pain relief sufficient to keep them out of pain but which may hasten their demise?

I hope I would be brave enough to put their needs first.

I have had to say yes to switching off the life support. Honestly, it wasn’t hard to make that decision for the personI loved. I hope I could go that one step more.

Yes, definitely.
I know my lovely 90 year old aunt has a stash of medication stored away for when the time comes. I wonder how many people do this? They shouldn't have to!

Henry Marsh is a wonderful man and won't be supporting this lightly. We were very lucky that DH died very peacefully thanks mainly to the way his consultant oversaw his treatment. Without that personal connection I'm sure some people will have a much grimmer outcome. I found while dealing with DH's illness that there's a lot more to pain control than just topping up the morphine and in some cases real pain relief is very difficult. No one should have to suffer because "There's nothing more we can do"

I think so, but the further I get on the downward path, the less sure I am. Would I ask someone to give me the final dose or the final injection? Would I do it for someone I loved to relieve them from unmentionable pain? Yes, I think I would, though under the present legislation, I would be prosecuted.

Some relatives have been charged but no one in the UK has ever been prosecuted.

Huge uber maxi YES

To an extent, end of life care takes into account what the patient is hoping for, and goes with it, as much as they can.

If there was to be a vote we would not only be voting for ourselves and our families.

Some relatives have been charged but no one in the UK has ever been prosecuted

Actually they have, Smileless. This woman was tried for murder after a failed suicide pact with her husband.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-49743727

I should have said no relative has been successfully prosecuted.

Definitely.
We don’t see animals suffer. We are expected to though. A little extra morphine to give a nudge into death? Gets my vote, every time.

As he lay comatose on his deathbed in 1936, King George V was injected with fatal doses of morphine and cocaine to assure him a painless death in time, according to his physician's notes, for the announcement to be carried ''in the morning papers rather than the less appropriate evening journals.''

The fact that the death of a reigning monarch had been medically hastened remained a secret for half a century until the publication today of the notes made at the time by Lord Dawson, the royal physician who recorded that he administered the two injections at about 11 o'clock on the night of Jan. 20, 1936. That was scarcely an hour and a half after Lord Dawson had written a classically brief medical bulletin that declared, ''The King's life is moving peacefully toward its close.''

That ''close'' came in less than an hour after the injections. Lord Dawson, according to his notes, had already taken the precaution of phoning his wife in London to ask that she ''advise The Times to hold back publication.''

In Windsor Castle Archives

''A Peaceful Ending at Midnight,'' said the headline the next morning in the newspaper that was deemed to be the most appropriate vehicle for major announcements to the nation.

One rule for them, another for us?

It's a yes from me too

Yes. I’d want doctors and nurses free to refuse to be part of euthanasia. Just because we can prolong life doesn’t mean we should. I don’t want to be kept alive, unable to do anything for myself. I wouldn’t want my children dealing with that