New Zealand has held a referendum on Euthanasia

The NZ proposal is very limited in scale. It's only for people who have a terminal illness and with fewer than 6 months to live. They must also be considered mentally capable of making the decision - no-one can make it for them.

particularly 'helpful' for those with illnesses where they know they will end up choking slowly to death- or when multiple treatments have not worked and cancer returned with a vengeance.

I mentioned abortion laws early on in this site. It has been legal in the U.K. for fifty years in which time it has gone from being very strictly controlled to no control at all. That is my worry about legalising ‘assisted dying’. (I shall call it that as it seems people do not like the word ‘euthanasia’ which is, according to the dictionary ‘The painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma’.).

I think it is entirely irrelevant whether abortions were illegally performed before legalisation or not. I, and others, are concerned that the slackening of the controls over abortion could be mirrored by assisted dying.

Sukie, I feel exactly as you do. There is a place for the help to ease someone into a peaceful passing and, in my nursing experience, I have seen it done.I have also seen and heard of frail, vulnerable patients being pressured into changing wills, bullied into giving large sums of money to relatives and other horrors. Imagine if those relatives were able to influence people to sign away their lives!
Cast iron, irreversible controls would have to be put in place. I am not convinced those controls would stay.

I am 100% for it. I hope it comes in my lifetime.

Tweedle- have you read my post as to how it is done in Switzerland- and the amazing safety measures put in place to ensure there is no slippery slope or room for errors.

But I do believe that it is best for the treating team, nurses and doctors- to be totally separate.

Biba. I do know about the strict rules in Switzerland. I am just not so confident the regulations would stay without dilution in other countries.

I am not so sure about separating treatment teams from the patient at the end. If I were the patient I would want the people who had cared for me and in whom I had developed trust, to be there at the end. As a nurse. I would like to be with the patient too. Having said that, I do understand what you are saying. It would, I believe, depend on the individual case and the circumstances.

Of course they can choose to be there, the patient can choose for them to be there - but treating and assisting to die- just have to remain separate in principle.