Hi al, Im just watching an episode of Doctors on BBC1. Ill type this quick so if anyone wants to catch it you can.
It`s bout assisted suicide.
Ill post again when its finished.
pollx
It`s finished and the end had me in tears.
This is a subject often aired on these boards. Since becoming a member here, I have bcome more open minded about suicide, but re assisted suicide, I feel very uncomfortable about leaving someone else to face the music when the poorly person has gone.
The tv programme featured a man around 55 ish, who was kept alive on a ventilator, the only part of his body he could move were his eyes. he used a voice system, which both printed and spoke his words. His wife was his sole carer.
He had said before about his wish to let the doctors end his life by stopping treatment…a legal way.
His wife refused to listen and told him he was selfish. He tried to tell her he was doing it or her…to release her rom a life which would bring her no happiness.
In the end the dotor did do the necessary to bring about his end. he was at home and asked to be taken into the sunshine, so they wheeled his bed into the garden.
I`ve always been against suicide, but saw this story in a different light.
Anyone else watched it?
pollx
Hi Poll, I was very tearful watching that. It was well acted and really made me think. Sam xx
Hi Poll
I watched it too and was also in tears! It’s such an emotive subject that could be debated for hours. I can’t imagine being in such a desperate state to want to end my life. It would be a hell of a burden for the people left behind who assisted you, plus the legal implications are massive.
If an animal is in pain and suffering then we don’t let it continue, choosing instead to humanely euthanase them. I think that in the future there will be some sort of ruling allowing assisted suicide.
Either way I wouldn’t want to put any of my family through the ordeal!
Freckles xxx
lf you allowed an animal to suffer you could face a prison sentence. l watched Hayleys demise on Corrie - l thought that was very well portrayed. But her husband and Fizz were angry with her, to begin with.
l had a friend with terminal cancer - and she could not eat. Her husband and family kept ‘nagging’ her to eat - l felt so sorry for her- it was such a relief when she finally passed away and was at last out of pain. Bless her.
I didn’t watch it poll but it’s a tough one to call.
I wouldn’t want to be that man, laid in a bed only kept alive by a ventilator…is that living?
Looking back in history, there was more of a relaxed attitude about suicide. Then the Christians came along and condemned it…according to wikipedia.
Even with excellent palliative care, this poor man would still be stuck on a ventilator.
xx
Society demands we live with dignity since we are meant to be responsible adults. Surely we should be allowed to die the same.
And for every person who agrees there will be one who does not. But having watched my grandmother in so much pain from cancer she could not even cry when her morphone was mistakenly set for too little, I know which side of the fence I am on.
JBK x
I watched the programme too. It wasn’t about assisted suicide, but the patients right to refuse treatment. In his case the treatment included the ventilator. No one did anything that killed him, but the doctor did something that stopped him staying alive. The equivilent of giving someone something toxic as apposed to removing a food tube into their stomach which is the only way to feed that person. Which is exactly what Mr Nicklinson who had locked in syndrome did - part of my my brain is having the week off so I can’t remember his first name, same on my brain!
Parts of the programme had his voice speaking to the people around him via the computer, and other bits his voice in his brain speaking what he wished his body could voice.
It was very moving. And thougth provoking. What would we do if we were in pain all the time and unable to do anything about it, not even ‘end our suffering’? Or how we’d feel if one of loved ones was in that position and we were being asked to help them. I can’t imagine…
But it does make me thing I’m on the ‘if it’s got safeguards that work, and safely’ side.
Thanks everyone, for your replies. Clearly an extremly emotive and difficult subject.
luv Pollx