I also worry that someone might feel like (or be told that) they are a burden on their 'family / carers / society' and choose to die sooner than they actually want to.I like the idea (I say I like the idea loosely, but you get my drift) of being able to die on 'your terms' if you are terminally ill and things like that but I do worry that making it legal would open a whole can of ethical worms. Who knows what'll happen in the future?
Yeah thats what I mean when I say a whole ethical can of worms. Its a topic that needs so much research, care and thought before its ever discussed in Government though.I also worry that someone might feel like (or be told that) they are a burden on their 'family / carers / society' and choose to die sooner than they actually want to.
There at least needs to be a start - research and studies into this will get a lot more traction and funding if the government would at least start to entertain it as something that people might want.Yeah thats what I mean when I say a whole ethical can of worms. Its a topic that needs so much research, care and thought before its ever discussed in Government though.
Yeah I agree in a way. Start with things like the terminally ill and of a sane mind etc. But even then, not everyone will agree and there’s always going to be such hard conversations to be had and situations to be dealt with.I'm torn really . I know it is acceptable to euthanise pets ,and we say it's best for them and kinder to let them go rather than live in pain.
Maybe only make it legal for certain situations at first . I think there are more aspects to human euthanasia than someone's live ending
Obviously put a big trigger warning for reading this articleAurelia Brouwers argued she was competent to make the decision. But could a death wish have been a symptom of her psychiatric illness?
"I think you never can be 100% sure of that," says Kit Vanmechelen. "But you must have done everything to help them diminish the symptoms of their pathology. In personality disorders a death wish isn't uncommon. If that is consistent, and they've had their personality disorder treatments, it's a death wish the same as in a cancer patient who says, 'I don't want to go on to the end.'"
This view is not universally held by psychiatrists in the Netherlands.
"How could I know - how could anybody know - that her death wish was not a sign of her psychiatric disease? The fact that one can rationalise about it, does not mean it's not a sign of the disease," says psychiatrist Dr Frank Koerselman, one of the Netherlands' most outspoken critics of euthanasia in cases of mental illness.
He argues psychiatrists should never collude with clients who claim they want to die.
"It is possible not to be contaminated by their lack of hope. These patients lost hope, but you can stay beside them and give them hope. And you can let them know that you will never give up on them," he says.
I think this is a lot more complicated, but ultimately, if a person wants to die, surely it is kinder to allow them to do so with no margin for error. I worked in care when I was younger, one of our service users had brain damage from a failed suicide attempt. He was desperately unhappy and frustrated but no longer had the ability to end his life. Having worked with him and met his family I think he should have had the opportunity to die with dignity. However, not all cases would be like this and I can see why ethicists and doctors are caught up in disagreements over it.Out of curiosity, what do people think about cases where the person isn't suffering from a terminal illness but from a psychiatric illness or personality disorder? It seems like doctors in the Netherlands can't agree
Obviously put a big trigger warning for reading this article
The troubled 29-year-old helped to die by Dutch doctors
In January Aurelia Brouwers drank poison supplied by a doctor and lay down to die. She was 29.www.bbc.co.uk
I remember the Liverpool Care Pathway. It was horrific.Anyone remember the “Liverpool Pathway”? Up until 2014, NHS Trusts were starving the elderly to death without pain relief and sometimes without the families’ knowledge.
I love the theory of euthanasia - everyone should be able to have control over their death in the same ways as they have rights to life.
However the shades of grey settled in after watching my dad go into hospital with a broken foot and be kept there following weeks of exceptional incompetence and nursing mismanagement and come out half his weight, bed sore ridden and ill. I wouldn’t trust any of those night hags masquerading as nurses or their doctor / consultant lemures to have any input over any practice of euthanasia. Pretty sure the last thing the staff on that particular orthopaedic ward needed was the power to put down patients they have taken against or consider a waste of resources.
You also have to keep in mind that the old fashioned approach of death by morphine ended properly with Harold Shipman and it will not be coming back. It’s also a terrible burden to stick on others to kill you, even for those NHS “Angel” types and the idea of the kind of person who’d be skipping between euthanising patients lives leaves me cold.
Perhaps artificial intelligence is the answer?
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