Assisted Dying

[manonthemoon2]

Not sure if this will pass the next stage, but interesting for those who want it

https://www.sudouest.fr/sante/fin-de-vi ... 943095.php

[exile]

Behind a paywall. I don't object in principle, but I cannot possibly subscribe to all of the papers and magazines with possibly interesting articles, or often a single article.

[manonthemoon2]

I managed to read it by accepting cookies and scrolling past all the ads.

But BBC also mentions it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg7g2z4pv3o

[Bayleaf]

I think it has it's place - under strict conditions. I know the old boy I still visit in EHPAD would seriously consider this - and would have chosen his own end many a time in the last year. At 87 and basically bedridden and in daily pain, but still pretty sharp in the head department, it's heartbreaking to see how often he cries at "still being alive when his wife was supposed to outlive him".

What is the point at this stage? He gets very little joy - no quality of life, no dignity as carers do pretty much everything for him. We put animals down when they're beyond saving, and they can only look at us and say with their eyes "please let me go to sleep".

It's more difficult with severe dementure patients. My dear step-dad is completely gone in the head now, incontinent, can barely feed himself, doesn't know anyone. How he has fallen from the proud, fearless farmer he used to be. I'm sure if he could communicate, he'd be saying "please just stop this" - but what do we do in those situations? The pain of seeing them in that condition is mammoth. I don't know the solution, but at least death would be peace at last for them. He's a farmer - he'd agree.

[Blaze]

It will only be for French citizens and they have to be compos mentis when they ask for it. According to TF1 news last night, if a doctor doesn't want to do it, or give the patient the means to do it themselves, they can refer the person to a different doctor. I can imagine there are doctors who would be unwilling (Hippocrates or RC ?).

[L Austin France]

Behind a paywall. I don't object in principle, but I cannot possibly subscribe to all of the papers and magazines with possibly interesting articles, or often a single article.

Try archive.today

[MAD87]

My daughter is opposed as being too open to abuse. I'm in 2 minds as there are plenty of very sick people who must surely want an end to their suffering.

[exile]

Without safeguards, I am sure it would be open to abuse.

However, Dignitas has been available for a number of years and I am not aware of any suggestion that any of their customers have been coerced. So we could perhaps learn from their controls, as well as the experiences of other countries and states that have voluntary euthanasia.

On a more philosophical point, should the possibility of abuse, override the clear needs* of many who are in extreme and clearly life-shortening conditions.
To take a silly analogy - because some people abuse speed limits, should we do away with such limits? Of course not, we control (perhaps not enough) that the limits are being respected.

* And those needs go a long way beyond just ending life. Dignitas say that many people who sign up, never take advantage of the offered service. It does however provide peace of mind to those with terminal conditions that should things become too much, there is a solution.

[widge]

A french neighbour that was the same age as us that we had known for 20 years was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease which is a disease which attacks the nervous system, she had been a nurse all her life, so knew how things would go in the end, so decided that when she got to the stage that she was unable to do much for her self, she would opt for assisted euthanasia, her with her son and daughter (in their 20s) the father of the children and a group of close friends and family traveled first class on the train to a clinic in Belgium, she was always a thin person, but by this time she weighed less than 40kg, she spent two weeks at the clinic where she had to be assessed by two different doctors befor they would put a recommendation to whoever signs it off, during that two weeks she spent quality time with her frends and family. And although sad it would have been terrible to have seen her deteriorate further, the service at the crematorium was incredible, it lasted about an hour and a half, lots of people spoke and told tales from her life, there was also music and singing.
It was sad and we miss her, especially her incredible laugh that you could hear throughout the hamlet, but I would like to think that I would be brave enough to do the same.