Euthanasia need to be considered in UK?

Soldato
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I spent 8 years supervising and caring for my Mum so the rest of the family could get on with their lives. I watched every single bit of her stolen by dementia, starting with her dignity and ending with her last breath, in my arms. It was a privilege. It was a crime. I should have been brave enough to put her out of her misery when she begged me after her dementia diagnosis.

Where there are humans, there is abuse. Any system will be flawed, but if I could sign up now to be put out of my misery -- whatever I might say when I'm no longer able to think straight -- I'd sign it in a flash. A corridor of doctors... you get tested by a few independently, and the final one sends you back to the care home or the funeral home.

Dementia is no way for anyone to end their time on earth. It's cruel, it's hideously expensive to mitigate, and it's sapping the NHS and families and it's everywhere now. On this Close alone I have three neighbours in various stages. The support group I attended yesterday (I sometimes sing/guitar for them, but mainly just help out) has over 80 people sometimes. New faces all the time; old faces unable to get there all the time. It's a conveyor belt of human misery and care homes are an "out of sight, out of mind" sticking plaster, not a solution.

So, er... yes... it'll be a minefield. But how we cope with dementia now is little short of torture, which few would really want for ourselves.
 
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Associate
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Seems like here in OC GD most people are in favour of it, i bet the general population are too.

Whenever parliament votes on it there seems to be a hardcore group of mainly religious mp's who vote against it on grounds of life being sacred (although they'll also say it's open to abuse even though the evidence doesn't support this).
 
Caporegime
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Seems like here in OC GD most people are in favour of it, i bet the general population are too.

Supported by 45-25 according to polling.

Whenever parliament votes on it there seems to be a hardcore group of mainly religious mp's who vote against it on grounds of life being sacred (although they'll also say it's open to abuse even though the evidence doesn't support this).

The trouble is that the people who are against it are more likely to vote on those grounds than the much larger grouper who are for it. It'll probably happen eventually, but the UK's politics make it unlikely to be soon.
 
Associate
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Supported by 45-25 according to polling.



The trouble is that the people who are against it are more likely to vote on those grounds than the much larger grouper who are for it. It'll probably happen eventually, but the UK's politics make it unlikely to be soon.

That's in favour and the question does not include terminal illness, it refers to an incurable painful disease that is not terminal:

"Do you think the law should or should not be changed to allow someone to assist in the suicide of...someone suffering from an painful, incurable but NOT terminal illness?"

I bet even more people would be in favour if terminal illnesses were included. I would be in favour of both.

I'm not religious but if i were i'd like to think a God would be compassionate enough to allow someone, under strict rules, to end their own suffering.

People with enough money can already do this with Dignitas but it requires extensive travelling and thousands of pounds.
 
Associate
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I can't validate the data, this website says 84% of the public support the choice of assisted dying for terminally ill adults. Yet it will be voted down in parliament. I thought mp's were supposed to represent their constituents wishes?
 
Associate
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You are given choices from birth so why not for death?
Yes we vote them in but they still vote in accordance of their beliefs
 
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Associate
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I'm going to find out which way my local parliamentary candidates would vote on this, and i'll base my vote on this. Wouldn't be surprised if they can conceal their vote on it?
 
Soldato
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I can't validate the data, this website says 84% of the public support the choice of assisted dying for terminally ill adults. Yet it will be voted down in parliament. I thought mp's were supposed to represent their constituents wishes?
Mentally competent, then I want to sign a waiver now stating that if I ever get dementia and need care then I should be put of my misery.
 
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Soldato
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One of my mum's friends - her parents and in laws had dementia at the same time. All in different care homes within a 5 mile radius of each other. Her in laws were in the same care home first of all but MIL kept hitting her husband so she was moved.

Her father had a room on the ground floor. Despite of him being frail, he managed to climb out of the room window in the middle of the night. A police car driving back from wherever they were back to Police HQ (about a mile away), stopped him as he walking stark naked down a by pass on the road, 5 mins walk from the care home. He kept muttering the name of the care home to the police. Police picked him up and took him to the care home. One of the police and the night manager went to his room to see the open window. He was moved to a room with a smaller window opening. Eventually all the windows to all rooms were replaced with smaller openings to prevent something like this ever again.

Goodness knows what would happened if the police car wasn't there. It was late winter/early spring so it was cold.
 
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