Should assisted dying be legalised? Readers share their thoughts

Welcome to openDemocracy’s weekly reader comments round-up. This is usually an opportunity for us to showcase some of the many carefully considered messages we receive on a range of topics.

But this week, ahead of a vote in the House of Commons on a bill that seeks to legalise assisted suicide, we posted two op-eds from opposing sides of the debate, and have since been sent many interesting and impassioned messages on this subject from readers.

We have decided to focus on these messages in this week’s round-up. Send us your thoughts on this subject, or any other, for next week’s round-up by replying directly to any of our emails or commenting on our articles or Instagram posts.

These comments are edited for clarity, accuracy and length, and don’t necessarily reflect openDemocracy's editorial position.

Re: Why it’s time for the UK to introduce a new law to allow assisted dying

I wanted to respond to your article in support of assisted dying. I am vehemently opposed to this draft bill, not only on moral but on the following practical grounds:

1. Similar legislation in other countries has clearly demonstrated that once this principle is allowed then the permissible boundaries are gradually extended to include other circumstances e.g. Disabled people who are not terminally ill, people with mental health problems, and people who are ill (not terminally) but feel that they are a burden to their families
2. Allowing assisted dying, which will involve substantial complications and expense, will inevitably affect funding for hospice care adversely
3. However many safeguards are introduced there will still be a substantial opportunity for abuse by friends, family and the medical profession
4. There will be many medical practitioners who, for reasons of conscience, will feel unable to be party to assisted dying and finding a doctor to help may not be as easy as the draft bill implies.

This is my opinion and, I am sure, the opinion of many millions of people in the UK. I normally support fully the views that you express, but on this very important subject I take a strongly opposed view. –Brian Stone

I am 77 years old, and fit and well for my age. I enjoy my life and hope I will for many more years, but I am a realist. I know that life is a terminal condition and think we should all be allowed to decide when to die, once we feel life is no longer worth living.

I don’t mean someone who is young and depressed. Their condition can improve. I mean us, the elderly, and some younger people with conditions such as early dementia or brain damage that they know they will never recover from.

Of course, if people believe there is a God who will decide when they die or have other reasons for wanting to stay alive even while suffering, that is their human right. They should be able to live as long as modern medicine can keep them alive. But they should have no say in deciding when I should die. It’s my human right to choose.

My partner shares my views but sadly for him, it will be too late even if the government passes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. He now has dementia, so would not meet the criteria of having “the mental capacity to make the choice” to die, despite having previously set out his wishes about in what circumstances he would want to end his life in his Power of Attorney documents.

It is so sad watching the intelligent, capable man gradually die over the years. He is in a care home and putting up with it. I take him out to visit gardens that he loves. I know he won’t get better and that the time will come when he doesn’t know me and is unable to walk etc.

Many will say we could be taken advantage of, but I feel I am being taken advantage of now.

I want the money from my estate to be passed on to my family, to make their lives a little easier, not wasted on keeping me alive in a care home full of other people in the same situation, all being cared for by exhausted staff who sometimes have no time to do all that needs to be done for me. I don’t want my family to have to visit me for years watching me die a little bit more each visit.

You may say this law would be unsafe. But a doctor and a solicitor could witness a video recording of me listing the eventualities that would cause me to want an assisted death, and I could sign a copy of that script in their presence. Then, when the time comes, a solicitor and doctor could check the recording to be sure they are following my wishes. It needs to be like because because I in no way want to die now but I might not be lucid enough to make the decision when the time is right for me.

You may say it would take money from the NHS, but it costs billions to keep old people in care homes and there is a shortage of the care staff required. If the thousands, perhaps millions, of us who don’t want to spend ten years or more in a care home chose to die at a time that is right for us, it would release taxpayers’ money for others who could live healthy fulfilling lives with good medical care.

I beg MPs to forget any religious beliefs they may have and vote to give me and thousands of others their human right. –Christine Gale

I’m not impressed with this emotional ‘blackmailing’ article. It assumes palliative care does not work… let’s hear from the relatives who have been very happy with their relatives’ palliative and end-of-life care.

How do you know that an assisted dying situation ensures a painless death? You can’t interview a candidate after they’ve taken their life and there are cases where a failed attempt shows considerable distress of the patient and where a patient has taken an inordinate time to die.

The consideration of mental health at the decision time hasn’t been properly explained and the idea that this will be alleviated by counselling is naive. Let's put the money in to stop people getting to this stage. One or two relatives’ bad experiences should not be a reason to bring in a law that will affect everyone regardless of so-called ‘safeguards’. This is a money-saving endeavour perpetrated by private enterprises.

Once Pandora’s box is opened the genie can't be put back in. This could be the biggest mistake of the century. The body knows when its time is up and it should decide, not social pressure to be ‘humane’ – whatever that means – nor emotional blackmail, nor the savings in medicines and cost of care.

How we look after the sick, old and children says a lot about our society. At the moment all three are under threat. –Chris Proffitt

Read the original story here.

Re: I’m disabled. Here’s why I am scared of the assisted dying bill

This is such a good article and should be circulated to all MPs. There is no substitute for hearing from those who will be affected. My colleague was given six months maximum to live after suddenly being diagnosed with end-stage bowel cancer. After treatment, she is still with us 10 years later. –Chris Proffitt

In the past, carers sometimes upped the morphine dose to people who wanted to go, but had to be very careful not to be arrested. I had a relation in his nineties who convinced his carer he should be allowed to go. He was being kept alive by more or less force-fed heart pills. He had made it quite clear to me that he had had enough, and the carer said he had convinced her that he was right. If the pills stopped, his heart would give up the ghost, so he was choosing between a so-called ‘life’ supported by tablets and dying. The lovely lady allowed him not to swallow them, and after about a week, his earthly story ended peacefully and in very good time. Is allowing someone to die the same as assisted dying? –Juliet Solomon

I truly applaud how you post this view, and then a link to a previous post of the opposite view. Seriously, this is a great great thing. Thanks. –Trish Somers

I am neither ill nor disabled. I strongly support legalising assisted dying. It has absolutely nothing to with the notion of being a burden. It has everything to do with personal choice. I may choose it. You may not. What on earth is wrong with that? It’s interesting how those who oppose assisted dying never seem to be as concerned about life being prolonged beyond all reasonable expectations. –Beryl Wall

Read the original story here.