Terry Pratchett: Choosing To Die

[heth]

Did any-one watch this last night? It was a programme based around the Dignitas clinic were people go to have assisted suicide and it actually showed one gentleman taking the poison and dying.

I did, it were one of them programmes that was difficult to watch but a bit like a horror movie were you peek from behind the cushion.

I learnt alot from this that I didnt know and found Terry Prachett to be a very in-depth and nice guy(I havent really bothered with him in the past).

Looks like not everyone were happy with the programme as it were condemmed on the internet after the programme on social networks. They are saying that it didnt give both sides of the story.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by heth

Did any-one watch this last night? It was a programme based around the Dignitas clinic were people go to have assisted suicide and it actually showed one gentleman taking the poison and dying.

I did, it were one of them programmes that was difficult to watch but a bit like a horror movie were you peek from behind the cushion.

I learnt alot from this that I didnt know and found Terry Pratchett to be a very in-depth and nice guy(I havent really bothered with him in the past).

Looks like not everyone were happy with the programme as it were condemmed on the internet after the programme on social networks. They are saying that it didnt give both sides of the story.

To be quite honest heth I didn't watch the program because the subject doesn't interest me, to my way of thinking for somebody like myself, why would I have spent the last 30 years battling to combate poor health only to throw the towel in and end it all, I'll just let nature take its course

[heth]

Yes I totally understand both sides of the story.
You either fight it or you dont.
You either have the strentgh or dont.

I think that there should be an option for you to end your own life but it has to come with alot work to make sure that is what they want.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by heth

Yes I totally understand both sides of the story.
You either fight it or you dont.
You either have the strentgh or dont.

I think that there should be an option for you to end your own life but it has to come with alot work to make sure that is what they want.

Ya but who's going to set the parameters,

[heth]

Exactly, that would the tough on to decide.
Prob why they havnt done it in this country already. It would cause alot of grief.

[heth]

Heres a link to the story, very moving.

Anti-euthanasia backlash hits BBC after Terry Pratchett shows death at Dignitas | Mail Online

[Margaret Pilkington]

I didn't watch the program, so I can't comment on the content.....but to be fair John, you can't really compare your situation with the one that Terry Pratchett finds himself in.

You have managed your health (along with the professionals) and for that you are to be congratulated.......Terry Pratchett knows that somewhere down the line he is going to lose the mental ability to make that decision then....so he is alerting people to the fact that once he can no longer make these decisions, because of the degradation of thought processes brought on by Alzheimers disease, he has made his wishes clear.
He is to be applauded for that....making a choice well ahead of the need.

Euthanasia is a very thorny subject......very emotive.
During my life, I have watched people suffer and die very undignified deaths.
It is something that never leaves you, and something that you never get used to.

I know that I have myself said, when looking after someone in these terrible circumstance,(not within earshot) that we treat our animals much more kindly than we treat those with life limitting illnesses.
Life should not be preserved at all costs.......it is not the length of life that matters, it is the ability of a person to participate in life, to have quality of life, to be able to enjoy eating, sleeping and social pursuits, that matters most.

I will duck now and wait for the flack to pass over my head.

[heth]

You wont get any flack from me Marg, I have said it before and will say it again you have a great way with words as I couldnt put it better myself!

On the programme last night they actually said that they treat animals better than humans when it comes to dying, and in my opinion that is not right. We dont like to see our dog/cat etc in pain just to pro-long thier life so why do it to human beings?

It isnt nice seeing people in that much pain when they are coming to the end of thier lives, and it must be horrid for the actual patient basically lying there waiting to die. This clinic gives people the choice and to me that is what people deserve.

We had to make a decission when my Grandma were in hospital to put a D.N.R on her when she was in a bad way and to this day we have said that we would do it again if it came to it.
Luckily she bounced back like she does but none of us feel guilty for making that choice as it could have quite easily gone the other way were she would have got worse and it would have been no life for her not being able to move or talk.

Marg I am coming to duck with you behind that wall!

[Margaret Pilkington]

Spot on Heth!
We love our familiy, we do not want them to die, but we have to accept that it is inevitable.
I think dying with dignity(and I know that is very subjective - each individual will have their own idea of what dignity means to them) after having lived a useful and productive life, having left the world a better place because of your living has got to be the better way to go.

I do not think those who help a family member to end their life should be prosecuted....as long as it can be shown that the person they helped had expressed the wish to die..... a living will.

[heth]

Yes that is a must, the patient has to make the decission and the family go to support nothing else.

It showed last night that the person wanting to pass away had to have 2 in depth meetings with a doctor. One when they arrived and the 2nd one 24hrs later to make sure it is what they wanted.

When they are then taken to the appartment were it happens they were again asked on numerous occassions that they were sure that they wanted to go through with it. The nurse even said you will get fed-up of me asking but I want to make sure this is what you want.

[shillelagh]

i couldnt watch it ....

[Margaret Pilkington]

Jen, It isn't something that everyone could watch...or for that matter, should watch.

[heth]

Originally Posted by shillelagh

i couldnt watch it ....

I were a bit like that when I realised what it were but like I have said above it were like a horror film when it scares you but you just cant help but peek!
Thats just me anyway and I am glad that I did watch it but I understand that it's not everyones cup of tea.

[garinda]

We should have similar clinics to the Swiss in this country.

If I begin reading a book that's no good, I don't waste time reading to the end.

If a film in the cinema is pants, I'll up and leave before the lights go up again.

I'm forty six, and have a degenerative illness, for which there's no cure.

If I'm expected to spend my fifties sat in Spring Hill nursing home, slumped in front of day time telly, with baby food slopped down my front, they can sod off.

I'll be phoning Heidi Airways, and booking a one way ticket to the land of the Toblerone, and holey cheese.

I'm not being defeatist. I'm hopeful there'll be a cure for Parkinson's in my life time.

If there isn't, I'll do what I've always done in my life...exactly what 'I' wanted.

My choice.

My informed, rational choice.

'Mine'.

[heth]

I have just remembered from last nights programme aswell that the manager of the clinic informed us that there is approx 21% of their clients dont have a illness but want to die as they are "weary of life".

This bit did upset me, and part of me doesnt agree with it.