How to Die: Simon's Choice

[MentalSarcasm]

S11Steve said:

What I did have issue with was the fact that he made the call very early on, and picked a date months in advance. I almost felt that he willed himself downhill to meet that date, rather than maybe work with the medical teams to prolong the life he had until it became intolerable.

Two things that I felt I needed to point out here, only because I didn't watch the programme and therefore I don't know if they addressed them;

1. MND patients can go down hill extremely rapidly. Once you get to a point where your chest muscles can no longer help your lungs inhale and exhale properly, you are effectively drowning on your own carbon dioxide. But this means that you can be hooked up to a respirator so the job is done for you, but it can extend your life for weeks beyond what you might otherwise want. Where do you draw the line at "unbearable"? There's also the problem that airlines may refuse to take you if you require specific medical facilities on board, in which case you HAVE to make the journey before you become too ill.

2. Dignitas requires people who utilise it's facilities to be fully aware of their surroundings and what they are doing, it's part of the legislation that allows them to do what they want to do. The problem with MND is that speech becomes incredibly difficult, not just moving your mouth but also utilising vocal chords (a lot of male MND sufferers end up with slightly high-pitched voices as a result). If you get to this stage quickly then it may mean that Dignitas refuses to help you, as they cannot go through the process with the degree of certainty that they require. How can you properly interview someone who has no voice. There are computers that can help (such as the one Stephen Hawking uses) but these are expensive, not available to all patients, and extremely slow to actually write/spell out anything meaningful.

I highly recommend that you Google "Debbie Purdy" who made headline news a few years ago by going to court to have the law on assisted suicide in this country clarified. She stated several times that if her husband was going to be prosecuted for helping her go to Switzerland then she would go while she was still able to travel without assistance (she had Multiple Sclerosis rather than MND). It can be difficult for people to work out when this point will be, especially for illnesses that can have different prognoses which depend entirely on the patient, the care they receive and the specific type of a particular illness that they may have. If your greatest fear is that you will miss your chance, then you will decide to make your choice earlier than you would otherwise have liked.

[Pickled Piper]

Mojooo said:

johnxjsc1985 said:

The one thing that truly angered me was the Woman calmly explaining how they might or might not prosecute people as if she was discussing a parking ticket and as others have said you would be done for cruelty if you kept an animal alive in circumstances where it couldn't function as an animal

TBF they have obviously interviewed the woman from the CPS and asked her a legal quetsio nto which she has provided a very generic answer.

I think the chances of anyone being prosecuted for what happened on the show are very slim - as she alluded to.

Indeed, she was making a point of law.

[drivin_me_nuts]

I only half listened to this program from another room - I cannot watch such life accounts as its too close.

What I do think on the subject of assisted suicide is that we need in this country to have a mechanism in place to end the life of someone who no longer wants to live. I've stood on the other side and watched someone go through acute physical degeneration and I've come within a breath of what would have been manslaughter charges.

We have to find a way to address this subject head on and eyes wide open.

For those who are dying and want an alternative to something utterly disempowering, demand an alternative to the suffering they will go through.

[CrutyRammers]

ash73 said:

Watched the programme tonight and thought it was very moving. Struck me he had a good innings, and MND doesn't hang about; he would have been gone in just a few months anyhow. Perhaps it would have been kinder to his wife and family to see it through to the end.

It's highly variable. Hawkin is the obvious example. It can be years of relying on loved ones to do every thing, and I assure you there's nothing kind about that.