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Friday 17 May 2013

The right to decide?

I am not going to develop this idea into a long monologue of ideas and thoughts, just to note down, and state that 24  hours ago, I was asked, by someone close to me, that if they wanted to decide to die, would I help them..

I sat  back and thought very deeply about this question. A question that is not asked in the cold light of day usually,but being asked to say whether I would assist because that someone's suffering  they cannot bear to go on for a moment longer..

So this question was hyperthetical..[ I think that is the word.]. .....an ask, that required an answer that the person asking could depend on it happening, should the time come.

I do believe that we are all put on this earth to achieve something, that sometimes life decides a different road, but mainly that we are here to reproduce ourselves and continue the immortality that we feel we are entitled to.

That taking a life is such a terrible and worrying thing to do...

However, when we see an animal is in deep distress through old age or accident, we  do reserve the right to assist them in their journey out of this life however upsetting that might be, and it can be absolutely awful to lose a domestic animal that you have grown to love..

When I see older people suffering with Parkinson's, or Dementia or MS or any other awful illness that will make them die in a horrible way.. I ask myself what right do we have to make them live on until they are totally worn out and die naturally, instead of helping them achieve a peaceful and dignified exit of this world?  To be just sitting in a chair, or lying in a bed shaking with illness, or crying out loud because you have lost words, or weeping because you cannot remember anything.. how is it right to be just waiting for death to come and claim us..

Approaching old age very fast, these thoughts are more and more on my mind. There have been several cases taken to the High Court in London, where the patient asks for the right to decide when they die, and that if their family or carer assisted them, they would not be punished...

 Up to now, the courts have decided to deny these people their rights to die in a manner of their own choosing.. How is this democracy, if that person has the deepest right taken away from them>?

Of course it is true that every case is individual, but I'm sure that anyone in a dire situation, that has no quality of life, that is screaming inside for it all to end, that their bodies a shell and not able to move,  do have the right to decide their own exit.


I would not be able to find it easy to make a decision to assist anyone who asked me to aid them in committing suicide, but I would find it also very hard, not to agree to their wishes, and if this meant that the Law would choose to punish me, I think I would stand firm on my rights as an individual to help a fellow human achieve a peaceful and dignified way to die...

What about all my blog fellows out there, do you think we should reserve the right to help another person take control and decide when they wish to leave this life?

It is a very deep question, but maybe after you have examined your conscience you will find as I did, that helping someone to retain their dignity and human characteristics,might overrule what the law of the country actually allows at the moment..

Of course I trust that I will never be placed in that situation, but I rather surprised myself in hearing myself agree to aid if the situation warranted it..

3 comments:

  1. I would if they had a medical condition which would assist them while they were in pain for something incurable. Just like you said, we assist animals, we should people. Not just depression or something curable, but the disease you mentioned, yes I would in a heart beat.

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  2. bless you jolene, truly felt, and today we have several senior doctors trying to pass a law allowing seriously ill patients with short life expectation to be able to make this choice.. don't know if it will pass, but a lot of people do think and feel like us.. have a great weekend, janzi

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  3. I believe we should have the right to choose if we no longer have a quality if life that we could end it, without any backlash on a person assisting them. Like you, I feel that under certain circumstances I would find it very difficult to refuse.

    (I was thinking of you last Sunday as I drove through Sawley on my way home.)
    Best wishes
    Rose H
    x

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