Assisted Dying Bill: MPs start ‘right to die’ debate – BBC News

Last Updated: September 11, 2015By

What do we think of assisted dying?

This Writer is in two minds.

On one hand, we have the arguments of (among others) the very-recently deceased author Terry Pratchett, that it is important to allow people with terminal conditions to die with dignity.

On the other, we have an extremely irresponsible government that, in This Writer’s opinion, would welcome abuses of any assisted dying regime because they would reduce the benefit bill. Look at the current controversy over the deaths of people on Incapacity Benefit.

MPs are discussing the issue today (September 11).

MPs are debating whether some terminally ill adults in England and Wales should be allowed to end their lives with medical supervision.

Under proposals, people with less than six months to live could be prescribed a lethal dose of drugs, which only they are allowed to take.

It could lead to the first vote in the House of Commons on the issue in nearly 20 years.

Source: Assisted Dying Bill: MPs start ‘right to die’ debate – BBC News

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18 Comments

  1. AndyH September 11, 2015 at 10:28 am - Reply

    As always the government is more keen on helping disabled people kill themselves, than help them live.

  2. Rachel Gladwin September 11, 2015 at 10:38 am - Reply

    6 months is a very unreliable prognosis. It will degrade medicine and the. doctor/ patient relationship.

  3. Nick September 11, 2015 at 10:38 am - Reply

    IDS will be all in favor of this to save money and i believe it will pass but i hope i’m wrong

    my wife works in end of life care in a nursing home and both those she looks after and the relatives always remark how wonderful she and her team are and for me personally a good care team can and does make a difference

    • chris September 11, 2015 at 1:07 pm - Reply

      its a private members bill so its unlikely it will pass

  4. Ruby September 11, 2015 at 10:45 am - Reply

    I was in favour of assisted dying until this year. After seeing the downright cruelty of this government and the lying and twisted way they make policy, I do not trust that this law would not leave their policies open to ‘mission creep’. I too fear people will be pushed to taking their own lives. We must not give even one more excuse to IDS to extend his persecution.

    I have also changed my mind about coming out of the EU. We need all the help we can get, by EU and UN laws. I fear without them the Tories will never face a reckoning.

    I am looking forward to debating all these subjects at Uni and looking to find out how I can play an active part in making people aware of the situations more and more vulnerable people are faced with.

    • Mike Sivier September 11, 2015 at 10:49 am - Reply

      Word of mouth, and publicising articles like those on this site via the social media, are good ways to start (if you’re not doing so already).

      • Rachel Gladwin September 11, 2015 at 11:14 am - Reply

        Note Nadine Dorries comments “it is not a peaceful death, its a painful and barbaric death”.

        That is from a Tory who,thankfully has a caring, nursing, background.

        A nice, rebellious, Tory,thank god, give her more publicity

        • Mike Sivier September 13, 2015 at 1:01 pm - Reply

          Seriously? She’s a publicity-seeking harridan already – she doesn’t need more of it.
          If she was doing her job properly on this occasion, I’d be trying to find out what’s in it for her.

  5. jeffrey davies September 11, 2015 at 10:54 am - Reply

    im watching them now but sadly if this bill passes I hope not then rtu ids would be the first to see how much more he can do to cull the stock further jeff3

  6. Jim September 11, 2015 at 11:46 am - Reply

    For myself I would welcome such right.

    However having read stories about individuals and families trying to persuade or bully sick or elderly people into taking their own lives (often so that they could inherit), and people temporarily losing their grip on their own sanity and wanting to die (because they were or had been upset rather than because of pain or illness), and medical professionals (like murderous Dr Harold Shipman) encouraging people to leave money/property to them in their wills before poisoning them to inherit immediately rather than waiting for them to pass away naturally… and so on and so forth… I’m kind of concerned that such a “right” may end up abused unless the people exercising that right are of sound mind, have genuinely chosen to end their lives and fully understand what they are doing.

    In reality medical doctors euthanise the very ill and dying suffering all the while, in hospitals and at home, either by increasing pain medications to fatal toxic levels or ordering that essential care, e.g., nourishment and drink, be stopped.

    You are correct: This is a very difficult issue.

    I always imagined I would be completely rational about life and death and yet when my elderly father ended up almost certainly brain dead on a respirator, when I was advised to give permission to turn off the machine I found I couldn’t.

    We never really know ourselves until we are tested.

    As the Americans say: Go figure.

  7. Johnny van Rijbroek September 11, 2015 at 12:04 pm - Reply

    Eugenics proponents come flooding to the fore with the election of an extreme right government and this was very noticeable when they came out from under their stones in 2010 and the debate became ‘live’ again… assisted dying is part of the eugenics debate and many argue that it is an incremental step along a sinister path to a very nasty place.
    It is very difficult to acknowledge the legitimate right of a person to die in a manner of their choosing, often in heartbreaking circumstances, if at the same time it enshrines in law a legislation that can be manipulated and amended for ‘other’ purposes at a later date.

  8. Bookworm September 11, 2015 at 12:48 pm - Reply

    I used to work as an auxilary nurse in private nursing homes and used to think it would be kinder to have assisted dying, however since the govts war on the disabled I feel they can never be trusted with anything to do with this. They only value money not people and it would be cost effective to kill people rather than provide good nursing care.

    • James Kemp September 11, 2015 at 7:11 pm - Reply

      To all the people who say I have no rights to die then you agree then I am a slave to your views rather than free to decided when and if I can die if I wish to end my suffering if and see that last word there IF I am terminal.

      I have see to much painful and bad deaths to believe a single persons sorry I am shaking with anger here after seeing sanctimonious MPs craven lies in parliament today about good nursling for the dying they must be talking about another country. because let me warn you when and if your terminal a doctors interest in that person is zero or very limited to whack them up with minimal levels of morphine sorry not enough to really keep you peaceful that in legal language hastens death due to messing with breathing. Nursing there to busy with the other 8-12 people on that ward to worry about if you have soiled your self or have you drunk any water..

      You will be shoved into and out of hospital hopefully not left on a trolley maybe on a overclouded ward but because your terminal your at the bottom of the care cue. Oh you think your die in your home in your bed bet you no, there is no care available oh yes maybe 15 minuets hope you can afford to fund your own care! So still think it’s a good death? I hate to be so negative but this is the truth of death in the UK for terminal people this is a not compassion or choice.

      • Mike Sivier September 13, 2015 at 12:10 am - Reply

        So you’d rather open the door to the ‘assisted dying’ of people on incapacity benefits who might otherwise live for many years at the state’s expense, or the ‘assisted dying’ of people whose heirs want to inherit sooner, rather than later?

  9. mrmarcpc September 11, 2015 at 3:53 pm - Reply

    It didn’t pass, like there was any doubt that it wouldn’t!

  10. Thomas September 11, 2015 at 4:10 pm - Reply

    The plusses of assisted dying-if for example, someone is paralysed from the neck down, cannot be healed, and want to die, in that case it would be a good thing.

    Unfortunately, with this government in power, voluntary euthanasia would quickly become compulsory euthanasia, not just of those who are seriously physically ill, but of the mentally ill as well.

  11. Michael Broadhurst September 11, 2015 at 4:52 pm - Reply

    we already have assisted dying,its called government benefit cuts !!

  12. baronesslewis September 11, 2015 at 9:04 pm - Reply

    The clue is in the name. Who is this Bill going to help.? Why it’s the person who assists of course. It’s not illegal to die or commit suicide but it is illegal to assist !!

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