Dignitas

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

I was pleased to read that the parents of Daniel James will not be prosecuted with respect to his trip to Switzerland.

Coincidentally I watched a programme last night about a guy with motor neurone disease who travelled to Zurich to die. The whole thing was filmed over the preceding months up to and including his passing away.

I had always assumed it was in a proper clinic but they do it in a fairly modest flat. They (the dignitas folk) video the procedings to prove there was no coercion then call the police who come, look at the paperwork, interview the helpers and the relatives. The police bit wasn't filmed.

 

[Dixie]

I am a firm believer in the right to choose when to die. It follows therefrom that I need also to support the right of that person to obtain assistance in meeting his or her objective. I have several friends who are disabled in various degrees, and those who have degenerative diseases fear reaching the point when they can no longer act for themselves. The current state of the law would force those of them that wish to die with dignity to commit suicide earlier than necessary, in order to prevent their families having to choose between illegal action and watching my friends suffering in ways they know they never wished to endure.

I welcome the debate, and the screening of the programme in order to give that debate wider currency.

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

I have no experience of degenerative disease or severe disability however I was shocked by the progression of the motor neurone disease - first falling over to suicide = 6 months!

By the time of his death the poor man needed his wife to hold his hand while he signed the forms, drank his medicine through a straw and flicked the switch of his ventilator timer with his teeth.

With our increasingly aged population and the issue forcing it's way into the media again ref Margot McDonald the debate will not go away.

 

[chopper15]

It would give me great comfort to know that should I ever want help to end my life I could lawfully get it.

What I find extremely difficult to understand is why the driving christian forces in this country refuse to recognise this need with their irritatingly complacent reasons.

 

[Dixie]

What I find extremely difficult to understand is why the driving christian forces in this country refuse to recognise this need with their irritatingly complacent reasons.

Chopper, Christianity (IIUC) considers suicide to be a sin, in that the individual is usurping the role of God in deciding when their time is up. It's not so long since suicides could not be buried on consecrated ground.

I am interested in your view that there ARE driving Christian forces in this country. As I read the situation, religious considerations have been more and more marginalised in legislative thinking and processes over many decades. Civil partnerships for gay people, equal rights legislation etc all butt up against a fundamentalist approach to many reliegions, yet the religious objection has been overruled in favour of the non-religious majority.

 

[Mat 04]

Until not so long ago, suicide was a criminal offence. If you survived you could be charged.

 

[chopper15]

Chopper, Christianity (IIUC) considers suicide to be a sin, in that the individual is usurping the role of God in deciding when their time is up. It's not so long since suicides could not be buried on consecrated ground.

I am interested in your view that there ARE driving Christian forces in this country. As I read the situation, religious considerations have been more and more marginalised in legislative thinking and processes over many decades. Civil partnerships for gay people, equal rights legislation etc all butt up against a fundamentalist approach to many reliegions, yet the religious objection has been overruled in favour of the non-religious majority.

Let us pray that one day 'they' will finally interpret their 'laws' of religion to make the game worthwhile for us all, Dixie.

 

[SimonSmith]

Somebody please close the thread.

I've agreed with Chopper twice in two months. :biggrin::wink:

 

[Phil E]

Somebody please close the thread.

I've agreed with Chopper twice in two months. :biggrin::wink:

Three strikes and "YER OUT"! :nono: