Should Mercy Killings and Assisted Suicide be made legal in the UK.

[Larry]

There have been a number of cases in the papers in the last few weeks about this I read in The Daily Mail the other day about a dedicated and loving mother who had been arrested on suspicion of murder for the mercy killing of her terminaly ill daughter who suffered from ME and for the last 15 years had been confined to bed and could only only move one finger.



for the last few days I have been going uo to my local hospital to watch my father slowly die, he has very bad vascular Dementia, is bed ridden , and is in constant pain. Because he has stopped eating and drinking he has become malnorished and is now beeing giving supplements through a drip. I can't begin to describe what it is like to watch a man who was able to do so much end his life like this . As much as We love him and want him to go on we also want him to be free of his suffering and to just pass away and save him any more pain.

This is why I am 100% in favour of mercy killings or assisted suicide -

I was listening to a program on Radio 4, last night on this subject and the attitude of one of these pro-life people they had on really angred me.
This woman was having a go at another woman who had i think assisted her father to die asking her if some one with depression asked you to help them die would you help them. To make a comparison like that was unbelievably stupid.

People who have made the choice to die or a parent who has killed their terminaly ill son/daughter have shown tremendous courage and bravery in making that decision. My personal feeling are unless you have had to look after or watch a loved one slowly die of a terminal illness or be completely paralised by it then you have no right to judge or question weather mercy killings/assisted suicide is wright or wrong.

[WhiteCrow]

I voted YES.

However I really believe it needs to be tightly controlled if it was done.

Currently we have this system where people are just going abroad to do it. That's just looking the other way while it happens anyway. It's no way to go about it.

It reminds me how Ireland used to (I don't know about now) ban abortions. However what used to happen is anyone who needed an abortion would visit the UK or similar and get it done there. I don't agree with abortion personally, and I don't believe in suicide for just anyone. But the idea that it will happen anyway, and lets turn a blind eye and pretend otherwise seems no way to run a country.

Yes you can take a moral high ground. But at the cost of making someones final moments just so much more difficult. Though I would hate and despise the thought of suicide being "made easy" for anyone.

[NorthernStar]

Yes. But only under the strictest guidelines and after the agreement of at least 2 doctors, and a phyciatrist, that it is in the best interests of the patient.

And never for broadcast on TV.

[WhiteCrow]

I'm close to changing my position on this.

I think what scares me is the idea that it costs money to keep someone who is severely disabled or terminally ill. It costs very little to kill them. Will NHS Trusts really only use this as a last recourse? You know this should be a last option, and someone who makes this decision needs councelling to make sure it's the correct decision.

Is that really what's going to happen? Or is it going to be an easy way to get people with expensive care "off the list". It's a scarey thought and why I've second thoughts about it.

Contrary to popular opinion, "mercy killings" have been available on the NHS for years ...