DYING WITH DIGNITY

In a Stuff opinion piece  posted online last week, Sian Chapman added her voice to the lobby pushing for legislative change to allow people the right to choose how and when they die.

She began with the question, “Have you ever really watched someone die?” This was followed by a graphic description of her father’s long battle and painful death.

More than 60% of the 157 responses posted at time of writing this column, favour her viewpoint based on three main influencing factors; the right to choose, the inhumaneness of ‘forcing’ people to endure unrelieved pain, and sympathy for those watching another person dying in pain.

15 of the respondents wrote, “My body (or my life), my choice,” while another 41 expressed the same view with more words.  53 people included in their responses variations on the theme, “They shoot horses, don’t they?” And, even amongst those who were against euthanasia, 81% expressed sympathy and empathy for those affected by the painful deaths of loved family and friends. 

I can only give my views on assisted dying based on my experiences, hopes and practices.

With regard to the question Ms Chapman opened with, I have sat with hundreds of people and watched them really die in many ways and from many causes.

With regard to the viewpoint of “my life, my choice,” I did not give myself this life or this body, and many of the functions attendant upon it are totally involuntary and independent of my will. I do not claim the right to take this life away from this body.

With regard to the inference that euthanasia equates to assisted dying; in my opinion, euthanasia is no more than assisted suicide.

I have assisted at a number of deaths, and I will do so again. Not by providing the one doing the dying with the choice of euthanasia to shorten their life, but instead by providing them with the means to manage their pain while retaining a high degree of lucidity until their life ends.  Both here and internationally, experts agree that several currently illegal drugs can provide better pain management and lucidity than the legal drugs presently used in end of life treatment.  

Ms Chapman concluded her article with the observation, “The end my father experienced is not one we would put upon our worst criminals or our most sick animals.” 

I conclude my column with the observation that one of the hallmarks of a civilised society is how we treat our weakest members at their most vulnerable.   

 

Yes, we do euthanase animals in this country, and in other countries criminals are executed.  But, for all the reasons above, we don’t treat our dying the same way. 

Instead of legalising the right for me to choose euthanasia as an end of life option, legalise my right to choose and access the palliative use, under proper medical supervision, of currently illegal drugs to assist my dying with dignity.