Positive Action Group - Possan Jantys Jarrooagh

I agree that the opposing speaker spent far too much time relying on what were very weak references - essentially the bible and 1930's Nazi doctrines - rather than the serious matters that Odone raises in this booklet.

However I felt that the Dignity in Dying speaker did concern herself with these issues and spoke of checks and balances to ensure that this situation did not arise.

I feel it is the politicians who need to make a life-choice more attractive to the 'poor and socially marginalised'. They require better care services but this seems way too complicated for our politicians to want to deal with, with highly critical reports gathering dust.

I wouldn't want what seems little more than a living death in some of the private nursing homes taking on patients leaving the NHS.

Of course that requires far more work than a blanket ban denying us all, whatever our religious and moral views, the right to not have a painful long death.

If a religious group such as Mr. Murcott's wish to have their own rules based on that most peculiar source of 'moral' values, they may choose to do so but do not force the rest of us to follow the same through enshrining it in our law.

It will never stop suicide, but it will force people to take the matter into their own hands with clumsy and disastrous results.

Healthcare Professionals for Change believes that healthcare professionals have a duty of care to their patients, which informs our belief that people should not have to suffer against their wishes at the end of life. Alongside access to good quality end-of-life care and the right to refuse medical treatment, we believe that terminally ill, mentally competent adults should have the choice of an assisted death, subject to safeguards
www.healthcareprofessionalsforchange.org.uk/

If you say “I am opposed to assisted dying” then automatically you are FOR the alternative being practiced today; are you fully aware of what this entails?? Old people, drugged into passiveness, sitting for hours in their own excrement, watching a never ending TV screen in temperatures screwed up high (the old folks feel the cold), being fed, dressed, washed, cleaned at regular intervals all at huge expense and to what end?? I feel sorry for them, the personnel who have to do this degrading job, the stink, mess and the hopelessness of it all.

In keeping the status quo you are also supporting the existing suicide rate which I believe for the UK is currently around 8000 per year (that’s about 1 every hour on a 24 hour clock). These are the known successful suicides with about a 10 to 1 rate for attempted suicides. These often result in injuries which are permanent, condemning the person to a worse quality of life stretching into an often unwanted future.