Most Australian states have voluntary assisted suicide but it is very tightly regulated and the time frame is quite short, that you have to be diagnosed as having only months to live. And in Victoria, you have to administer the dose yourself which is central to the notion of it being a voluntary action. I am totally in favour of this and would use it myself if I found myself in that position.
I think that the word ‘voluntary’ is the key issue and absolutely essential in maintaining social integrity. We will never know how many elderly people and not just those with dementia have been quietly dispatched because it was no fun caring for an aged or ill person, or the temptation of an inheritance was too hard to resist.
My ex husband who had dementia but was dying from cancer, refused to believe that he was dying and my OH, now going slowly downhill on the dementia path, but also struggling with chronic heart failure and a leaking valve refuses also to believe that he could die quite soon. He is deciding whether he will continue to play bridge next year!
Who has the right to judge whether someone should live or die? And would I want to be the person who makes that decision? No. And I think that we have a responsibility to protect those people from these sort of actions. They are not pet dogs or cats that we have a certain and different responsibility to care for. How often do we hear people talk about putting a person into care because they want them to be safe? Then talk about euthanasia.
Can you imagine how hard it would be to get anyone, not just those with dementia to go into a care home.?
I think that the word ‘voluntary’ is the key issue and absolutely essential in maintaining social integrity. We will never know how many elderly people and not just those with dementia have been quietly dispatched because it was no fun caring for an aged or ill person, or the temptation of an inheritance was too hard to resist.
My ex husband who had dementia but was dying from cancer, refused to believe that he was dying and my OH, now going slowly downhill on the dementia path, but also struggling with chronic heart failure and a leaking valve refuses also to believe that he could die quite soon. He is deciding whether he will continue to play bridge next year!
Who has the right to judge whether someone should live or die? And would I want to be the person who makes that decision? No. And I think that we have a responsibility to protect those people from these sort of actions. They are not pet dogs or cats that we have a certain and different responsibility to care for. How often do we hear people talk about putting a person into care because they want them to be safe? Then talk about euthanasia.
Can you imagine how hard it would be to get anyone, not just those with dementia to go into a care home.?