DMB
08 Mar 2009, 10:58 AM
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5864857.ece
Tuson was terminally ill with a rare malignancy in the stomach. A firm believer in euthanasia, she had wanted a quick death by a lethal dose of barbiturates, but her doctors were forced to refuse.
Her decision to refuse food and drink initially horrified her family but they came round to the idea when they saw how distraught she became after being told she would have to wait a month for an appointment to die at a Swiss clinic...
...“Her body mass reduced, her face became drawn, her skin very dry and, of course, the mouth very dry. She was dying of thirst; it was like being in the desert.
“I feel my mother was tortured until she died. She had been asking since June for doctors to end her life, every time one came into the room.”
I am really pissed off that people should be driven to die in this way when we would put a dog out of its misery with a lethal injection.
Here is a news item on a couple who managed to get to Switzerland and have a peaceful death together.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/03/07/prince.charles.assisted.suicide/index.html
Note, however, this bit:
Phyllis Bowman, executive director of Right to Life, which opposes euthanasia, also said the Duffs' case was sad.
"I think it's very sad, particularly as they could have gone together into a hospice. A hospice with cancer -- there is not uncontrollable pain," Bowman told CNN. "I think that with the euthanasia lobby, they feed on despair and they encourage despair rather than hope."
How does this cow know that pain is not uncontrollable in a hospice? From what I have read, pain control fails with something like 10% of people. In any case, there is more to distress people about long-drawn-out dying than just pain. I think the name of this woman's organisation, Right to Life, is deeply ironic. It really means No Right to Die When You Want.
I think the hospice movement is great, but it should not be used to deny choice to people who want euthanasia.
Tuson was terminally ill with a rare malignancy in the stomach. A firm believer in euthanasia, she had wanted a quick death by a lethal dose of barbiturates, but her doctors were forced to refuse.
Her decision to refuse food and drink initially horrified her family but they came round to the idea when they saw how distraught she became after being told she would have to wait a month for an appointment to die at a Swiss clinic...
...“Her body mass reduced, her face became drawn, her skin very dry and, of course, the mouth very dry. She was dying of thirst; it was like being in the desert.
“I feel my mother was tortured until she died. She had been asking since June for doctors to end her life, every time one came into the room.”
I am really pissed off that people should be driven to die in this way when we would put a dog out of its misery with a lethal injection.
Here is a news item on a couple who managed to get to Switzerland and have a peaceful death together.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/03/07/prince.charles.assisted.suicide/index.html
Note, however, this bit:
Phyllis Bowman, executive director of Right to Life, which opposes euthanasia, also said the Duffs' case was sad.
"I think it's very sad, particularly as they could have gone together into a hospice. A hospice with cancer -- there is not uncontrollable pain," Bowman told CNN. "I think that with the euthanasia lobby, they feed on despair and they encourage despair rather than hope."
How does this cow know that pain is not uncontrollable in a hospice? From what I have read, pain control fails with something like 10% of people. In any case, there is more to distress people about long-drawn-out dying than just pain. I think the name of this woman's organisation, Right to Life, is deeply ironic. It really means No Right to Die When You Want.
I think the hospice movement is great, but it should not be used to deny choice to people who want euthanasia.