while my friends beat back the health and safety chaps and the oil rig supply boat crews curse the cost of delay

possibly making a profound impression on some young laddie standing by the south breakwater who resolves to manage it all a little bit better than i did

(well i can dream; like my grandmother it will doubtless be a degenerative matter, gibbering in some psychogeriatric ward, barely aware it's the 21st century)

have recently nursed their dying parents through gradual deteriation, the water and morphine only stage and final humiliating painful death. There HAS to be another way. I want a choice, no chance of recovery and agreed by two Doctors I'll take an injection and long peaceful sleep over agony, loss of dignity and the chance that one of my children has to wipe my arse. Where do I sign?

Some people do undoubtedly suffer painful, undignified and traumatic deaths, but what that makes me think is that we should be better at end-of-life care, not that we should be ending lives artificially.
With proper management of pain, personal care and the other symptoms of a body gradually ceasing to function, the whole process can be made much more dignified and bearable for all involved. The hospice movement has shown what a difference this can make to cancer sufferers. Admittedly conditions such as Alzheimer's raise further problems, but I think the principle still holds.
This isn't an area for black-and-white, right-or-wrong judgements, but I just think it's very dangerous territory to get into once we start saying it's ok for people's lives to be ended, even if it is with their consent.

OPPONENTS OF ASSISTED SUICIDE STILL CONVINCED IT'S ANY OF THEIR BUSINESS

PEOPLE who are opposed to assisted suicide are still absolutely convinced that it is any of their business, according to a new survey.

A BBC opinion poll found that of those who are against voluntary euthanasia, more than half are 'fairly' or 'reasonably' sure they need to have an ill-informed opinion about the inner-most recesses of someone else's soul.

Meanwhile almost a third continue to believe it is more their business than the person who is actually trying to kill themselves.

The poll asked, 'Someone you don't know with a horrible disease wants a close friend or relative to help them end their lives - what the fuck has it got to do with you?'.

According to the survey 22% said 'a bit the fuck to do with me', 46% said 'a lot the fuck to do with me' and the remaining 32% said that absolutely everything was their business all the time.

The survey is part of a Panorama special on people who have been charged with the murder of a relative after the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to listen to a single word they were saying.

Professor Henry Brubaker, of the Institute for Studies, said: "While there is always the risk of someone using it as a cover for actual homicide, in the vast majority of cases it really is none of your business, so just shut up.

"Meanwhile if the police suspect foul play there is nothing to stop them launching a full investigation, thus giving Midsomer Murders that glorious whiff of authenticity."

Terminal illness sufferer Julian Cook, from Grantham, added: "If they're so sure that the number of days I choose to be alive has got something to do with them then perhaps they could give my wife the afternoon off and help me wipe my bum while telling me lots of fascinating things about Jesus."

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/opponents-of-assisted-suicide-still-convinced-it's-any-of-their-business-201002012428/

On the news last night, the Catholic church were demanding the right to be free, from what they saw as oppressive ideas/legislation being imposed on them from outside their particular religion. To whit, the idea of equality. Well, that's ok by me, if they and all the other religious communities in turn, would sod off and leave me alone with the right to be free as well and end my life with some modicum of dignity should I choose to do so.

Like some of the other readers, I too, watched my mother die from cancer and it is a truly horrible thing to see and endure. Enough of the wishy-washy liberal hand-wringing and interference from the religious do gooders. Let's have some honesty and humanity please.

.....I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather. Not screaming and terrified like his passengers.

Parkinsons Disease took an inevitable and insidious grip on this active, sports playing, energetic, well travelled man. The medication kept it reasonably mild for far longer than was predicted but it just doesn't stop. His coordination became a bit odd and he had a few trips and stumbles. And then the stumbles dropped the "s" and became tumbles. And then forgetfulness set in. And the forgetfulness became weird confusions. We had to tell him to stop driving, thus taking away much of his independence. Meantime, this proud man was trying to care for my mum, who was dying from cancer, and after she went he really wanted to carry on in his own house. He couldn't cope - he'd go to the shops, forget where he was and get lost until someone recognised him and took him home. Despite the support his 3 working sons tried to put around him, we had to do what I promised my mum before she died that I wouldn't do: we put him in a home. And they were great but still this WW2 veteran (to whom the government gave £82 per week to cover his £800+ a week expenses) had the indignity of having his bum wiped for him by a stranger while his body deteriorated so he needed a wheelchair. And he was mentally wrecked, barely able to speak.

Eventually, he had a stroke and we gave the hospital an instruction to alleviate pain but offer no further treatment. They figured he'd die with 2 or 3 days but it took him over 9 days. Gasping for breath, apparently unconscious - who knows - and everyone waiting for the inevitable.

Yup, there has to be a better way.

...I am a student nurse currently placed on a medical ward full of older people who cannot be too far away from death. Most of them cannot do the things we take for granted; cleaning themselves, feeding themselves, things like that. Some are barely aware of their surroundings. My first impression when I saw these people was that I never want to be like that. As selfish as this thought is, I think it is a question that should be in the public domain, and one that will need to be answered quite quickly given the growing numbers of the 80+ generation.

My thoughts keep returning to Michael Caine's self-demise in Children of Men.