If we all strive for more freedom in our lives, if we have the right choose our own jobs, our own way of living, may we not decide whether we want to live or not?
Photo from dailyrecord.co.uk
Euthanasia has been the cause of many debates worldwide. When we kill animals we do it fast to stop them from experiencing unnecessary pain. Do those animals want to die? Maybe so, their living conditions aren’t very good when humans put them in small cages. Animals can’t communicate with us, they can’t tell us if they agree. Would we let them live if they’d disagree? Maybe, if they could communicate, we might consider them equal to us, and we wouldn’t kill them. How can we be sure animals experience any pain at all? It is impossible, but we expect them to, it would be rather strange if they didn’t.
Tony Nicklinson was no animal. He was paralysed in 2005, and could only communicate with his eyes. Did he suffer from pain? Yes, he said his life had become a ‘nightmare’. Did he want to die? Yes, he lost many cases fighting for his right-to-die. Could he communicate, could he tell us he didn’t want to live anymore? Yes, he could and he did. Did we kill him, did we let him die without experiencing unnecessary pain? No.
Why didn’t we? Becauce the law says so? Is that a valid reason when someone has to live 7 years, paralysed? A healthy person who wants to die has many ways to do this. Tony didn’t, you can hardly kill yourself with your eyes. Doctors couldn’t because they would be murderers. His living conditions were worse than the animals we kill for food, living in small cages. If his living conditions are inhumane, does the law still apply to him?
After Tony lost a case in the High Court, he stopped eating, which was his death’s cause. It was his only option left. How could he enjoy living a life he didn’t want? How can you enjoy living if you’re forced to?
What is your opinion on the subject?
Moment Matters 
This is a very touchy subject and the debate between the pros on the one side and the politicos and religious camps on the other side will be waged for ages to come.
Excellent post.
Personally, I think we should be able to make that decision. If we are “right of mind” it should be our decision to live or die. But hey, who am I to say? I’m only a woman who is considered livestock and have no rights to my own body because of “laws”. But then again, if I am considered “livestock” shouldn’t I be able to decide whether I live or die? Yeah, I’m sure the politicians would have a field day with that one!
Over 2000 people are starved to death in institutional setting annually in Canada. You do the math. It’s an everyday occurrence. Starvation is a hideous death. We wouldn’t let an animal suffer in such an agonising manner. It’s shameful. We must see its end.
We need to be having this discussion. It can’t be put off to grandstanding and theatrics any longer. There will be protocols and safeguards in place. No one will be forced to do anything.
One’s worldview must not supersede another’s. If your faith precludes you from making such decisions so be it. But, for those that would exercise this right it must be made so.
People like Robert Latimer need our help. They need legislation and they need it yesterday.
I believe Mr. Latimer. He’s the real deal. The genuine article. I support him and people like him. They need our help.
Rex Murphy on Robert Latimer. I stand firmly with Rex on this.
Thanks a bunch for giving me an opportunity to express my views, Moment Matters. 😊
Hope you had a great day! 💋
I personally think that each person has the right to decide whatever it is that he wants for himself. So if this man wants to end his life because of a painful experience then he could do so but he must also understand that no one would want to become a contributor of death. The people around him can only make his life less harder, like the role of the doctors and nurses. Although it’s quite inhumane to see him suffer but death alone isn’t decided by anyone and not even by himself.
A great post! Well, I believe such practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering should be allowed… when even the sufferers do not want to live , who are we to force them to!
Thanks for the post. I believe we should have the option to choose how we live and die, just as we have the option to choose whether we believe in a specific worldview or not. It’s always despairing to hear the more vocal / politically powerful folks imposing their worldview on others.
Also, thanks for dropping by my blog earlier!
So pathetic a story. Oh! No body can go against what is an immanent will.
I’ve always felt it’s my life and would be my decision if I was in a situation where I wanted it to end. I have empathy for anyone who does.
nice post.. there was a recent movie in bollywood on this subject which made more people aware of it. I feel we should have to right to decide on our life. but that might lead to many complications with making murders seem like suicide.. the debate never ends
I completely agree with you, when someone with a health condition as debilitating like this or with terminal illness decides they would rather die, imagine how much thought must have gone into that decision, how miserable they must feel. And yet the able-bodied have to deny them this release because of the law. It’s so sad.
Mother is now in home care hospice. Sudden explosion of stage 4 cancer last 5 weeks. At 88 we withhold the barbaric rad and chemo and give her food or drink if she’ll take it. We do not extend life with cancer treatment(would not make a difference) but there is no real “pull the plug” protocol if she is not plugged in to some machine. So have “comfort” meds and watch her evaporate away. The is no legal or medical protocol to just get it over with. I am counting the hours now or perhaps days.
Very deep post. My surrogate mother is also paralyzed for over a year now. She is shrinking and have lots of bedsores already. She can not talk because of having a stroke early last year. Up to now I don’t know exactly what to do. I just pray and hope that she will get better, or at least not to feel pain. Ultimately we are facing a battle with “conscience” and what it dictates us. Up to now it very complex. 😦
I think people should have a choice in whether they want to die or not. I really don’t think other people should decided for them.
I believe that if a person legitimately wants to die, doctors can prove that their quality of life is abysmal and they are in extreme pain, and the person is mentally sound when they make that decision (or, at least, as mentally sound as our current tests can prove), then they should have the right to choose whether they live or die. It’s like in all those movies, where someone is stabbed through the gut and definitely won’t survive, and their friend finds them lying there, and they say, “Mercy — give me a quick death”. When the friend loves the dying person enough to stop their suffering in the movies, we applaud them, we don’t take them to court and label them murderers. Obviously they’re movies, so we can’t sue imaginary characters, but you get my point 🙂
Good article.
It goes to show that it is our own legal system that is a big sack o shite. Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands and Switzerland yet in backwards “every life is sacred” Britain, we have laws that continue our suffering. Or is it laws that continue to keep us paying taxes?
Whatever, my Grandad had a brain tumour, alzheimers and was deaf and blind when he died. What sort of a way to finish a life is that?
The hospitals and care homes kept saying that he was just a cantankerous old fool and looking for attention yet he was dying, suffering, right in front of them and they didn’t give a shit. They knew that as long as he was alive, they would get money for him and that legally they couldn’t help him anyway.
My Grandad’s only way out, like Tony, was to stop feeding himself and stop accepting any food. In the end how the hell can people be treated like this when all they want is to end the suffering?
Laws are constantly changed whenever a little girl is abducted yet when old people, who have contributed to society all their life are just hung out to dry, makes you want to move out of this country completely. Unfortunately I was working abroad when my Grandad stopped feeding himself and I didn’t get back in time to say goodbye.
Fucking pathetic laws and lawmakers, I hope you all rot in hell
I really think there are certain health conditions where dying with dignity should be an option. Too often it seems the lawmakers and doctors alike equate life and quality of life as like terms–when they’re not. No one should wake up every day only to met with prolonged suffering and struggling until they go to sleep again at night if they don’t want to. Since people are given the opportunity to fight against their illness, they should also be allowed to make the choice to wave the white flag and find peace.
Thank you for this post. I reblogged and I’m following your page. I think that dying in circumstances such as this should never be denied. It was a selfish thing to make that man go through even more pain before his death rather than kindly ending it for him. It breaks my heart.
You touched a very sensitive subject. When you look at it the way you did, comparing our treatment of animals to humans it becomes even more shocking, to me, that we aren’t allowed to determine how we want to die. In many cases, even when doctors want to pull the plug it’s the family who aren’t ready to let go. I have a living will specifying no life support measures, and I have talked to my adult children about not holding on too hard and letting me go.
I read about a Native American tradition, can’t remember which tribe, in which people make a bag and put little things into it that are special to them to leave to family members. After their death, family members can take out and hold on to these things as a way of feeling closer to you during their mourning. By the end of a year, the bag and it’s contents is no longer needed and disposed of or put away.
If instead of just a funeral, if people talked to their families over the years about their life and wishes and left a few mementos behind to help in those heart breaking moments of loss maybe we could start to see people’s right to die in a different light.
I’m not so sure about this issue, assisted suicide? Each case is likely unique? It’s not for me to say whether I should live or die. I could feel that way, today? Since I live with a chronic condition.
For me, living is about karma. The idea that every action, has an equal and opposite. That our true goal, is to be ultimately with the light. We are all on our own path. I try not to kill. Avoiding ants, etc.
Killing myself? Well, until I walk even a step in that man’s shoes; how can I know?
Often, I notice how people regard life. Especially when young; though not exclusively. Driving around in their souped-up, sofa’s on wheels. Life’s precious and we never know when this will come to an abrupt end? I imagine Mr. Nicklinson did not? To love and savour each moment, as it comes and then goes. For it’s never coming back. That is the key? I’m sure!
….. the moment I started this post, gone forever.
Asking a court to legislate? That’s tough? Institutions do not have much compassion. That should be in our hearts and minds. Is there is a rational argument? Both, for and against? Maybe, we should ask Socrates? He might have some spare hemlock?
The karmic wheel grinds on ….
I just published a book, granted it is fiction, a paranormal romantic suspense with Shapeshifters. I deal with euthanasia in the book. The shapeshifters are dying an agonizing, painful death. Because they are a hidden species I decided they have the ability to end their loved ones suffering. It is one of the things the main characters fight about so I was able to show both sides. I just pray if it came to pass, that my family would not keep me around just because they can’t let me go.
All I can say in this .. is that we would never let our cat or dog .. suffer in pain when their is no more help. Why is a human life any different ??? Why should we human have to suffer into the bitter end – if we have a wish to end our lives ??? Have lost 4 friends in cancer and the latest happen a week ago and for weeks she where begging the doctors to give her that finale injection but they couldn’t by law. Instead she had to suffer for weeks, talk about human rights.
I’m glad that there is help to get in Switzerland and Holland – for those needs and want help.
In the wild, there is no such question – those paralysed or agonisingly sickened by some illness or severe injury are swiftly killed and released from their misery. In the human world, we step in and prevent that from occuring- it seems in this way, we tend to be much crueler than nature. If one wants to continue living, wonderful, as we have the resources to do that with! However, if it is an endless misery of pain and despair, I really do ardently feel it is a person’s right too to be able to choose cessation of life.
I’m of the mind that it should never be the role of government to save people from themselves.
The ability to kill oneself is an option any able bodied person has. It can be considered a blessing or a curse to no longer have the option to commit suicide. I would be the one to try my best to save the life or convince a life that life is always worth living. However, I feel it is not my place to take their option of suicide away from another by law. Life can be unbelievably hard to live as an able bodied person- an able bodied person who has experienced rape, be tied down and forced to watch their loved ones be raped, be held in a POW camp to return to a country full of people who hate them and a family who leaves them, and etc. To be in the unfortunate position as this man…. I could understand his feeling, that he is simply waiting to die, no longer even truly able to live. But, the government’s involvement in that situation only makes one feel even more overwhelming dead.
Suicide, euthanasia are, like you mentioned, very debated upon topics in the world. I for one believe if a person wants to die, whats the law got to say? In most countries, the punishment for a failed suicide is death, so what’s the effing logic behind that?
For me this is just too painful to read. My wife has Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (PPMS). We both know that she will never get better, and we have discussed what should we should do if and when. We haven’t come to any decision as yet because thankfully she still has some sort of life with me and the family.
But in Tony Nicklinson’s case, I personally feel that this once bright, intelligent and handsome husband, father & man new exactly what the score was. He wasn’t a mug! He wasn’t stupid. Why do they think he went to court in the first place? because he knew he had to protect the innocent – the Doctors – that he was asking to ‘treat’ him. Are those the actions of someone who doesn’t know their own mind. Of course he knew his own mind and he also knew that his life had become a living nightmare worse that anyone could imagine. How do they think he felt first thing in the morning when he opened his eyes and once again the realisation of another day of hell.
I forget who it was but some very bright person once said “the Law is an Ass”. Thank God (if he his really there, and I pray he is) that Tony’s Hell on Earth is over and he is at last at peace with no more suffering and no more waking to another day in Hell.
God Bless him and may he forever rest in peace.
I firmly believe it should be in our own hands. It is not fair, not human and not compassionate to let people suffer in such ways. I am not sure about all the countries, where euthanasia is legal, but I am sure that Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg are one of them. Also in Switzerland assisted suicide is legal. Compliments for advanced thinking. Let’s just hope some day every country will agree with it too.
Respectfully I must disagree I worked 35 years as a healthcare professional and Doctors can directly determine whether a patient lives or dies by simply increasing a morphine drip to a patient who is terminal. The morphine decreases respirations & heart rate which leads to cardiac arrest. In reference as to whether animals feel pain based on the reasoning they are unable to communicate is scientifically incorrect. Euthanasia happens everyday in this country via hospice centers. Thank you !
It should certainly be available for humans. I’m a nurse and have seen many people die ugly deaths inside hospitals. When someone has been ill for a long time, and their condition is worsening, there should be a way out that would be humane. We do it for dogs.
I am not a religious person so have no worries about an afterlife. If my dog or any other animal is suffering and I cannot help them I can go to the Vet and they get an injection and are euthanased. I see no problem with this being done to Humans, how different are we in the big scheme of things. I suffer with pain every day of my life but it to me it is bearable and I just put it down to old age. If this did become unbearable and took away my zest for life and made it impossible to cope, I would welcome euthanasia if done correctly by a medical team. After all it is used on criminals in some states in America and elsewhere.
I have analysed the right to die argument for many years. I would personally like to be euthanised if I was suffering with an incurable disease. I have told my family this for years. I watched a BBC doco a while back with three gentlemen in the Swiss clinic undergoing euthanasia. Three different personalities, ages, circumstances and medical conditions.One of them was filmed to the end, with his wife present but she was unable to touch him as it could be seen as ‘assisting’ in British law – however all were successful. It was quite confronting to see someone actually take the final drink, slump into a deep sleep, and die within five minutes. With that said, I still think it is my right should I want to end my suffering – whilst lucid and able to choose. The one disappointment for them all was they wanted to die at home and not in a foreign country. It’s complicated but it should be an option for all human beings….we are expected to take responsibility for everything else in our lives, why not the ending?
It’s inhumane to take someone’s right away to decide what they want do with their OWN life. If doctors would be considered “murderers”, how about the people who administer to death row prisoners? Moreover, what negative connotation does “assisted suicide” hold. Of course people will veer away from voting for this type of law to pass, even if given the opportunity. Too much regulation on things that are personal choice, too little regulation on things that matter.