Dear spindoc,

I agree with you.

When my time comes as it inevitably will,
I also would not want to be kept alove long
beyond the point at which I would normally
have died. I don't want to be hooked up for
days, months, or even years to machines that
would sustain my life and I certainly wouldn't
want this step to be taken in I am in constant
pain or even if I am permanently comatose.

I don't want technologies that were intended to
save people from unnecessary death to actually
have the effect of depriving me of a dignified
death.

Lexi my sweet, there are conditions as bad as respiration, which are entirely as synthetic & horrible.

It is our do-gooders who force people to take action while they still can, as we are not allowed to help them when they can’t do it for themselves.

My mother was 99 when she died. She had endured 6 months of lying in a bed in a nursing home, totally incontinent, unable to feed herself, & barely able to get herself a drink, if the bed table was not in just the right place. She wanted to die, but was not allowed help to do it.

She could only get out of bed when lifted by something very similar to the engine crane I use to get engines out of cars. It was of course painted white, to look like a medical appliance, rather than the engineering thing it was.

I could not even take her for a drive, as I could not get her from a wheel chair to a car.

For those 6 months I kicked myself every day for not helping her do what she wanted, before I had lost control, & the opportunity to help her.

I can totally understand that lady, who had probably seen results like my mother. She should have had access to assisted suicide later when she needed it.

Having seen what can happen when we leave it too late, I have a large drop-off off the road picked out, which I will definitely drive over, at high speed, before I lose control of my destiny the way my mother did, & I will be singing with joy as I do it, at a great life finished cleanly

Dear Hasbeen,

I'm so sorry to hear of your mother's suffering.
And I feel for you and your family. It must
have been a very trying and emotional time
for you all.

I experienced something
similar with my mother-in-law - however, she
was made as comfortable as possible during the
tail end of her life and the doctor certainly
did not prolong her life with artificial means.

I hope that you will die quietly in your sleep
when your turn comes. That it will be peaceful
and dignified with no stress.

I would like to die in my sleep. But of course
who knows what's around the corner for either
of us.

I used to think that an assisted death such as
that prescribed by Dr Philip Nietsche (hope I
spelled his name correctly) whom Kevin Andrews MP
opposed so vehemently was the way to go.
However one of our
regular posters - David F. posted sometime ago
how that particular doctor scared the heck out
of David, when David went to hear the doctor speak
in Brisbane. I guess it bears more investigation
into something we know so little about.
We have to be careful when making these sort of
decisions.

Such a question. Nothing makes my blood boil more than the idea that we must prolong a life at all costs. beyond where it IS life. But should we have the right to choose to die just because? A difficult question and I agree with some of Lexi's opinion. It could be quite traumatic to those left behind, but that perhaps reflects an unusual fascination with life that I suspect some more primitive societies may not have shared.

But I always wonder at how easily we as a society send young men to die on foreign fields yet fight tooth and nail to prevent the old and sick from leaving at a time and in a manner of their own choosing. Now THAT is selfishness...

Yes Lexi my dear I can most definitely see the danger you suggest. It would be nice to think all family were loved ones in all families, but the horror stories say differently.

It would be great to live in a black & white world in so many ways.

Graeme it would not have been too traumatic for any of us, but making the decision is very difficult. The when is the most problematic. My mother was semi-independent, living in her granny flat, with some outside help, but meals, cleaning, medication & transport organised by us, until after her 98Th birthday. It was only after a supposedly minor hospitalization that she was in trouble. It was so quick & she was in the nursing home.

Yes it is a strange society that sends some to their death, & refuses to let others go when they've had enough.

Lexi,, I would suggest that the woman who committed suicide was most certainly mentally ill, so in actual fact she was in pain of some sort, surely?

All those who state they want to choose the time and place of their deaths are not likely to get that choice. The will to live is very strong, so most hold out until it is physically too late to suicide.

They then want to rely on 'someone' euthanasing them.
Well it isn't as easy to 'put someone down' as you might think, so finding that someone isn't easy.

We all should have a right to die when we are ready, but the sad reality is that this rarely happens.