This morning I learnt that the UK government is launching an inquiry into Assisted Dying/Assisted Suicide. The details are here:
What are your thoughts on assisted dying/assisted suicide?
As time is short to the deadline of Friday this week (20/01/23), I would like to share a few brief thoughts on the issue.
In March last year, my partner died of ovarian cancer, diagnosed at stage 3c in 2017. The end came about due to an intestinal blockage and earlier than I expected. I thought she had several more months to live. I will spare you the grim details bar the minimum necessary to illustrate what I want to say.
She was admitted to hospital and rehydrated, but her intestinal blockage was deemed inoperable due to her fragile state. She was placed on the end-of-life drugs Midazolam and Oxycodone. Fluids were withdrawn. She lasted five days and, bar a few hours, I was present throughout.
At the time, and immediately afterwards, I was horrified by what happened over those five days, and I remain traumatised by the memory. I can rarely bear to think about it. I argued with the palliative care nurses in the hospital and begged a friendly nurse to overdose her. I said I wouldn't allow our dog to suffer this way, so asked why should this happen to my partner.
I am an open-minded person. I read or listen to several books weekly and enjoy having my mind changed about something. A book that raised serious questions for me about assisted dying in 2020 was James Mumford's 'Vexed: Ethics Beyond Political Tribes', where, in presenting the case for both sides of the argument, it really sank in for the first time that allowing euthanasia presented a slippery slope to undesirable consequences. Up to that point, I had unequivocally favoured assisted dying.
I would like to be able to say that I read this book subsequent to the death of my partner, but, alas, I did not. In the heat of the situation in that tiny hospital room, my reasoning abilities failed me, and emotion took over. My petitioning of medical and care staff came to nought at the time, and it is, on reflection, obvious why they did nothing but follow standard procedure. (One of the palliative care nurses I spoke to - not the pair that I argued with - explained in a calmer moment that in an end-of-life situation, they are not there for the patient but to "manage" the relatives.)
Since then, the full horror of what has happened, and is escalating, in Canada has only served to reinforce the argument that granting legal assistance for assisted dying is the thin end of a wedge.
We face severe problems due to the demographic profiles of our fading western societies. There are far too many elderly people and not enough young people. Currently, we are seeing the NHS in its death throws as the Tory government forces people to go private if they can afford to do so. They may suffer even to the point of early and preventable death if they cannot. I fear that euthanasia will end up being offered as an easy way out, just as we have seen happening in Canada.
I remember clearly that just before the pandemic, the issue of the crisis in social care was daily news. Once it was announced that hospitals were being cleared of 'bed blockers', my immediate reaction, which I expressed publicly, was 'how convenient' and, of course, it came to pass that many care home residents died, just as I had predicted. We don't hear much talk about the social care crisis anymore; I fear it is because the government may have identified a possible 'solution'.
I have little doubt that legislation to permit assisted dying will be passed in this country, and I fear that this survey is simply a tickbox exercise to state that 'the public has been consulted'.
I would like to feel that some sort of solution could be implemented that would have spared the suffering of my partner and all those terminally ill but one that would not lead to a slippery slope to euthanasia of the poor, elderly, vulnerable and mentally ill.
If legislation could be framed that provided a cast iron guarantee against these possibilities, it would have been written and implemented a long time ago.