Do you support the right to choose?
The ClubHouse: Archives: Do you support the right to choose?
Ocean_Islands | Monday, April 29, 2002 - 12:57 pm     Web petition in right-to-die case cnn.com LONDON, England --A terminally ill woman has launched a Web site petition to change UK law on assisted suicide after losing a legal battle for her husband to help her die. Diane Pretty's plea came after the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Monday that Brian Pretty would not be protected from prosecution if he helped his wife commit suicide. "The law has taken all my rights away," she told a news conference, using a keyboard and computer voice synthesizer. Now the 43-year-old mother of two, who is paralysed from the neck down, and her husband have opened a petition on a Web site (www.justice4diane.org.uk). Suicide is legal in England, but helping someone else kill themselves is a crime under the 1961 Suicide Act, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The Strasbourg judges said the fact that assisted suicide was a crime in England was not a breach of Pretty's human rights. The European court ruling was her last hope of a legal seal of approval to what she sees as her right to die with dignity. Pretty, who has had motor neurone disease since 1999 and is confined to a wheelchair, took her fight to the European court after losing her battle in the UK. Her disease is at an advanced stage, leaving her unable to speak and having to be fed through a tube. Her intellect and decision-making capacity are unimpaired. She faces death soon from respiratory failure and pneumonia when her breathing muscles become affected by the disease. She writes on her Web site: "If I were physically able I could take my own life. That's not illegal. "But because of the terrible nature of my illness I cannot take my own life -- to carry out my wish I will need assistance. Should a doctor give me the assistance I need, he or she will be guilty of a crime that carries a lengthy prison sentence. As the law stands it makes no sense. "The law needs changing so that I, and people like me, can choose how and when we die and not be forced to endure untold suffering for no reason." Brian Pretty told Monday's news conference his wife was "disappointed but coping fairly well." He added: "It's probably later on when she sits down for a time to think about it she will probably be very upset." Asked about the judgment, he said: "I'm pleased in one respect because it means I will have my wife with me for a little bit longer. But I am very saddened because the one thing she wants to have is the chance to die at the time of her choosing. "That has been denied to her and that is not right. We should all have the choice of what we want to do with our lives, even if it's that." Last October, the High Court ruled that Brian Pretty could not be guaranteed immunity from prosecution. Britain's highest court of appeal, the House of Lords, upheld that ruling in November. Diane Pretty's lawyers had argued that the British ruling violated her rights under the European Convention of Human Rights by forcing her to undergo "degrading treatment or punishment." At a previous hearing British government lawyer Jonathan Crow expressed sympathy for the "tragic circumstances" of the case but said the law was clear. "A simple and clear-cut distinction has been drawn," he said. "Domestic law simply does not allow one person to intervene deliberately to bring about another person's death." Diane's petition |
Jewels | Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 07:32 am     I live in Oregon where we passed an Assisted Suicide law a couple years ago. We had to vote on it twice because of controversy and Mr. Ashcroft tried to take it away from us again a few weeks ago...another judge told him to mind his own business and upheld it. We call it "Death with Dignity" and I think that is exactly how it should be for the terminally ill who want to take their lives. I believe here the patient has to see two doctors, be ruled competent and go through a waiting period before they are given the pills to take and there are only a few doctors that will write the prescriptions. In my opinion, it is their life, their right, especially when they are competent enough to know the difference. I feel terrible for Brian and Diane Pretty. |
Misslibra | Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 08:04 am     I support the right to choose. You never know how you would feel until your in someone's shoes who has a terminal Illness and is in terrible pain. I think people should have a right to choose. |
Aussiedeb | Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 06:30 pm     I also support the right to choose. I dont want to be in so much pain, I would rather die and be at peace. I know all too well first hand from my dad and friends parents who were permanently on so much morphine and they still had pain. Guess if anything bad happens to me I will be heading for Oregon then.. |
Car54 | Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 07:23 pm     I support the right to choose. I watched both of my parents suffer long, lingering, painful, debilitating, undignified deaths. My mother took care of my father throughout his 25 year chronic illness. 5 years after he died they found she had cancer and for the last 5 years of her life, she suffered one cancer after another. The one thing she made me promise was not to allow anything to prolong her pain, and to help her if it became necessary. |
Hippyt | Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 07:49 pm     Well,this post wasn't what I thought it would be,and I'm glad! I also support this right. I've been lucky enough in my life to never had have to deal with a family member in this situation. But,I know if it were me in the situation I would want my wishes taken care of. And,I'd do it for any member of my family that was suffering. I applaude Oregon for having the guts to legislate this! I think most politicians steer way clear of it because it's so controversial,God forbid they do anything different! |
Sunshinemiss | Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 10:23 pm     Whew, I agree Hippy, I'd avoided this thread 'cause I thought it was going in a different direction... I also support this right. Talk about self determination, you can't get any more of an ultimate freedom than to make a decision on when to pass on. With caveats of course (state of mind and capability of making this decision).. having recently seen my Dad in agony prior to his passing I more than once wondered if he would have wanted it, and what I could have done. Tough situation. Good opportunity for a reminder to discuss this with loved ones so they know how I (we) feel prior to the situation ever (God forbid) coming up. I wonder, in the case in the UK, if it would be allowable to set up some sort of the machine that Dr. Kevorkian had, with a lethal dose of something, and maybe set up a button that she could push, or whatever her very limited capability could do, so that technically she would be the one doing it? |
Webkitty | Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 11:36 pm     I support this right. I watched my mother-in-law die from ALS (Lou Gerigs Disease) She knew there is no cure for this and she knew what she was in for. My mother-in-law was furious that she didn't have the right to choose not to go through the last horrible months in the hospital like she did. She was already mad enough that she was confined to a wheelchair because of this disease and she didn't want to let it win over her body any more (her words, while she could still talk) She was always a headstrong woman and we were afraid she was going to OD on her meds or something, so we put her into hospice care. It was hard to do because we knew she didn't want to go through those last months like that. She wanted to take matters into her own hands while she could still USE her hands. I don't think its right to make a person HAVE to go through horrible suffering and humiliation, especailly if there is absolutly no chance of a cure. I know we did the right thing according to the law, but it wasn't what she wanted. Who would? Ack, I'm still in therapy over this! |
Whit4you | Wednesday, June 12, 2002 - 07:09 pm     People definately should have a right to choose if when and how they die. |
Angelnikki | Wednesday, June 12, 2002 - 09:39 pm     i support the right to choose also. i thought this thread was about abortion initally and i would say i support that right also. |
Seamonkey | Wednesday, June 12, 2002 - 10:31 pm     I support the right to choose AND the responsibility to state your feelings early on so that when the time comes those who must choose know who you are and what you want. My mom had emphysema for years and I know that she and dad discussed things and they had the needed pills and he had his gun loaded (yikes) but it didn't go down that way. But they had their durable powers of attorney and other documents about their wishes not to be put on life support and exactly who would decide in which order. So Dad had to say "no more" for her but he had me come in when she said "no respirator and no tracheostomy so I'd be solid with his horrible decision if/when it came. And it did. For him.. he had to have heard surgery and lung biopsy.. his papers were in his chart. I had first decision, then my brother but luckily he and I were lined up together and when things started going bad, everything was done up to a point where it wasn't going to be right if he came back.. he was on a respirator still from surgery but we called the DNR and I was with him to the end. I'm so grateful that we knew what they wanted. Even after my mom told the doctor no respirator and such (he knew already but of course had to bring it up..) I did ask about the trach but she was quite certain. I think she'd have gone the take it into my own hands route a few months earlier but hung on for dad. Webkitty, I can truly feel for you. Had my mom directly asked me to help her, I was prepared to consider it and I feel that hospice can be a good thing as one choice but I surely do understand with ALS and similar illnesses that it is just devastating. I can understand the therapy.. I happened to already have an appointment the evening of the day my mom died and it was a good thing. I could be there for my Dad's grief (I'd had hospice training and crisis counseling and mostly I cared about how he was feeling and let him have the feelings) My brother and his wife were totally great with dealing with details.. like helping dad trade in the two old cars and get a safe new one and paperwork and after dad died there were no problems over "stuff", just tons of work and we shared it out, but emotionally my style was SO far from theirs..wow.. I was lucky to have many friends who knew about losing your parents and got lots of phone messages and calls and I also was still with hospice and the supervision meetings were excellent for me. And therapy , yes indeed. OK.. going to sign that petition!!!! My parents also preplanned what happened after they died, prepaid for that and had all of their ownings in trust which avoided probate and almost eliminated estate taxes. I still thank them |
Seamonkey | Wednesday, June 12, 2002 - 10:45 pm     I'm reading backwards.. Car.. my parents too.. Mom had the chronic disease, tho she was phenomenal in how she handled it, and then he showed up with a lung lesion and diagnosis was totally crazy and then she got a virus which with advanced COPD and emphysema was lethal.. and in order to diagnose the lung problem (biopsies failed because the thing was so hard walled) he had to have 5 bypasses and a heart valve but he never got much chance to come back from it since a nurse put a feeding tube into the good lung.. that did him in. Yes he had cancer so it wouldn't have been good.. but at 79 and 80, and knowing each other since high school (maybe junior high), they went 4 months apart. They both feared most being left behind, so I REALLY feel for what happened to your mother. My dad told me one day that he'd always accepted that men often died younger than women so he'd go first (both of my grandfathers died young, both grandmothers had long lives) but then when my mom was diagnosed he felt that he MUST live at least as long as she did, so the possible cancer panicked him.. for her.. his possible cancer made her let go.. yes it was technically the virus but she didn't want to be left alone. and for him, it was hard to go on after that. |
Seamonkey | Wednesday, June 12, 2002 - 10:48 pm     Did you see who designed the site.. Fruitbat's cousin, Fruitbyte! |
Aussiedeb | Friday, June 14, 2002 - 06:03 am     I also support the right to choose. My dad died of cancer and spent the last few months in extreme pain and suffering. I just hope that when and if my time comes and if I am in pain they will pull the plug or whatever to let me go gracefully. |
Dahli | Friday, June 14, 2002 - 01:44 pm     I support totally the right to choose ANY and EVERY thing that affects one's own body. Who better to make the decision? I've always been so puzzled at how can anyone could not support that basic freedom of choice...? |
Babyruth | Friday, June 14, 2002 - 02:18 pm     I agree, Dahli. And I think the answer to your question is: Those who would impose their own values and beliefs on others in an effort to exert control over them do not support that right to choose. |
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