Cancer 152
I get my latest scan results today. For some reason I am not as optimistic as usual. At some point the chemotherapy will stop working and the cancer will grow. I have had a somewhat rough time of it in the last few weeks re diarrhoea, possible Covid, temperature probably relating to the flu and Covid jobs I had at the beginning of this week. I went out for a meal last night and left some food! This is unheard of. I must be ill.
My last blog generated a little discussion of assisted dying, highly pertinent as parliament is going to discuss a draft bill (https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3741). I naturally support this bill as I am terrified of the potential pain in the last stages of life. The debate ranges around the safeguards for those who are choosing to die. There are always going to be problems where people are encouraged to make use of the facility, perhaps because the family sees the individual as a burden.
There is, to my mind, a false assumption regarding the importance of life, and the need to ensure that the individual has a free choice about when to die. We all die. Those of us who are terminally ill just know that we are going to die earlier than we thought. It came up in the discussion on my previous blog about the rationale for choosing death, and that perhaps it is a duty of the terminally ill to accept assisted dying. This is an interesting idea, recognising the emotional content of the topic, but attempting to rationalise it through a duty or necessity of dying.
I like to think that when I get to the terminal phase, where I am bed bound and in pain, where the doctors are saying that I am unlikely to have any more worthwhile life, that I will pop the pill with my family around me and experience a good death. I like to think that the decision will be made by me, though if I can’t make it then it should be a consensus among key family members. We are all reasonably intelligent people. We have discussed this. We all agree that assisted dying is fundamentally a good idea. I don’t think we will get caught up in the emotional claptrap.
Perhaps that is not the case for many people. Those who are vulnerable may agree to die because of family pressure, but is this necessarily a bad thing? Only those who are terminally ill and have little hope of any more good life should be able to be killed in this way, so I am not convinced that there is a problem. The final decision will presumably be made by medical personnel, after listening to the individual and their family. If there is a hint of pressure then presumably they can refuse to agree to assisted dying?
In the end, what is the fuss all about? If life is shit and not getting better then bang, wipe it out.
Dr Nigel Hunt 
My friend Judy who I cared for was put on something called end of life car. Morphine was fed into her body through a machine and was gradually increased as she felt pain. Basically she was put to a sleep death. She had a very easy passing with this and all her friends were very grateful to the medical personnel who had the courage to choose to do this. This is happening regularly in lots of medical facilities. Regards in loving friendship Jo
LikeLike