Euthanasia an option for me

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Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

The problem is that it's the slippery slope as I mentioned earlier.

Some people will be coerced into euthanasia and others, possibly well meaning, will comply.

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You'd imagine if it were to become acceptable, there would be some pretty clear perimeters. Intentions would have to be drafted well before any illness. Family sign off on intentions with appropriate milestones of failing health. All acknowledged by a Doctor or 3 and family members and or a third party like a lawyer.

Society seems to get very interested in physical pain and relieving it with drugs. But mental pain, which can't be measured largely goes un-talked about.

I think with a massively ageing population it's a matter of time before a political party puts it on the agenda. My folks already know of several people who have secured there own final solution tablet from the USA. Euthanasia is already happening in peoples homes, and has been in hospitals for years with morphine. So perhaps it's time we all get real about it and don't use any religion argument to blur the pain and reality of suffering.

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Originally Posted by Chucaro

Lets go back to two choices
1)Loose your dignity and suffer pain in an age care institution.
or
2) Pull the pin and have few pills.

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I would chose neither. There are other options.

One of the comments made in the ABC program was the ratio of nurses to beds, in one case 100 beds for one nurse and staff without formal education in age care.
I just wonder if it is compulsory to have a Certificate III in Aged Care as a minimum requirement to work in these institutions and the proficiency in English.


Mick, I would like to know about the other options without loosing dignity and suffer pain because negligence in providing care.

Its a tricky question with many pro's and cons and pitfalls.
I would only endorse and partake with me and mine alone.
But the old and infirm must be consulted about their wishes long before they become incapable of being consulted. Or everybody before accident or illness renders them incapable. For that reason I signed the Advance Health Directive. If people dont comply with my wishes I will come back and bite their ass hard.

Dont forget the series Cold Lazarus. That was a frightening scenario.
I watched it years ago and it left me with much to think about.
A few weeks ago I downloaded it for a keeper but havent watched it yet.

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Originally Posted by olbod

.............. For that reason I signed the Advance Health Directive. If people dont comply with my wishes I will come back and bite their ass hard.

.................................................. ....................

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I read some were that the currently Australia, Mental Health Legislation can over-ride an Advance Directive.
Have you investigated about that?

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Originally Posted by Chucaro

Mick, I would like to know about the other options without loosing dignity and suffer pain because negligence in providing care.

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So you didn't read my other post.
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/general-ch...ml#post1968101
How would I like to die? Still plenty of time to think about that one.
Here's a suggestion
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLctf4o6feQ]Monty Python's The Meaning of Life - Death - YouTube[/ame]

There are a few different issues being blurred here, particularly those of end-of-life care as opposed to actual euthanasia. We paramedics are frequently called to nursing homes to attend to the dying; it is a common occurrence to see an elderly person with advanced dementia, wearing a nappy, fed through a percutaneous endo-gastric tube, bed-bound for years and not having communicated with nor made any sign of recognising anyone in many months, who today has become unconscious with no blood pressure, and ambulance has been called 'lights and sirens' because the family has said they want 'everything to be done'. It seems that very few nursing-home managers have the gumption to sit down with a persons family and discuss with them the fact that, with dementia for instance, the same disease process that is causing them to not recognise their family, is also at work in the parts of the brain that keep them alive, and that they will sooner or later come to the end of their life. How many times have I had to have the difficult conversation with a distraught family member at the bedside of their dying loved one, all because the person who should have had the conversation with them months earlier did not have the guts.....
Interestingly, an 'Advanced Care Directive' (commonly called a 'do not resuscitate' order) can only be made with regard to an existing illness. This in effect means that, say, a person with metastasised cancer who has exhausted all treatment options and been declared terminal, can have paperwork drawn up to the effect that when the disease reaches the end-stage, no heroic efforts should be made to save their life, e.g. no ventilator, no CPR etc. However, if this person is hit by a bus after signing this directive (or even if they have taken an overdose of narcotic drugs, for example), the Advanced Care Directive does not apply to this condition and does not provide legal basis for witholding life-saving treatment. These are real issues that have real implications for those of us who work in emergency health care.

With euthanasia, on the other hand, I have to agree with the fact that pressure would inevitably be brought to bear on many elderly persons by family whose lives would be easier if they would just go quietly...
In India, there is a tradition called 'Suttee' wherin the widow of a deceased man is so overcome with grief that she throws herself on the funeral pyre alongside his body, rather than face life without him. A touching thought, except that there is considerable social pressure put on the widow to perform Suttee rather than be a burden on the village and family. It is not unknown for a widow who is not sufficiently overcome to get herself onto the pyre, to be assisted....
I reckon our society values the elderly about the same amount as Indian society values females.

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Originally Posted by Chucaro

Mick, I would like to know about the other options without loosing dignity and suffer pain because negligence in providing care.

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Having your nut bitten off by a Laplander:

The Naked Gun Leslie Nielsen & OJ Simpson HD - YouTube

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Originally Posted by POD

In India, there is a tradition called 'Sutteee' wherin the widow of a deceased man is so overcome with grief that she throws herself on the funeral pyre alongside his body, rather than face life without him. A touching thought, except that there is considerable social pressure put on the widow to perform Suttee rather than be a burden on the village and family. It is not unknown for a widow who is not sufficiently overcome to get herself onto the pyre, to be assisted....
I reckon our society values the elderly about the same amount as Indian society values females.

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General Charles Napier

“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”

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Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

So you didn't read my other post.
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/general-ch...ml#post1968101
How would I like to die? Still plenty of time to think about that one.

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What would be the implications if you miss a step before making it to the cliff, died like a prune?