[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

I don't think either has to be hugely problematic... you could attach some fairly strict criteria i.e. only months left to live anyway, proof that there's unmanageable pain or discomfort, and you could also have it so that both the person requesting it and the medical team surrounding that person have to sign off on it. I don't think the idea of it being significantly exploited in that situation is particularly realistic.

As for the value of life stuff... I dunno. I think people romanticize death. Too many peaceful bedside goodbyes in Hollywood movies with a single tear rolling down the cheeks of loved ones as an old, suspiciously rosy-cheeked person falls asleep with a little smile.

My grandmother died when I was 8 and was cared for in our house in her last months and it was awful. It was bed sores, vomit and confusion as her mind disappeared long before her body, and I have a memory seared in my brain of being able to hear her writhing and shrieking within her final half hour. It was an absolute ****ing horror show.

My mum died 4 years ago and yeah... it was worse. Her main cause of death was liver failure, but basically all of her organs shut down. Her limbs were purple and had swollen to 3x their normal size with oedema. Her immune system had shut down and a simple cold sore had eaten away half of her upper lip and there was dying flesh right round to her cheek. She was mostly unconscious - but would occasionally "gasp awake" for a few confused minutes with a look of real, and complete, terror on her face. She was hallucinating and delirious, but she also knew what was happening to her.

"Devalues life", indeed. I sometimes wonder if the people who are against these things actually realise what an undignified ****-show real death actually is. There is no value there. It's like a cruel joke tacked onto the end of a life. To deny people a way to avoid that out of the (irrational) fear that people are going to somehow use it to bump off their elderly relatives is just madness.

Yeah spot on. I wouldn't like my loved ones to remember me in that kind of way and I would like some sort of dignity in death