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  • Assisted deaths

    A controversial euthanasia activist dubbed Dr Death is due to hold the first of his suicide workshops across the UK to a seaside retirement town , Dr Philip Nitschke is holding suicide workshops in the UK Australian Dr Philip Nitschke will demonstrate his DIY suicide kit which includes an "exit bag", drugs from Mexico and "Peaceful Pills" at the meeting in Bournemouth, Dorset.

    It is the second time Dr Nitschke has tried to host the workshops in Bournemouth because of its large number of elderly people.

    The doctor had booked a Bournemouth council-owned adult education centre to host the workshop last October but an error meant the full details were not taken. When red-faced town hall chiefs discovered what he was planning they immediately cancelled the booking.

    Dr Nitschke, who founded the "right-to-die" organisation Exit International, said: "There needs to be a reshaping of people's education and beliefs around such a subject.

    "It seems we demand humans to live with indignity, pain and anguish whereas we are kinder to our pets when their suffering becomes too much. It simply is not logical or mature. Trouble is, we have had too many centuries of religious clap-trap."

    Dr Nitschke, from Darwin, successfully campaigned to have a legal euthanasia law passed in Australia's Northern Territory in the 1990s and helped four terminally ill people end their lives. The law in the Northern Territory was overturned after nine months in March 1997 by the Australian Parliament.

    In the UK, assisted suicide is illegal with a maximum punishment of 14 years in prison. Under the Coroners and Justice Bill, websites that encourage or help people to commit suicide could also be outlawed.

    But in March former health secretary Patricia Hewitt tabled an amendment to the proposed legislation to allow people to take family members abroad for assisted suicide without prosecution.

    The Bournemouth event is followed by events in Brighton on Wednesday, Stroud on Friday and Glasgow on Saturday

    I dont know of any other posts on this subject and if there are i appologise ,, however what are peoples thoughts on this ,, personaly after watching my wife and father die in not a very nice fashion , im all for it .Bearing in mind if its done correctly under strict medical conditions for instance , maybe 2 Doctors present and the family of the person present and if the said person is able then they should be the ones to administer the final dose .
    Last edited by tankie; 05 May 09,, 11:51.

  • #2
    I am really mixed on this topic. In theory, I am for some sort of "assisted exit" and in fact it happens daily with cancer patients when a bit too much morphine is administered, but those happen when death is hours or a day or two ahead, and the pain is unbearable. The journey to that point is of course horrific, and the "exit" could probably be administered days before the pain becomes too great, rather than hours.

    The problem I see is the cliched "slippery slope" argument. If we help terminal cancer patients die, do we also help MS sufferers? When? Who decides? Even if it is the patient requesting euthanasia, you then have to determine rightness of the mind. There was a case where a guy wanted assisted suicide, was talked out of it or otherwise changed his mind, and years later is very happy indeed that he did not do it. He was very depressed at the time. With treatment, his brain chemistry stabilized and he learned to live with his admittedly difficult disability, paralysis, I believe.

    I do believe, under tightly controlled circumstances, with perhaps a board of doctors in unanimous agreement, that it might be acceptable.

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