Assisted Dying

This topic has come up as a developing issue in the previous posting.

Like the issue of homosexuality some years ago, people are "coming out" with what they really stand for.

They are saying "The law is wrong. It needs changing" and they go further and challenge society to prosecute them.

I find this very encouraging as I face a similar dilema in the not to distant future and I know what I don't want to happen.

Too many people, I find, want to ignore any suggestion of unpleasantness. They acquire deaf ears and blind vision even when it is obvious something is done. (This is happening at the moment in Ulverston over the issue of democracy in the Furness U3A - the retired people's organisation. Something I will be covering shortly).

In an article in today's Guardian, Barrie Sheldon below has highlighted the issue of assisted dying in clear terms that indicate clearly that a change in the law is essential if cruelty in dying is not to continue.



The Guardian reports:

Then, in 1982, with her health deteriorating to the extent she would soon not be able to take her own life, Sheldon helped her select the right drug, gathered enough of the pills, counted them out and left her for a weekend. When he returned on Sunday night she was not dead, but in agony. She died four days later in hospital.

"This is unfinished business," Barrie Sheldon said. "I have a burning resentment of the police, the great and the good. The politicians, legal and medical professionals allowed her birth but didn't give her the possibility of assisted suicide. This is a gross injustice and it has wrecked my life. From time to time it overwhelms me. I should have been with her. I should have done what Ray Gosling did, but the police would have put a murder charge on me if I would have been in that house."

He continues:

"This is unfinished business, I have a burning resentment of the police, the great and the good. The politicians, legal and medical professionals allowed her birth but didn't give her the possibility of assisted suicide. This is a gross injustice and it has wrecked my life. From time to time it overwhelms me. I should have been with her. I should have done what Ray Gosling did, but the police would have put a murder charge on me if I would have been in that house."


I've come across some in Ulverston that are unhappy about the way relatives are being treated here who are suffering from dementia.

It seems to me that "the system" appeared to take over with someone I knew who was dying of cancer. The wishes of the patient appeared to come second to the way the NHS believed his illness should be dealt with.

Are we being robbed of the ability of running our own lives - and deaths?

I suspect that Ulverston people are ready to discuss such an issue?

Gladys Hobson certainly is. I'm sure there are more like her.

In fact there's a group in Ulverston that will be discussing this issue in April - if you're interested, I'm sure that you would be welcome !