I believe terminally Ill people should have the right not to suffer to the end if that is there wish. I respect those who chose to suffer and hope one day they will respect my rights. Suicide is not illegal however no one can assist you so one is left to decide how to do it successfully after all no one wants to botch it. If people cannot get hold of the right drugs then one is left with several choices all of which are traumatic for the person concern and for the people who find them.
So here are some of the ways open for them - hanging; jumping under a train or jumping off a bridge or from a high building. If terminally ill surly the person who is dying should be able to request a peaceful injection.
Please let the terminally Ill make their own decision on how they want to die and give them the means to which to do it. Remember it is all about choice.
To the terminally Ill I say roll on the day when you can have a say over how, when and where and who is present at you death. The people who don't want voluntary euthanasia already have their wish to suffer till the very end. Now give others their wish.
Posted by: Jessie Edney | 03/06/2012 at 03:07 PM legalised voluntary euthanasia in Aust. as in the Netherlands will cause many involuntary deaths.Search their statistics.Depressed people are opting for an easy way out,especially if they feel a burden on their families. and even more disturbing is that elderly sick are afraid of going to hospital,.
Morphine can be self administered so that patients can control their pain.My mum who was given two years to live with bone cancer(the most painful) actually died peacefully within 3 months from the high dose of morphine she needed, and her children were able to unite and bond through caring for her in her own home.A time which Euthanasia would have stolen from her and us, as she thought she was a burden.
Posted by: Julie James | 03/06/2012 at 06:41 PM
DYING WITH DIGNITY 23 March 2012

I support the right to die with dignity and for that reason joined the DWD organisation a few years ago.

1. Each individual deserves the right to make up their minds based on their own beliefs and decisions NOT on what someone else thinks.

2. Those who are terminally ill and suffering must be allowed that choice, and be allowed to die in a way that does not impact so dreadfully on their partner and loved ones, who have to stand by and watch their suffering.
I saw this as a small child - when a wonderful neighbour who had always been so kind to us was dying from cancer - we used to visit but remembering his suffering and deterioration overrides the happy images of him. The sad ones are uppermost AND this is a DREADFUL way to have to remember a person. The suffering was something he did not deserve. The impact on others is sickening.
3. People who live alone really don’t want to be found in a rotten state by poor emergency service workers who will carry this horrific memory with them forever. People who live alone deserve the right to die with dignity. There have been cases of bodies or even skeletons being found years later. How dreadful.

4. My own mother was a very private person but had to allow other people to attend to her every need - she had no choice - and it was dreadful to see her retreat within herself at these indignities. [Doctors had given her conflicting drugs without checking and that brought about her condition]

The person that she was had died long before she eventually died – locked into a body that did not work - ruined by drugs that conflicted and left her in a dreadful state.
Again – the first image that comes to mind of my mother – was watching her whole persona change after it was destroyed by drugs and watching her deteriorate over years and then horrifically in death when she was no more than skin and bones - nothing like the intelligent, active, fun, and good friend that she had been as my mother - it was dreadful and the image will remain very strongly