As an occupational therapist who has worked in a palliative care environment for around 10 years I have always believed that individuals who have capacity should be able to choose when and how they die based on the view that can’t be easy to admit that life is so bad you want to die; but it must be even harder to know that you can’t kill yourself and have to ask for help but be refused.
I was really interested therefore to hear Baroness Finlay speak against the now rejected Assisted Dying Bill at the COT conference in
The Assisted Dying Bill suggests that in order to meet the criteria for assisted suicide a person must have a terminal illness and consider them self to have intolerable suffering. They must also have the capacity to make this judgement and to request the right to die, but capacity cannot be taken at face value. The responsibility for determining mental capacity lies with health care professionals and Baroness Finlay suggests that this may include occupational therapists.
Could I or anyone else really assess the quality of a person’s life and then judge whether or not it constituted intolerable suffering? Is this even possible? If I concurred with the patients view does this mean they have capacity and can be allowed to die? What if they have a better day tomorrow? What if I am wrong?
It is with some regret that I have to conclude that although I still believe in a person’s right to choose when and how to die, I honestly don’t think I could help them do it. Until these issues and more are resolved, I do not believe the Bill should be passed.
4 comments:
Many years ago when I was a nurse, I looked after terminally ill people and when I came to give them their diamorphine, I knew that that does could be the one to actually 'kill' them. It never stopped me giving it to them though.
I've always worried a little that someone could ask to die, but actually have a treatable depression at that time - and if their depression was treated adequately, they may feel quite differently.
I also wonder whether it would lead to the eventual erosion of the belief that human life is precious. On the other hand, if I could no longer communicate, respond or appreciate the world around me, then I think I'd like the opportunity to die peacefully rather than gasp by gasp.
This is an issue that provokes quite extreme responses! I've discussed it recently with quite a few people some who are palliative care workers, some not.
Generally peoples responses seem to be influenced by their professional knowledge, religion, personal experience, what they feel they would want for themselves, their definition of suffering and the stage at which someone asked to die.
I'm thinking that if those views are typical, and agreement is so hard to reach even hypothetically, how would this ever work in practice?
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