The Assisted Dying Bill is generating a lot of headlines and there is a huge and well-organised campaign in support of it. So should we just allow the bill to be nodded through Parliament without any challenge or effective scrutiny? Is it simply a matter of accepting that people have a right to die in a way of their choosing? Would it be more accurate to call the Assisted Dying Bill the Assisted Suicide Bill?
What do you think?
Let me start by saying that I have had 2 experiences of family members going into hospital and having do not resuscitate notices posted on their notes without their knowledge or consent.
Let me tell you about the first occasion which was 12 years ago when my best friend and best man, who was nearly 40 years older than me, was taken into a local NHS Community Hospital with Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). The cause of UTI is often dehydration but the effect is that it sends the person quite mad and they start hallucinating and having visions. Once the UTI and dehydration are dealt with they usually return to being the sane rational person they were before the UTI. However, the doctors at the hospital took me to one side to say that they were putting a do not resuscitate notice above his bed and effectively asked me to agree to the machine he was on being turned off.
Naturally I challenged this and the DNR notice was removed and a few weeks later he left hospital as mentally sharp as ever.
I share this story to hopefully make you realise how easy it is for a doctor or other medical professional to place a DNR notice on someone’s notes without any prior consultation either with the patient or their next of kin. I have shared this experience with a number of other people and many have come back with comparable stories and experiences.
In view of this, isn’t there a danger that if the Assisted Dying Bill became law that the pressure to not only continue to issue DNRs but the pressure to increase the number of DNRs would lead to many people being pressured into agreeing to die or having DNR notices applied without their knowledge or consent?
I attended the DPAC & Allies Campaign Strategy Meeting Against Assisted Suicide today and one of the participants shared her story about a DNR being placed on her notes and when the medical staff were challenged by her asking “have you issued a DNR because I am disabled?” They did not know what to say. She then quoted her rights under the Equality Act 2010 and the DNR notice was removed.
One thing that we learnt through the Covid Pandemic was that many disabled people died because they were treated as dispensable and as lesser human beings.
The point was made, and it resonated with me, is that the Government should focus on assisting disabled people to live rather than putting pressure on them to accept assisted suicide.
There is a lot of information and briefings out there and below are links to some of them but I would encourage you to watch the documentary by disabled actor Liz Carr called ‘Better Off Dead! – here is the link https://youtu.be/-G_xF4dvS-U?feature=shared
If you have read this far can I encourage you to write to your MP and let them know your views and your concerns about Assisted Suicide. You can follow this link to find your MP and write to them https://www.writetothem.com/?a=westminstermp or you can follow this link to Not Dead Yet https://notdeadyetuk.co.uk/news-1
Over to you!
Kevin Daws
Choice at the End of Life bill – briefing from UK DDPO CRDP Monitoring Coalition https://dpac.uk.net/2024/10/choice-at-the-end-of-life-bill-briefing-from-uk-ddpo-crdp-monitoring-coalition/
Disability activists call for support to live with dignity https://dpac.uk.net/2024/10/disability-activists-call-for-support-to-live-with-dignity/
Not Dead Yet UK
Campaigners for ‘assisted dying’ in the UK say they want to change the law for terminally ill people, not for people with disabilities. So why should people with disabilities feel threatened by the campaigning? Read our response to this frequently asked question and others in our FAQs.
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