Under the weather but fighting for Breath
Dr Jennifer Lee Yount Spencer
Healthcare Fellow, Researcher & Affiliate, three depts, U of Cambridge at University of Cambridge; Expert Witness; Clinical Tutor; Publisher; Author
Recognizing the selfishness of family and friends in the latter stages of life.
In parliament this week some people have suggested the "assisted dying" agenda be raised again. It is discouraging that people are insisting upon raising an unambiguously morally wrong agenda once more. The UK's culture has already been assessed in respect of legislation like this. We already know that the selfishness of relatives must be curtailed, so that those who are older or vulnerable for other reasons with disease can live out a happy, high quality life that is as long as possible.
The horror of assisted suicide rocked my own family when my step-mother talked my father into engaging in the practice of assisted dying as a palliative doctor in Oregon for a few years. He learned the true measure of suffering that can be brought to bear on a vulnerable person , when selfish family members believe it is possible to encourage the vulnerable one to want to die.
It is the most inappropriate legislation brought before parliament this year. The selfishness of family members, often hidden behind a veil of manipulative cruelty, cannot be allowed to be considered normal.