If you have been affected by the issues in this programme, you can call Samaritans free from any phone on 116 123 (it will not appear on your phone bill), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit www.samaritans.org to find details of your nearest branch. The Motor Neurone Disease Association also provides support to people affected by motor neurone disease in England, Wales and NI - 03457 626262 or visit The Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Research suggests that one person a fortnight travels from the UK to Switzerland to end their lives. Often they will have a terminal illness but it isn’t always the case.
In 2015, 75-year old Gill Pharoah’s trip to Lifecircle was well-publicised. Indeed, she wrote a blog for The Sunday Times about her choice. In her case, she didn’t have a terminal illness although a bad case of shingles had left her unable to do many of the things she once enjoyed. Her fears were, as a former palliative care nurse who had seen many people die, that she might experience an undignified death. Having decided that her life was complete, Gill Pharoah travelled to Switzerland in the summer of 2015. In this video her partner Johan Southall defends her decision.
Should assisted suicide be available for people who aren’t terminally ill?
Are there alternatives to assisted suicide that enable people to die with dignity?
Would you support a friend or relative who wanted to travel to Switzerland to end their lives?
What are your thoughts? Have your say in the comments section below:
PLEASE NOTE: This discussion hub is intended for discussing the issues surrounding assisted suicide and the right to die, please do not use it for personal attacks on any individuals – either those featured in the programme or others using the hub. Any comments along this line will be removed.
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If I get cancer, there are treatments that I would try, but I would be very reluctant to have chemo, as I have seen what it did to my mum. If I knew that I was going to be ill ir in pain for the rest of my life and that there was no real hope of regaining a good quality of life, then I would like to have the choice of assisted suicide.
I have had to put several pets to sleep when they became ill. It is always a very difficult decision - until the point comes when you know it is the kindest thing, the least selfish thing that we can do for them. It is done out of love.
Of course there must be safeguards - and this programme showed that the Swiss have put good safeguards in place. It can be done. I think the UK should allow its citizens the same choice. We should not have to go to another country for this kindness.
I hope the politicians will think more deeply about this. The most telling point of Simon's Choice for me was when the lady at the clinic in Basel was speaking to Debbie and saying that we tend to treat the terminally ill as though they were children who could not make decisions for themselves. Debbie could not understand Simon's desperation until he tried to hang himself. Our politicians are like that, treating those asking for assisted suicide as though they were children, not understanding their dreadful desperation.
I really hope that this programme will help to bring about a change in UK law, sooner rather than later. I hope that, for once, neither the antis nor the superficial media in this country will prevail.