Dying with Dignitas

 
I just finished watching this thing about Dignitas, the assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it, I have to say.

I'm all for helping people who're suffering from a terminal illness that will kill them (sometimes horribly) anyway, but there was this woman whose husband was dying and she wanted Dignitas to help her die too because she didn't want to live without him. And they considered her case! Fortunately someone, somewhere had some sense because they turned her down. It's sad, though, because you can just tell that when she gets home without him, she'll kill herself. I mean, I get being married for fifty odd years and not wanting to be without your spouse, but in a situation like that - an instance where, essentially, there's nothing wrong with you - can't be dealt with by someone else. And in a way, it's unfair to ask someone else to help you along.

What happens, basically, is you're given some medication to strengthen your stomach - something to stop you vomiting, I guess - and then you have some time to speak with your loved ones, listen to your favourite music, whatever, and then, when you're ready, they give you an oral anaesthetic in a high dose. Sure, you want to go to sleep, but you don't want to go to sleep and then wake up (how pissed would you be?!). They have to video this bit so there's proof that you're drinking it yourself and not being coerced, which is a little weird, but in accordance with the law. And then, pretty much, you go to sleep and in a period of time, you...Well, you stay asleep in a rather permanent way.

I think it's nice that there's somewhere people can go - in picturesque Switzerland - and get help in this way. It'd be much too hard, and wrong, to ask your spouse or someone else to give you a hand. It's also nice to know that from the beginning of your life, right to the very end, you have a choice.

I've always said that if I wind up with a degenerative illness or terminal cancer or something, I'll live until I feel that I can't anymore and take the "coward's" way out. I think it's fairer on the sick person and fairer (though no less difficult) on their family.

It's not an easy thing to think about or address, really, but I think this clinic is a helpful thing provided that the candidates are looked at carefully; It's important that there aren't people who are choosing this as a way out because they feel like they're a burden on their family, for instance. I wish more governments would give it a thought...For example, there's a bloke here in Oz - South Australia, or somewhere - who's dying and he went to court to fight for the right to die. So, his wishes have been granted and the hospital he's in is not feeding him so he can die. In a weird way, he won, but in a horrible way, this poor dude is going to starve to death, rather than be able to take a nice smooth ride to somewhere else. I mean, doctors help people die all the time, just quietly, so why is this such an untouchable subject? Yes, the Hippocratic Oath comes in - as it invariably does in medicine - but at some point keeping someone alive does more harm than good.

Anyway. Never mind that. It was an interesting programme and I'm glad that there was some more light shone on it.