It’s non news here, all states in Australia have Assisted Right to Die legislation. NSW was the last to pass such a law in 2022.
https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-2022-017#
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Yes exactly Bruce - as per links of different states provided by you and me.
I think it is controlled well here but easy enough to access for those meeting the criteria who want to do it.
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I’m surprised to see a comparison made between animals and humans… 
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I don’t like the term assisted suicide .
But to relieve suffering yes you should have the right to die ,as long as you aren’t being coerced into making a decision .
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My husband suffered from dementia for the final years of his life - in the main he was happy, it was me who found it very difficult because he wasn’t the man I knew. Eventually, as the dementia got worse he began falling over because he had ‘forgotten’ how to walk - falls happened several times a day, and night. Eventually a fall was so bad that he was taken to hospital where he deteriorated very quickly, refusing to eat. I was told that the part of his brain that told him that he was hungry had been damaged by the dementia. He was put on a drip to keep him alive and very slowly he declined until he went into a coma. When that happened all medication was stopped and the drip was removed - it took him 3 days to die. I’m not sure even now whether that could be called assisted dying but I do know that all I was told was that there was nothing more that could be done for him. He was in hospital for 8 weeks before he died. Should I have taken him home to die? Should I have asked for the treatment to stop earlier? I don’t know. All I do know is that when events are occurring it is extremely difficult to think clearly let alone make difficult decisions.
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Good post (I don’t mean that disrespectfully Margaret) but very sad, and my heart goes out to you and the struggles you had to endure.
I think this is a very personal thread on an over fifties site for people who have had to make that life ending decision. I can understand how hard it must be to enter into virtual conversation with people who have no idea of the pain and suffering it must cause to relive those terrible circumstances. Lets just hope that we never have to make the decision to end the life of a loved one…
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Or make the decision to end our own life, which many have done, and continue to do like Esther Rantzen for example who, when the time comes, will have to travel to another country to carry out her wishes.
The debate goes on, and has been going on for as long as i can remember.
The sad thing is that no one will make a decision, and again the subject will be pushed to one side and forgotten , until someone like Miss Rantzen raises the question again, putting it back in the spotlight.
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I find it helpful to discuss this topic on the basis of a working definition of each of the existing concepts for easy reference just to check that we mean the same thing Here’s one of each:
a) Assisted dying is generally used to describe a situation where someone who is terminally ill seeks medical help to obtain lethal drugs which they administer themselves.
b) Euthanasia is the act of deliberately ending a person’s life to relieve suffering, in which a lethal drug is administered by a physician…patients do not necessarily have to be terminal. (non-voluntary euthanasia not considered here)
c) Assisted suicide is intentionally helping another person to end their life. It can involve people who are not terminally ill.
(not necessarily suffering)
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The hospital do what they like , the same happenrd to my father
That is my biggest fear…
Someone being told/ having it implied (guilted into them) they they are a “burden” to their family…and they have lived a long life, why not just go on & go?
Or health professionals who don’t want to have to provide continuing care for someone who they deem has “low/ little quality of life”…
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Since it is difficult to make decisions in such cases as were described here, no one should find themselves in a situation where they’d have to make those decisions on their own. When my mother was dying, my brother, me, and other family members made a decision in close consultation with doctors and on the basis of an advance health care directive she had drawn up. I wouldn’t have wanted to make that decision all by myself.
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A bit like a firing squad Dachs, where one of the shooters is loaded with a blank cartridge. So you can live in the knowledge that it was your gun with the blank…
I don’t see the connection. What would’ve been the alternative?
The connection is that when several of you make the decision to end a loved ones life you won’t personally carry the guilt as much as if you alone had made the decision.
I’m sorry if it came over as insensitive Dachs…
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No, it didn’t and I had understood your first post to me in the same way. My point is: Even if it is as you describe, what’s wrong about it? Is making that decision all by oneself the better option?
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Margarets post (and dach’s I think) are describing withdrawing treatment or not giving treatment rather than actively doing something to end life.
That isnt the same as assisted dying which is doing something active (administration of drug to end life) rather than just not doing something or stopping doing something…
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No it isn’t Dachs, but sometimes you doubt your own decision, so If other family members feel the same it seems more agreeable.
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Leaving life should be allowed,
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Only if people are sure and not affected by some temporary mental illness Cinders…
Some things said in haste can not be reversed later… 
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What is haste if someone has suffered for a long time? Maybe witthout having a terminal desease. There are people who suffer because … life is not working out for them.
Who decides what is a temporary mental problem/illness or is not ‘temporary’?
If somebody decides - makes his own decision to terminate his life, what if he/she/it/whatever is forced to continue to endure that because some people decided that it is illegal to terminate hi/her/xyz own life?
it is like being in a prision I imagine.
Imagene: someone drinke 20 pints of beer, thinks that life is a piece of shyte and decides to jump from the highest bridge. OK?
No, who is someone to say “no, you are not alllowed to do that, you must be healed?”
I think that If we have one decision to make, then that is, wethere we want to live.
… ok, unless you are a member of a religion whose god threatens you with eternal hell if you take your own decision.
Just my humble thoughts on that topic, being an atheist, having helped my mother to say “goodbye” (with the help of a doctor).