Voluntary assisted dying (VAD) has been legal in Victoria since 2019, meaning people like Miki’s mum who are suffering from a degenerative condition can choose to take certain medication to end their life.
But healthcare providers can refuse to facilitate VAD if they object to it on ethical grounds.
This is the situation Miki and her mother found themselves in.
“I was really shocked to learn that a publicly funded hospital could have policies that existed on ideological or religious grounds,” Miki says.
“Someone like my mum, who can’t talk, can’t move, can’t advocate for themselves… is facing just about as many barriers as a person can face. So every little hurdle that’s added to that is just an enormous stress to overcome.”
Hoping it will become law in Scotland before much longer, there’s been debates and calls for it to happen for years. This taking a loved one to a country that allows it, then being arrested and charged on your return really makes my blood boil.
As for letting our pets suffer, we would end up in jail if we did anything like keeping them alive in pain and suffering.
Wsh they had brought that law here in the UK when my father passed away. It as horrible seeing hin in the last few days of his life, just a living skeleton
It’s crazy when you think about how some people die gasping for breath and no relief from their suffering. I’ve watched someone aged 90 with COPD dying. That is horrific. She was crying out for her mother. The hospital staff could only give her oxygen. I will never forget the look in her eyes. I watched my father die too but he was unconscious. The suffering was in the weeks before. At one point he ground his teeth so hard in agony that the fixed bridge broke. At least his suffering was only a couple of months. Some people are in terrible pain and with no quality of life for years.
It shouldn’t be a crime if they desperately want to end that suffering but cannot do so themselves. There should be some sort of formal process where people can die in dignity instead of living in what is a horror story, their former life and any good times and happiness forgotten. I particularly believe that where people are being kept alive artificially, using technology that didn’t exist in the past, that it is not unethical to allow them to die a painless death if that is their wish. In countries where the death sentence applies, we are more humane to the worst murderers.
100% agree with that AnnieS…We have some very harsh conditions for serious offenders, and rightly so…Pussy Footing About with Murders and Sexual Predator’s of various types…Death when Found Guilty of these Hideous Crimes…
Stranger than Strange some of the Laws…
I don’t agree with the death penalty, but when people are put to death, the most humane methods are used. Yet the innocents in our societies can die with great suffering, food and water withdrawn and in great pain and distress.
Don’t get me wrong though, as I myself cannot kill a Slug these days, even
I just feel they should not be allowed to Live a Life went they kill maimed purposefully with intent to even kill then or raped a person…
not sure about the rape actually has at least they should have to be castrated…
