Marie Fleming has been fighting with the courts
over the past number of months for her right to die via assisted suicide. Marie
has MS (find more info here) and at present has no motor
function. This means that Marie will not be able to take her own life without
assistance. What she has been looking for is essentially that her partner Tom
will not be prosecuted when it comes to the time that she decides
it’s time to go.
Why does Marie not go to Switzerland to avail
of Dignitas?
Dignitas is an association in Switzerland who if you are a member you can avail
of assisted/accompanied suicide ~ “DIGNITAS – To live with dignity - to die
with dignity”
Taken from www.dignitas.ch here are the prerequisites for preparation of assisted suicide:
"In
order to access the service of an accompanied suicide, someone has to:
- be a member of DIGNITAS,
and
- be of sound judgement, and
- possess a minimum level of physical mobility
(sufficient to self-administer the drug).
Because the
co-operation of a Swiss medical doctor (physician) is absolutely vital in ob- taining the required drug, further prerequisites
mean that the person must have:
- a disease which will lead to death (terminal
illness), and/or
- an unendurable incapacitating disability,
and/or
- unbearable and uncontrollable pain."
As you can see above, the person must be able to self-administer.
Marie has passed this point, therefore can not avail of this 'service'. Tom
explained on The Late Late Show that Marie was not ready to die when she would
have been able to avail of Dignitas.
I, as an able bodied individual, have the ability
to end my life as and when I want. When then does Marie not have this right
just because her hands are failing her? She is of sound mind, there is no
malice in Tom wanting to help her, why not let him assist her and let her pass
with some dignity.
I am writing this from a very passionate place. I
have worked in various places with people who have debilitating diseases, or
have been in accidents that has left them with very little function. Many of
these people have expressed that when it gets to a certain point they no longer
wish to live. That is their choice, who the hell is anyone to
take that away from them.
If anyone who I love needed my help in a situation
like this, there is no doubt that I would do whatever I could. I could not
stand by and allow them to suffer, cause that is what is happening when they
reach that point.
I would love for those that disagree to
put themselves in this position; you can't get yourself out of bed in the
morning, you can't wash yourself, you can't feed yourself, you can't take a
drink, you can’t brush your hair, you can't wash your teeth, you can't dress
yourself, you can't turn the page of a book yourself... The list goes on and on
and on. You get to the point that you have had enough and are fed up with life.
But your disability/disease has gotten to the point that you can't do this on
your own. You need help, but you are worried that if you get help, that person
will be sent to jail.
How the hell is this democratic society.
'it
will open the floodgates to assisted suicide'
'where
will it stop'
'sure you
will have people killing off their relations to get their money'
Jesus is this not the reason we pay legislators a
lot of money to put the proper and appropriate barriers and safeguards in place
so that people who are in a vulnerable position are not taken advantage of
etc.
This is an issue that really frustrates me. I
really feel that people who are in the same position as Marie should be given
the choice to end their lives as and when they see fit, and if this means
allowing them some assistance so be it.
Có
