As we approach some tragic scenes with Hayley's death on Coronation Street, I thought I'd have my two-penneth on the touchy subject of euthanasia/assisted suicide. Now I know it's a bit deep and meaningful for me, but it does have some resinance and it is something that I feel quite strongly about.
Between disease and old age, there's a multitude of reasons that can reduce people's quality of life and its how we deal with people once their health deteriorates that concerns me. The Corrie story is horrific and it does show just how quickly diseases like cancer can strike and bring down someones quality of life. In fairness to the soap's, they tend to handle these situations very well and get some excellent advice, with Macmillan Cancer Support working with Corrie on the story.
All this helps to raise awareness of people's tragic situations with debillating disease and gets people talking. Talking and then taking notice is something that our politicians need to ponder as there has to be a better way to look after people. I've seen just how bad the effects of dementia can be, both with my own family and also with a recent experience on a bus where it was heartbreaking to watch a daughter deal with her elderly mother. The mother was clearly a dementia sufferer and you could sense the tension, frustration and despair at their situation from the daughter's actions. It was awful and reminded me of seeing a distant aunt, who had been at the top of her game and extremely intelligent, drop to barely knowing her own name and not recognising any of her family. Again, it was heartbreaking to watch.
So it makes me wonder, why do we treat people like this ? Is there a better way than try to eak out every last breath from people, regardless of their quality of life ?
When it comes to our pets, if they get into a hopeless situation they end up being put to sleep and whilst I'm not suggesting that we should be bumping people off left right and centre, there must be a better solution if people's quality of life gets really poor. I don't know what the answer is, but we need to be talking about it and getting our politicians to talk about it.
This brings me to a point that's a little closer to home as my Nanna (who's well in her 90's) is in a nursing home. She's not long been there and certainly isn't in the category where life is an existence rather than anything else, but there are a few of her cohorts who do seem that they don't enjoy any quality of life at all. It is quite upsetting to see and whilst I don't know any of there circumstances, you have to feel sorry for them as they sit motionless in a chair. Life does seem strange that we start in a helpless state and then we end up back in a helpless state in later life. I'm not suggesting that we have a euthanasia campaign, but it does worry me that we let people live an existence rather than a life as we don't know, or rather are too scared to ponder anything else.
I'm sure that the Corrie story will be handled with compassion and dignity and I hope it gets the country talking about premature death a bit more - I very much doubt that there will be a solution, but it will keep the debate moving and one day, hopefully before I'm old and can't cope, there might be another solution.
Between disease and old age, there's a multitude of reasons that can reduce people's quality of life and its how we deal with people once their health deteriorates that concerns me. The Corrie story is horrific and it does show just how quickly diseases like cancer can strike and bring down someones quality of life. In fairness to the soap's, they tend to handle these situations very well and get some excellent advice, with Macmillan Cancer Support working with Corrie on the story.
All this helps to raise awareness of people's tragic situations with debillating disease and gets people talking. Talking and then taking notice is something that our politicians need to ponder as there has to be a better way to look after people. I've seen just how bad the effects of dementia can be, both with my own family and also with a recent experience on a bus where it was heartbreaking to watch a daughter deal with her elderly mother. The mother was clearly a dementia sufferer and you could sense the tension, frustration and despair at their situation from the daughter's actions. It was awful and reminded me of seeing a distant aunt, who had been at the top of her game and extremely intelligent, drop to barely knowing her own name and not recognising any of her family. Again, it was heartbreaking to watch.
So it makes me wonder, why do we treat people like this ? Is there a better way than try to eak out every last breath from people, regardless of their quality of life ?
When it comes to our pets, if they get into a hopeless situation they end up being put to sleep and whilst I'm not suggesting that we should be bumping people off left right and centre, there must be a better solution if people's quality of life gets really poor. I don't know what the answer is, but we need to be talking about it and getting our politicians to talk about it.
This brings me to a point that's a little closer to home as my Nanna (who's well in her 90's) is in a nursing home. She's not long been there and certainly isn't in the category where life is an existence rather than anything else, but there are a few of her cohorts who do seem that they don't enjoy any quality of life at all. It is quite upsetting to see and whilst I don't know any of there circumstances, you have to feel sorry for them as they sit motionless in a chair. Life does seem strange that we start in a helpless state and then we end up back in a helpless state in later life. I'm not suggesting that we have a euthanasia campaign, but it does worry me that we let people live an existence rather than a life as we don't know, or rather are too scared to ponder anything else.
I'm sure that the Corrie story will be handled with compassion and dignity and I hope it gets the country talking about premature death a bit more - I very much doubt that there will be a solution, but it will keep the debate moving and one day, hopefully before I'm old and can't cope, there might be another solution.
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