End the Pain?

We never really know what a situation feels like unless we’re dropped into it. We never truly understand what someone else is going through unless we are put through it. A disturbing thought nonetheless, but think of this: imagine being terminally ill with an unbearable pain tainting your final days. Your only respite is a drug that you know will only suppress the torment temporarily but never fully eradicate it.

Euthanasia is a topic that has become more prevalent in political discussions over the last decade or two. The bill to legalise it has been rejected in Parliament and we, as a country believe that no human being has the right to decide when to end their own life. At least that’s what the law portrays. There is only so close you can come to envisioning the feeling of a terminally ill patient and only they know what they feel. This is where the country’s law fails. A group of people who stand fit and healthy are denying those terminally ill the chance to end their suffering. A decision made by those who aren’t affected by the consequences of it.

There are many groups who continue to argue against the euthanasia bill and state that the country should be looking at care available to patients before considering it. Care Not Killing is among the leading organizations put in place to subdue the ever-growing euthanasia proposal. The alliance, that was formed in 2004, consists of 40 different organizations (disability rights movement, doctors, etc) who are against euthanasia and who look to promote more and better palliative care.

Alistair Thomson, a spokesperson for the organization thinks that we can still get better in this area to improve patients’ lives: “The problem that we see is, we have some of the best palliative care, doctors, and nurses anywhere in the world, and some of the best hospitals and hospices, but access to these services and these very skilled and talented individuals is not universal. Where we tend to find problems are where you see services cut, limited or in some way restricted because of their geographical location. That’s why we say before ever considering changing the law on assisted suicide or euthanasia, we need to ensure the very best quality of care is provided to everybody regardless of age, ability, race or geographical location.”

He said: “The biggest case put against proposals for euthanasia is the need to make this palliative care better and over the last decade it has developed. We’ve seen massive strides forward in the range of medications and treatments available to people-combination therapy, and the prospect of using very targeted therapy are all very exciting developments that we’re seeing which could substantially boost the care.”

According to research from the Zurich Institute of Legal Medicine, "one in five people who travel to end their own lives in Dignitas are from Britain-second only to Germany. It is beyond belief that a terminally ill patient to has to travel across Europe to end their own lives. This happens frequently and Thomson admits this is very upsetting: “The medical end has become very cutting edge and very specialised, but we do have some concerns about the social care end of this. We saw only a couple of years ago the very tragic case of Marie Lopez who was a woman with a severe form of Crohn’s disease who required about 38 hours of care a week. Due to the cut to her care package-which reduced it down to just a couple of hours-she felt that the only option available to her was to take herself off to Dignitas because she felt isolated, lonely and that she had become a burden.”

As a result of a survey carried out by a pro-euthanasia group My Death, my Decision, 90 percent of the UK’s population believe assisted dying should be legalised for those terminally ill. Alistair believes that although there is more talk of Euthanasia within the UK the groups supporting its movement have not strengthened. He said: “It’s very static I would say and what you tend to see are the same groups and that hasn’t changed in a number of years.”

Thomson ultimately disagrees with Euthanasia and its human values: “I think it is really quite awful that we are considering going down this route or that some people push for this. It’s not that there haven’t been cases of individuals who have expressed what they say is a very clear and settled view but when you start to look below the surface what you tend to find are people who are fearing the condition and fearing becoming a burden. You find that over half of those choosing to end their lives do so because they fear to become a burden.”

There is also a cross-party group within Parliament called End Of Life Choices, where MSP’s come to discuss the option available to terminally ill patients. Liam McArthur, Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for Orkney, is a member of the group. He has opposing views to the anti-Euthanasia’s argument of prioritising palliative care before Euthanasia.

He said: “I think it is a false argument. I think we absolutely need excellent palliative care and I think some of what’s on offer at the moment in Scotland is of very high quality. I’m sure as our understandings of medicines and technologies advance, we’ll continue to need to invest to make sure that it remains of the highest quality.

“However, I think we need to recognise there are limits to what palliative care can do and there is still going to be a requirement to address those situations where people are enduring unbearable suffering despite the best efforts of modern medicine and medical professionals. It’s very much a question of making sure that we invest in palliative care, but we recognise there are situations and circumstances where palliative care-as good as it is-is never going to be sufficient.”

McArthur states that the strength of the argument to legalise Euthanasia has heightened over the past ten years or so: “I was a supporter of a bill that my former colleague brought forward in the 2007-2011 parliament which never made it through the consultations and never made it to the stage one process of the parliamentary procedure. I was then a signatory of Margo MacDonald’s first bill from 2011-2015 and was a signatory of the follow-up bill that Patrick Harvie took on. So I’ve been a long-standing supporter of this for a variety of reason but I think it really has struck me over the course of the last few years that public opinion on this is way out in front of where we are in terms of the political debate.

“That may be down to many things but I can’t imagine it doesn’t stem from the fact that more and more people have a lived experience of seeing a close family member or relative or friend going through an unbearable awful undignified end of life that was unnecessary. I think the more people see these real-life examples of how simply prolonging a life because that’s what’s expected-irrespective of the pain and suffering and indignity of the individual in question-can’t be right.”

The proposals for assisted suicide should not be looked at in a negative manner and a lot of professionals will point out the worrying possibilities of Euthanasia being misused. Liam is aware that if this bill was to pass, there are procedures in place for Individuals looking to end their lives. He said: “You could have an honest debate about what circumstances should assisted suicide be applied to. I accept that the safeguards in this are absolutely crucial and the individual should not be made to feel under any sort of external pressure. There should absolutely be precautions taken in terms of people’s mental state.”

He believes that legalising euthanasia is the right way to go: “I think that all of my MSP colleagues would be of a similar view. We demand for people, dignity in life and I think giving people dignity in death is as important in many respects.

I think that the advances we’ve made in palliative care should be celebrated but we’ve created a situation where people’s lives can be extended well beyond what would’ve been the case a number of years ago which in the main is fantastic. However, in certain situations, it’s giving rise to more and more of these circumstances where people are being forced to continue living in circumstances that are painful and deprive them of their dignity. That doesn’t seem humane to me.”

Asked if Euthanasia will ever be legalised, both experts gave differing opinions as you’d imagine. Thomson thinks Euthanasia will not become legal: “I certainly hope not and don’t believe there is any demand. The group that looks after doctors who care for people at the end of their lives is absolutely clear about what they say is needed. They say if you adequately care for someone’s physical and phycological needs, you don’t need to change the law.”

McArthur thinks euthanasia will be legalised in the future: “Yes. It may come incrementally. I think giving people confidence that the law can be changed in ways that don’t expose people to risks and pressure that some of those that oppose the legalisation suggest will be the case. I think it’s inevitable that the law will need to change.”

A topic that splits opinions, but euthanasia should be there for a more humane end to one’s life.