OPINION: Why I’m in favour of euthanasia – Offaly Express

Tribune columnist Patsy McGarry says he'll go abroad to end it all if he gets Alzheimer's

OUR beloved mother died on June 1 last. She was 92 and wouldve been 93 had she survived until her birthday on August 24. Over recent years she had Alzheimers, a relatively mild form which mainly affected her short-term memory, but she recognised us family up to weeks before she died. Even in those latter, dimmer days, there were regular flashes of recognition.

She had been in a nursing home for three years, since 2018. She would have hated it. Her final two weeks were hell on earth for her and those of us looking on. She was distressed and in great pain, eased by a wonderful staff as far as possible.

None of this was unforeseen either by her or by us. A nurse before she got married, she knew what might be ahead. She had also been a regular visitor to the nursing home, where her own sister had died in 2000, as well as other relatives and friends.

Frequently in conversations afterwards, as she recalled the various conditions of decrepitude of some residents there, she would say to us sure ye wont ever let me go like that. This was not just off-the-cuff wishful thinking on her part. She could see no purpose in prolonging a life where the quality had disappeared, including her own. A down-to-earth no-nonsense woman, she knew what she was saying. So did we.

But, there was nothing we could do about it when it came to the crunch where her own life was concerned, as she and we struggled through those hellish weeks last May with their inevitable conclusion clear to us all long before it happened.

Another resident in that nursing home over recent years was a man we remembered from our childhood as a big, genial presence in every sense of those words whose sons would be of an age with and good friends of ours. For years before his death he sat shrunken into a husk in the nursing home, withered to bone with no awareness and endlessly clapping his two bony hands together.

It was clear that everyone involved with him, his carers and family, were putting in the time awaiting the end if not actually wishing for it where this poor man was concerned. The man I knew as a child would have been outraged had he foreseen his own helplessness, there bereft of all dignity before all and sundry. He would have been deeply humiliated. As difficult for him would be the realisation that his family would witness this day-in, day-out before merciful death stopped by.

Personally, I have no wish to spend my last days a prisoner of Alzheimers and have, like my mother, told family dont ever let me go like that. I know, as Irish law is at the moment, that there is little they will be able to do about that either. So I tell them that at the first hint of the disease, I am off to where I can take care of things myself. And as more and more countries legalise euthanasia my choice just gets greater year after year.

With an increasing number of us developing Alzheimers as we live longer, I doubt I am alone in thinking along these lines. The same applies to people with other incurable diseases. Why should anyone be forced to suffer on, just to accommodate the consciences of those who disagree?

And they are out there as vociferously opposed to euthanasia as they were to contraception, divorce, same sex marriage, abortion. What gives these people a 'right' to insist the rest of us should be obliged by law to live by their beliefs whatever we may believe themselves?

Why cant they be content with living in a country where they are free, without impediment, to live by their own beliefs? No one insists that they live contrary to those beliefs and be forced to use contraceptives, divorce, enter a same sex marriage, or have an abortion.

Why should cervical cancer sufferer Vicky Phelan, now in the final stages of that disease, be forced to suffer on because someone else believes she should? As she said in a weekend Sunday Times interview: Just because you believe something for your own reasons, whether theyre religious or other, you shouldnt be imposing your beliefs on somebody else.

Nobodys allowed to give you a magic injection to make you go any faster and I dont want to be lingering for my kids, she said. She had seen people die and didnt want her children to witness her death rattle.

In Ireland euthanasia is banned by law not the Constitution and that can be changed by decision of the Dail. Vicky Phelan backed the recent unsuccessful Dying with Dignity Bill when it was introduced there. Around since 2015, when it was introduced in the Dail by the independent Waterford TD John Halligan, its latest sponsor was People Before Profit/Solidarity TD Gino Kenny. His Bill sought to make it legal for a medical practitioner to help a terminally ill person to end their life in a dignified and peaceful way.

Last July however the Oireachtas Justice Committee decided that the Bill was unfit for purpose and could not proceed. Committee chairman, Fianna Fil TD James Lawless, said it had serious technical issues in several sections and that it may have unintended policy consequences. A particular concern was that it lacked sufficient safeguards to protect against undue pressure being put on vulnerable people to avail of assisted dying.

It was recommended that a special Oireachtas committee be set up to examine the topic and report within a specific timeframe, as was used in considering abortion legislation. Nothing has happened since so Gino Kenny is planning to table a new Bill next year, titled the End of Life Choice Bill 2022, which he said would address criticisms made of the earlier Bill.

On November 7 last assisted dying became legal in New Zealand following a referendum last year and will apply to people with less than six months to live.

Spanish legislators voted last March to allow doctor-assisted suicide and euthanasia for long-term patients with terminal illnesses and for people with unbearable permanent conditions. The law came into force there in June, making Spain the sixth country to legalise euthanasia. Other such countries include Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Canada and Colombia. Since 2016 terminally ill patients in France have the right to continuous deep sedation until death.

Frankly, such is the momentum on this issue, nationally and in Europe, it is only a matter of time before assisted dying is available in Ireland.

Assisted dying refers to both voluntary active euthanasia and physician-assisted death. The difference is in the degree of a doctor's involvement. Voluntary active euthanasia involves the doctor playing an active role in the patient's request to die, usually by supplying an intravenous lethal substance.

Doctor-assisted death implies that the medical personnel provides the patient with the lethal means to end it all themselves, meaning it's the patient who employs them.

Passive euthanasia is when a patient suffering from an incurable disease decides not to apply life-prolonging treatments, such as artificial nutrition or hydration. This is not uncommon already in Ireland, as is the practice of refusing treatment which will only prolong, not cure, a terminal illness.

However it's important not to confuse passive euthanasia with withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in the person's best interests. This latter can be part of palliative care and is not necessarily euthanasia.

So, in the awful eventuality that I might succumb to Alzheimers, it may not now be necessary for me to go abroad to end it all.

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OPINION: Why I'm in favour of euthanasia - Offaly Express