Euthanasia.

[KateLMead]

It is in the news again.
In the Netherlands little tablets are handed out as a gift to the elderly/aged whether they are in good health or bad. "when you have had enough make a nice warm drink and take this little pill problem solved "your dead
I wonder whether this constant bleating with regard to the costs of the elderly are a run up to handing us all that little tablets, when we are fed up we can pop it into our mouths job done. The properties of those who have no relatives will be claimed by the government, nice little earner.
We have had and still have Pathway, how long before the dishing out that little white pill to those over seventy fit or unfit?.

[cromwell]

It's a mixed picture. If I had been diagnosed with a terminal illness perhaps having the little white pill option would not be so bad.

However the law of unintended (?) consequences may end up applying. With relatives tapping their feet and thinking "It's so inconsiderate of Uncle Fred not to take himself off this mortal coil. We're having to run around after him now he can't look after himself; it's not fair".
Or the elderly patient in hospital being made to feel selfish because they are costing the NHS so much?

My worry is that it would become seen as selfish not to take the pill!

[Workingman]

Euthanasia is a double-edged sword that will never be blunted, as Cromwell notes.

One development announced this week is that Belgium has provisionally passed laws doing away with any lower age limit - children can (choose to be) euthanised.

[Kaz]

Oh no - that's just wrong

[KateLMead]

It doesn't bear thinking about....

[KateLMead]

Well this practice has not quite escaped the news, one of the countries most distinguished judges Baroness Butler-Sloss has stated. "Allowing the terminally ill to be killed would cross the line in the sand toward euthanasia
Falconer (I refuse to call this man by the title given to the fool who failed in every department he ran. a flat mate of B'Liar in his young days) is the campaigner for "the Right To Die"I would put him down for a start if this Nazi practice ever came to be recognised openly, rather than carrying out this merciless practice undercover.

[cromwell]

Just had a thought. In the Telegraph the other day it said that pensioners face paying up to £150,000 for their care in old age (if they have it, I suppose).
Faced with that sort of a bill, how many would choose to end their own life, just so that their children inherited their money instead?

[KateLMead]

I am amazed the amount of Aid we tax payers donate to countries like China, Africa, India and elsewhere, it runs into billions..but governments cannot and will not look after our own. How much financial help have our own countrymen and women received whose lives and homes have been destroyed by floods? What a legacy for the future generation who will take these shocking laws and this cold indifference as the norm..
We do not have anyone in power whom we can trust.

[Kaz]

Oh Kate I do so agree with your last post. It makes me so cross

Cromwell that has occurred to me too, and the idea of it is horrible My parents left my sister and I their savings and their flat to sell, but we would gladly have given back every penny to have them back again........... I would give everything I own to hear my dad say "Hello my lovely" one more time and to feel him hug me.......

[Aggers]

What a depressing subject.

In a way it makes me glad that my span of life must be nearing its conclusion.

I've had a wonderful life - not a lot of wealth but lots of happiness.

The future certainly doesn't look as good as the past does.

(But I'll do my best to make this Christmas one of my happiest.)