| It's a disgrace.I guess the people that voted against it have never had to watch a family member die with the agony cancer causes.And I would appreciate it if nobody comes on here to say people don't have to suffer, the pain can be controlled.It can't.They may be able to ease the pain in the early stages, but as disease progresses, the pain takes over.The best pain control that can be offered is morphine, or diamorphine (heroin) both are opioid drugs, and extremely constipating.My father had bowel cancer which caused a blockage in his bowel, so the last thing he needed was constipation.He was a big man, over 6 feet tall and 16st.Cancer ate him away.We watched him deteriorate over the course of a year.he was in constant agony.He spent his last weeks in hospital.Doubly incontinent, unable to eat and in a permanent state of delirium due to the truck load of drugs they were feeding him.In his few lucid momentsmhe pleaded with the doctors to kill him.He wanted to die to escape agonising pain he was in constantly.Eventually one of the doctors granted him that wish and gave him a huge dose of morphine.Half an hour later he was dead.I was, and still am, very gratefull to that doctor for ending his pain.My father suffered for months unnecessarily. The outcome was inevitable. His disease was terminal.What was the point in keeping him alive? He pleaded to be released from his pain but we couldn't help him.If he had had the option, he could have died at home (which is what he wanted)without months of poinntless suffering.He knew when he had had enough and wanted to die, but he was kept alive, and forced to suffer. |