These JAW-DROPPING Remarks Are Terrifying!

Right, so of all the terrible and terrifying things this Labour government has done since coming into power, perhaps nothing has quite stoked division and fear as much as the upcoming assisted dying bill, being voted on today, the debate has just begun at time of writing and I’ll admit to being conflicted on this myself, the idea that terminally ill people should be able to choose to end their own deaths, rather than suffer through the awful ravages of an incurable condition, seems a reasonable, but safeguards should also be rigorous and it should be the decision of the individual affected and nobody else.
That isn’t what we’re getting though. What we’re getting is a seemingly rushed through policy, where safeguards are highly questionable and the comments of the Labour MP who has driven this policy to the point we’re at now has herself just said something so inexplicably horrifying, it brings into question the real motivations behind this bill, that it isn’t to help those living through a death sentence condition, but to help people shuffle off this mortal coil for other far more harrowing reasons that really should mark a pause until this is bill is tightened up and frankly far more ethical than it is right now.
Right, so the assisted dying bill is getting voted on today and nobody frankly can predict how this is going to go, a lot of MPs from all over are unhappy with it, the lack of safeguarding raising concerns amongst disability organisations, notably DPAC, Disabled People Against Cuts, but many others as well, people genuinely fearing that there will not be adequate protections in place against mistakes being made, which of course are not exactly correctable, if your life has been ended. I’ve thought of this way, perhaps unfairly actually, but we did away with the death penalty because justice is not perfect and mistakes got made and fundamentally that is case here too, except mistakes can be made in all manner of different ways here from incorrect terminal diagnoses, to Do Not Resuscitate orders being falsely placed on a patients notes. On top of that there have been fears of coercion being used, the fear that family members getting a say in ending someone’s life could be done for economic and financial reasons rather than medical ones and that those who will be most affected by that, will be from the lowest economic backgrounds, therefore seemingly coming from the perspective of the wealthy doing away with ordinary working class people of no value to them anymore.
I’ve been wrestling with this issue, this idea of assisted death. I lost my father to terminal cancer in 2009, all treatments were tried, his body just simply didn’t respond to them. Macmillan Nurses were brilliant, he passed away peacefully at home, but it was 6 months of watching this disease ravage him and leaving him a shell of his former self and you can’t help but think in that position, if only he could have been spared the worst of that.
My mother as regular viewers will know, I lost very recently, at the end of September. She had been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease some 18 months previously, an incurable disease that leaves you trapped within your body as it packs up around you essentially and again, once that diagnosis was nailed on, only one outcome possible and seeing her ability to eat, drink and communicate all pack up before that final release, you can’t help but think there’s got to be a better way than this to end people’s suffering.
As their eldest child and knowing that much of their ongoing care, especially in mums case, was deferred to me, I can’t imagine being put in the position of being asked if I want to end their lives though. That should have always been their decision and decision alone if they had had that option and both were in sound enough mind to have done so I think at time of final diagnosis. Mum certainly opted for that DNR knowing the outcome for her, that was much as she could put in place.
But the lack of safeguards in this bill means ultimately I couldn’t support this now.
DNR’s get abused in hospitals, there have been multiple instances of this and until that is rectified, we’re going too fast by trying to pass this bill and a classic example has been shared by Dr Callum Miller on Twitter, who said:
‘I once witnessed a Do Not Resuscitate conversation as follows: - Consultant informed by junior team that one patient "needs a DNAR" - note that the reasons are rarely discussed in any detail at all - Doctor approaches bed on ward round, in bay in view of other patients
Doctor: Good morning
Patient: Hello
Doctor: So, sometimes in hospital, things can go wrong and so if that happens and your heart stops, I think we'll just let you go quietly, OK? Patient: *mortified face*... OK?
End conversation
his was the worst case, but there have many cases I've seen that are not too dissimilar And frankly, any of us who have had elderly relatives in hospital (or work there) can relate. It is actually pretty rare for DNR decisions to be discussed with patients - even rarer for that discussion to happen before the form is signed.
Question for the assisted suicide/euthanasia folks is: why are you so convinced that euthanasia conversations will go any better, in a medical culture like this and in a resource-stretched NHS as this? If you think they will, you are 100% delusional.’
That is horrifying, that should not ever happen, but we know it does and here we have a Doctor telling us it does as well and he’s seen it. Why would you think it would go better for legalised euthanasia?
Going back a stage though there is the matter of diagnosis. How many times have we read of people being given a terminal diagnosis, told the have X number of months to live, and yet live much longer?
The Tory Fibs Twitter account asked the question of his followers if they knew someone who had lived for a long time after doctors told them they only had a short time to live and he plenty of responses. Here’s a few examples:
Fanxxxxtastic wrote:
‘Yes my dad, he had stomach cancer they had to remove most of his stomach they first said he would be lucky to survive the op, they then give him a week, then a month this went on & a year or so later he was given the all clear in the end he died of a heart attack 10 years later.’
Connor wrote:
‘Yep, my mum, diagnosed with stage 3b lung cancer in 2017, given a ds1500 form, had a secondary tumour in her brain. This December, she is being discharged from the hospital, given the all clear from both. They called her a medical marvel, and I feel blessed to still have her here’
And Dave MJ wrote:
‘My wife, extreme pain, diagnosed stage4 lung cancer (spread spine/brain/hips) told Feb 2017 may see Xmas. Easter 2017 put on a new drug, by summer her snooker ball sized lung cancer had shrunk to marble size. Just celebrated 50th birthday and promotion, with no signs of cancer’
New treatments save lives, as examples here have shown, but if you can just have your life ended, where is the incentive to search for cures to currently uncurable health conditions?
None of this is being catered for in this bill and then of course there is the issue that has undermined everything, which is a terrifying comment coming from the Labour MP behind this bill, right-winger Kim Leadbeater and again, underlines all the fears regarding safeguards that people have after Leadbeater implied that fears of being a burden could be a legitimate reason to seek death.
That is a whole different argument and has nothing to do with terminal illness at it’s root, that goes beyond. People who have mental illness will more likely feel like a burden on loved ones, those of us who suffer depression may have felt like that from time to time, but Leadbeater has argued that feeling like that legitimises personal choice to die, rather than medical reasoning, saying she wouldn’t want to be a burden.
Societal coercion has entered her head, she’s all well Keir Starmer agrees with this and I’m thinking I bet he does, he’s now possibly thinking along with Rachel Reeves how they can get benefits bill down if a few more claimants can be made to feel like burdens and offer them a way out. I mentioned DPAC earlier, they amongst others are protesting outside of parliament today encouraging people to vote no, the messaging from them is to assist them to live before you assist them to die and really this isn’t something anyone should have to protest against, somebody else potentially having a say in ending your life and I cannot help but be reminded, rightly or wrongly, that Leadbeater herself is only an MP, because her own sister had her life ended by someone else, Jo Cox. Yes she was murdered, but if this goes through with all the lack of safeguards, then isn’t this legalised murder in waiting? Surely it would just be a matter of time before such an event occurred?
I don’t support this in it’s current form, it’s not secure enough and Leadbeater’s comments are terrifying. A government that would rather end your life than support you to live as this bill stands and it’s Labour MP backer has seemingly made explicit and should it pass, we’ve plenty of reason to be fearful. Any of us could be struck down tomorrow and our lives changed, you’d hope you’d be supported in that, but that might not be true going forwards.
This is a Labour government that doesn’t seem to believe in supporting the people of this country, but actively avoid it. Where we’re talking end of life here, the other day another Labour MP got rinsed for choosing charity campaigning over government help to deal with the massive flooding in the wake of Storm Bert, rinsing is probably the most appropriate adjective to use here, but get all the details of that story in this video recommendation here and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.