A Scottish woman starved and dehydrated herself to death to get around the law which bans euthanasia. The 75-year old with motor neurone disease received advice from a campaign group which supports terminally ill patients who want to end their lives. It has now reignited the debate on assisted suicide.
Dr Libby Wilson, medical adviser for campaign group Friends at the End, described the Scottish woman’s case to stv news. Dr Wilson said: “She had motor neurone disease and she was very disabled. She couldn’t speak properly and she just decided that she didn’t want to go on and on until she got to the stage where she couldn’t swallow her own saliva and she would actually choke to death.” The retired GP gave advice to the woman who ended her life by not eating or drinking for 25 days – because euthanasia is illegal in Britain.
She said: “Still the thought of depriving yourself of fluids, it’s dreadful that people have to even think about it.”
That’s terrible. It’s horribly depressing seeing what people have to go through simply because people are too narrow minded to allow others to die the way they want.
George Felos repeatedly said during the Terri Schiavo controversy that this is not terrible. So, which is it?
Provided there is good nursing care on hand, death by starvation and dehydration is a satisfactory and peaceful way to choose to die.