Woman who smothered terminally ill dad sentenced

What I find horrible is having a system where we keep alive for months or years those who are in constant suffering or barely alive, and who are a burden to their families and society.
But not a popular opinion. I just hope that will change by the time I’d be in that situation.

Poor woman. To watch someone you love dying in pain must be heartbreaking. To be punished for her act of love and see society then judging you must then inhibit her ability to find peace. I hope she can now move on and find happiness.

What a shame that she had to go through something like this and then to be made a criminal from it.

Handing her a two-year suspended prison sentence, Judge Mr Justice Linden said he accepted she was “solely motived by a wish to bring his suffering to an end and that his end was close at hand.”

Wil she see the inside of a prison, highly unlikely

Get the assisted dying bill through ASAP. If people are not happy with it, go sign a form saying you never want to be part of it. I’ve witnessed good deaths and very bad ones. Please give me the option to decide which I have.

I feel so sorry for her. What a terrible but courageous thing she had to do.

Shame on those who delay the introduction of assisted dying. If you ever have the misfortune of watching a loved one with an incurable illness suffer, you will recognise the strength it would have taken to do what she did

My mum has Multiple Sclerosis. She’s been a member of Dignitas in Switzerland for years for when the day comes. It costs her hundreds and hundreds of pounds per year just to avoid a scenario where she wants to die at home but can’t. We need to legalise assisted dying.

My heart goes out to her. My incredible dad passed of a particularly nasty brain tumor and in his last weeks he asked for help to end it. Watching my mum have to put up with not being able to help in any way whilst coping with the grief myself was the worst thing I have ever endured. I understand assisted dying is tricky, but my god, there needs to be a way to allow it in circumstances such as these. 

Or facilitate an apparent crash at 5mph off of a low bridge into about five inches of water to enable your elderly mum and dad to die together through drowning, (because their carer, in their 50s, who was in the back o the car, and who got out unscathed, couldn’t get their photo work to call for help).

Make sure you’re rich, and well connected locally, and donate to a police benevolent fund in one’s will and the police will tell the coroner the water was three feet deep, (it wasn’t, and it can’t be, as that would completely cover the whole low-lying road and bridge).

This happened locally in Kent to a celebrity’s parents who, the week before, had sad they want do die together.

One rule for rich and connected. One rule for the rest of us, helping our loved ones go when and where they want.

The law does need to change as too often drs are keeping people alive at any cost.

Way too often I see drs intervening with end of life patients by putting up fluids or antibiotics. What is that achieving? Yes the patient lingers for a few more days, but it prolongs the suffering of the patient and the family and friends watching them die.

It seems the system is not allowed to let people die a natural death anymore, even if that patient is very old, has late stage dementia and refusing all food and drink.

End of life patients are not dying because they stop eating and drinking, they stop eating and drinking because they are dying and their body recognises that, it’s a big difference.

My gran had a stroke which caused a massive brain hemorrhage. She lost consciousness and a scan showed the damage to her brain was so severe that if she did wake up the she wouldn’t be able to eat or drink or basically function.

The outcome was she was to stop receiving fluid through the IV and starved.

It took 11 days for her to die.

It’s fucking barbaric. She was 91. Her time was up. I wouldn’t let an animal suffer in that way. If an injection was available I would have gladly administered it to let her slip away peacefully.

This week my other grandmother lost her battle with dementia. Her last few days weeks weren’t good. She couldn’t swallow,was unable to take in fluids. Picked up an infection,became immobile was drifting in and out of sleep and due to being so frail had bed sores.

Her breathing became erratic as some days she was gasping for air.

Her last week was horrendous.

Again if there was an injection I could have given her I would have.

Why when the prognosis is death do we insist on letting people suffer until the end.

The end of the line for me is precisely when I can no longer eat or take a shit on my own.

Requiring aid from another person to do the bare minimum is the end of my dignity.

If I don’t have dignity anymore, I consider my life done.

I will personally take care of it when my time comes.

That’s what hired assassins are for.

My nan had dementia. My moms probably got it. I seen what it does to people. 30-40 years I’m out of here. I’m not letting myself become a shell of a human,who doesn’t know who they or where they are. I remember my nan dying she was talking a bit. Then a nurse came in gave her an injection it was quick after that..I always wondered what was in that injection

Okay – so this seems like a case where the justice system worked perfectly.

We can’t have people killing each other, but this person is not a danger to herself or others.

A suspended sentence? That seems sensible.

I don’t know why this is so baffling or difficult for a developed society to grasp still. if you want to end your life its on you no one else as long as your house is all in order, no one still like to talk about death unless your a funeral director.

The difference is, if your death is benefiting anyone else. but if its your choice and you see 2 independent doctors and a counsellor who all sign off on it. then its a done deal, that’s how it should be done, God botherers and government toss pots should have zero input into this.

This keeping people alive for the sake of it because it not your problem once they vacate your office is bullshit.

Religion and do do-gooders need to be told to do one. My dad had vascular dementia after a stoke which removed part of his being after every episode and we were told he couldn’t look after himself, we had to fight tooth and nail to get him out of care and getting hold of his finances again.

He live in his own house with me for 6 month with no issues apart from the occasional long term memory loss he was still able to function and went to see his friends locking him up would have killed his soul.

I remember the conversation he had with me about ending his life, it was shocking as I didn’t expect hit, he knew what he had and didn’t want to go out like that, he just wanted to make peace with everyone and go to bed and not wake up in his own environment safe and dignified and not cause anyone any long term suffering.

I took him with my sister arranged the financial side with solicitors with him and his close friend only in the room not any of the family. but anything else nada couldn’t even get traction on it, no one wanted to know

He knew his time was limited when he was switched on so to say, but there were also times when he had no idea who or where he was, who was and that’s the bit that irks me the most, but that’s my burden, id still like him around but I new he wouldn’t have wanted to go out like that.

He died in his own bed a few months later, losing more of himself every week before he was just an empty shell, a shadow of the person who I once knew that’s the memory I carry around with me now, id sooner suck a hose pipe and put my family though than.