As more and more countries consider legalizing medically assisted euthanasia, the debate continues over how, when and who should be considered for the procedure, and what other options exist.
Most recently is the story of Emma Bray, a terminally ill English woman who passed away after choosing to voluntarily stop eating and drinking as a way to take control over her final moments of life.
But other stories have highlighted instances when the procedure seems to go wrong, or when it was seemingly suggested as a solution for a severely ill patient who does not want to d*e.
Depending on the circumstances, the public remains divided on the topic.
Emma Bray chose to voluntarily stop eating and drinking known as VSED
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42 year old Emma Bray was diagnosed with a motor neuron disease, the most common of which is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The Cleveland Clinic says: “ALS causes rapid loss of muscle control leading to disability and eventually de*th. There’s no cure for MND.”
In mid-July, Bray passed away. In previous interviews, Bray had said that her decision to follow VSED (Voluntarily Stopping Eating And Drinking) was not taken lightly.
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“I can no longer do any basic tasks. I can’t scratch an itch, push up my glasses, or move a bed sheet if I am too hot or cold. My talking is severely affected and I struggle to eat and it’s getting harder to breathe,” Bray had told The Mirror.
But perhaps the worst thing, Bray explained, was watching your children cry and get upset because their mother is deteriorating, and not be able to comfort them.
“Watching your children grieve for you and not being able to hug them is the most painful feeling ever,” she said before her passing.
“The last bit of parenting I can do is to limit the suffering and trauma they have to witness,” she concluded.
Bray chose to take control over the final moments of her life in the only way she could
Image credits: Instagram/dignityindying
With such a debilitating and limiting demise awaiting her, Bray made the conscious and voluntary decision to stop eating and drinking to hasten the end of her life.
In recent years, Bray had become an advocate for medically assisted euthanasia, saying that had a bill been in place, it would have saved her family from suffering as they watched her deteriorate.
Only last month, lawmakers in England voted in favor of the “Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life)” law, which would legalize the procedure.
As per Reuters, the bill “now proceeds to Britain’s upper chamber, the House of Lords, where it will undergo months of scrutiny.”
VSED is not the same as medically assisted euthanasia
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But medically assisted euthanasia is different from what Bray chose, a distinction that a VSED Group in the U.K. said was important.
During an interview with Bored Panda, Aly Dickinson who runs the ‘Living well and dying well South West’ group,explained that “VSED is a legal, self-directed decision to stop eating and drinking, leading to a natural d*ath,” and that it doesn’t involve “medical professionals actively ending life.”
Dickinson, an end of life doula in the U.K., said with VSED the only thing medical professionals provide is comfort and care.
She explained that planning is key when it comes to the decision to participate in VSED.
Things like: “choosing the place of d*ath (typically at home, or in a hospice if the hospice is willing to support VSED, “ as well as writing an end of life plan that includes a statement of Advance Refused Treatment.
Image credits: Instagram/dignityindying
Dickinson said that when it comes to who should consider VSED, there are two main groups of people: “Those experiencing unacceptable suffering, or those seeking to pre-empt the final stage of d*ing, in order to avoid future suffering or a loss of dignity.”
Dickson said VSED could also be suitable for those “diagnosed with early-stage dementia who retain mental capacity and wish to avoid a prolonged decline.”
Other possible candidates include people “living with a progressive terminal illness who have decision-making capacity,” or those “facing significant loss of independence due to frailty and chronic health issues, but who still have mental capacity.”
But Dickson stressed that more needs to be done to educate the public about VSED.
“Stories like Emma Bray’s—shared so generously—helps bring much-needed visibility to this deeply personal choice,” she told Bored Panda.
In Canada, instances of misusing MAiD were investigated by the UN
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If the U.K. legalizes medically assisted euthanasia, it will join Canada and the Netherlands and Switzerland as other countries where the service is permitted.
In Canada the option is called MAID, and stands for Medical Assistance in D*ing and is performed by a qualified medical practitioner “to provide a person with assistance to end their life, provided they meet specific eligibility criteria.”
The procedure became legal in 2016 and has been a hot button issue in the country ever since with some people saying it’s administered too flippantly.
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Roger Foley, who has a brain disorder called cerebellar ataxia, which causes visual deterioration, and limits his ability to move his arms and legs, has spoken to many media outlets about his apparently troubled history.
Foley claims staff members of the Ontario hospital where he’s been a patient for about a decade, explained the MAiD process to him, as an alternative to continuing his staying at the hospital.
Earlier this year, a United Nations investigation into Canada’s treatment of people with disabilities said that it was alarming that “persons with disabilities sought access to medical assistance in d*ing due to unmet needs, which was a systemic failure of the State party.”
An ironic twist the case of the Sarco pod proponent who was being investigated for possible strangulation
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Another case about medically assisted euthanasia that has been grabbing headlines revolves around the Sarco pod, a coffin-like device which fills with nitrogen to bring an end of life to users.
The first instance of someone using the device was last September in the forests of Schaffhausen Switzerland when an American woman who was reportedly terminally ill chose Sarco to end her life.
Although medically assisted euthanasia is legal in Switzerland, the Sarco pod is not, partly due to the fact that the “use of nitrogen in the capsule also contravened with the Chemicals Act.”
The only person to witness the woman using the pod was 47-year-old Dr. Florian Willet, the co-president and founder of The Last Resort, an assisted euthanasia organization to promote the pod.
Image credits: Instagram/dignityindying
Willet spent 70 days in custody during an investigation into whether marks on the woman’s neck were the result of Willet strangling the woman. He was never charged, and was later cleared and released.
But the trauma of being detained and suspected of strangulation led to an ironic twist to the story with Willet taking his own life by assisted euthanasia in early June of this year.
According to the BBC, the pod’s inventor Philip Nitschke said that his friend Florian Willet had endured too much psychological trauma.
“In the final months of his life, Dr Florian Willet shouldered more than any man should,” Nitschke told the BBC, saying that Willet’s arrest had left him “broken”.
The BBC says Willet used medically assisted euthanasia administered in Germany.
There are six countries in Europe with some form of legalized assisted euthanasia including the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, and starting later this year, Austria.
Netizens remain divided over the topic of medically assisted euthanasia
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