• Question: Should we let people commit suicide when they are terminally ill? Should we fear death?

    Asked by maddy? to Ruth, Rob, Luke, Laura, John on 17 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Laura Finney

      Laura Finney answered on 17 Jun 2016:

      This is a very hard hitting question and I think it is hard to answer.
      I don’t think we should fear death, I think it is natural and we should concentrate on living life to the full before we think about death. It is inevitable and so we should try not to be scared.

      As for suicide, I think that until you have experienced being terminally ill or have experience of someone close to you being terminally ill, I cannot imagine what it must be like to want to take your own life. I think people must feel so terrible that they see it as their only option which is so sad 🙁 I can understand someone’s reasons for wanting to commit suicide but then, I am not sure if I agree or disagree as I do not feel qualified to make a judgement.

    • Photo: Ruth Patchett

      Ruth Patchett answered on 17 Jun 2016:

      Gosh this is a tricky question, and one that there is no right or wrong answer to really. I guess death is quite scary as we don’t know how it feels or what happens but we should try to accept it as part of life.
      I certainly do not think there should be a blanket allowing anyone who is terminally ill to commit suicide if they still have quality of life, but I agree with Stephen Hawking to an extent that if they are suffering and there is no way to cure them they should be allowed that choice, with strict regulations to avoid the system being abused. However it is not a choice that I think should be lightly made but caring for people who are suffering in their last few days feels very sad and less caring in some ways than allowing them to die.

    • Photo: Robert Williams

      Robert Williams answered on 17 Jun 2016:

      This is a very contentious issue.
      In my opinion it has to be done on a case-by-case basis and cannot be legislated for.
      It is a very emotive subject and the people who wish to end their life in this way have very genuine needs when they are terminally ill.
      Death is a very natural part of being who we are.
      We should not fear death as it is just an end point of a natural process of birth, life and then death.

    • Photo: Luke Williams

      Luke Williams answered on 19 Jun 2016:

      My view is yes, if people are of sound mind and wish to commit suicide I see no justifiable reason to prolong their pain. I am generally in favour of the assisted suicide bills that regularly go before Parliament.

      Death, as others have said, is a natural course of events. That doesn’t make it any less of a touchy subject. As it happens I recently attended a short seminar by the director of the Centre for Death and Society at my university, who was challenging misconceptions about the concept of death and dying. One small example is that most people in the audience believed their undertaker would be male, when in fact the majority are women in the UK these days. Another key point raised is that we rarely talk about death in this country, which only worsens things.

      The website: http://www.bath.ac.uk/cdas/

      For the record, I tend to avoid the subject myself too; however, when something makes me consider my own mortality, yes I am quite scared. At the end of the day, death, by its very nature, is unknown. Fear of the unknown is a fairly basic instinct.

    • Photo: John Fossey

      John Fossey answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      Two questions – simply yes and yes
      We should have the right to chose dignity but if we don’t fear death we could become complacent to the extraordinary gift of life

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