Wading through all of the news stories about sexual assault, toxic masculinity and Las Vegas shootings, though all are very relevant topics, I thought I'd search for something a little different. A little more upbeat, perhaps. Well, sorry guys, but I didn't find it.
Instead I opened this article to read about Noel Conway, a 67-year-old retired lecturer who suffers from motor neurone disease and has been told he is unlikely to live beyond the next 12 months.
Motor neurone disease is a condition which affects the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Gradually signals from the nerves stop reaching the muscles, leading to weakness and wasting. Other symptoms can include muscle cramps and spasms, pain and discomfort, speech problems and breathing difficulties. There is no cure, and the disease is ultimately terminal. Because the US are difficult and like to confuse everyone, their term for motor neurone disease is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS (remember that ice bucket challenge circling Facebook in 2014?) but both are synonymous conditions. Although it is considered a relatively rare disease (with up to 5,000 adults affected in the UK at any one time) it is still debilitating and can lead to an abominable quality of life.
Conway appealed to the high court for the law on assisted dying to be changed to allow him a 'peaceful and dignified' death. He was ruled against by three judges, though his case was supported by Humanists UK.
“I am told the only option I currently have is to effectively suffocate to death by choosing to remove my ventilator, which I am now dependent on to breathe for up to 22 hours a day. There is no way of knowing how long it would take me to die if I did this, or whether my suffering could be fully relieved. To me, this is not choice – this is cruelty.”
Assisted dying is legal in Switzerland, Canada, Columbia and various states in the US, but in the UK it is treated as a criminal offence to aid in someone's attempt to end their life. Though Conway's illness is terminal, and will only get worse over the coming year, the law forbids him from choosing when to end his life, and passing peacefully and safely rather than suffering in a 'zombie-like condition'.
One of the topics I am studying in Sociology is crime and deviance, so this story was immediately relevant to my interests as it posed an interesting question on whether acts deemed as 'criminal' are always evil and condemnable, and whether perhaps the terms of the law needs to be revisited in order to aid in cases like this, where a man so obviously suffering is being denied a dignified death. However, I ultimately decided to write about this story as it relates strongly to the upcoming film Breathe which I was given an opportunity to watch at the BFI last week. Both stories revolve around men with debilitating diseases (Conway with MND, Andrew Garfield's depiction of Robin Cavendish with polio) and their struggles to cope with their diagnoses. Both men consider suicide, and Cavendish only succeeded in an assisted suicide because a physician saw how much suffering he was enduring and broke the law to end his pain.
Assisted suicide is a bit of a grey area in my opinion, and I'm not sure where I stand on it. On one hand, cases like Conway's should be handled gently and empathetically, and I believe he should have the chance to pass away while still mentally sound in order that not only he is spared the pain of the progression of his illness but his family are spared the sight of a loved one's suffering. On the other hand, I think if assisted suicide was legalised across the board, I'm a bit too cynical to not consider the possibility that a handful of medical professionals might abuse their position of power, or adopt an 'angel of death' role which does more harm than good. I've been having this debate with myself for a couple of days now, and I still can't decide how I feel.
My father was diagnosed with ALS in the summer of 2013; His initial symptoms were quite noticeable. He first experienced weakness in his right arm and his speech and swallowing abilities were profoundly affected. We all did our best to seek help for this disease no medications they prescribe worked ,we were all scared we might lost him due to his condition, as he had been his brother's caregiver a few years earlier for the same disease before he past. doctor recommend natural treatment from total cure herbal foundation for his ALS we have no choice to give a try on natural organic treatment ,this herbal cure has effectively reverse my father condition ,losing his balance which led to stumbling and falling stop after the completing the herbal supplement which include his weakness in his right arm and his speech, home remedies from totalcureherbsfoundation com is the best although their service is a little bit expensive but it worth it, they save lives.
ReplyDelete