Don't Jump Off the Roof, Dad
I want to die with the little dignity I have intact. I have become increasingly frustrated by the sober and respectful debate about assisted dying. While everyone seems to be acting from the best possible motives (at least by their own lights), the issue that concerns me and so many of my friends and acquaintances is being ignored. My greatest fear – and it is shared by so many old people – is not that I die in pain from an incurable illness and suffer for months. That’s an awful prospect but only relatively rarely does it become a reality. My greatest fear is that I live without dignity, an incontinent, gibbering burden on my nearest and dearest. That a very real prospect for many of us. For many of those who have witnessed a slide into such a status for those they loved and respected, that fear is close to terror. The assisted dying debate proponents dare not extend their argument because their perceived weakness is ‘the slippery slope’. As a result, a very real issue is bei...