Life and death
A Bill on assisted dying is expected to come before parliament on 11 September 2015. Anne Wade writes, from her personal experience, about what assisted dying means for her.
When I was nine my father put my dog down. She had heart failure and was breathless and slow, but she was not in pain. She loved my little sister and me sitting stroking her, and she was contented. But she was inconvenient: she dribbled as she went out to pee. I suggested she could live on the veranda, which would be easy to clean. My mother said, ‘She does not really want to live like this – if she could talk, she would ask us to help her die.’ I thought, ‘How do you know? If I could talk, I would want to be allowed to die in my own time, to be kept clean and comfortable, to be loved and held. Would you put me down when I am old if I am slow and wet my knickers?’
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