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'Anne, if you drink this you will die': Why we stood by and allowed our mother to commit suicide
UK Daily Mail ^ | 1/18/09 | Andrea Thompson

Posted on 01/18/2009 9:16:06 AM PST by wagglebee

Sophie Pandit breaks into a smile as she recalls a nervous meeting with Julie Walters last summer. The actress plays Sophie’s mother in a new film and they met after Sophie was invited on set during rehearsals. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t do your mum with a Brummie accent,’ Julie had said mischievously, by way of an ice-breaker.

Sophie knew her mother would have approved. Throughout her life, Anne Turner was known for unleashing her wicked sense of humour to diffuse tension in difficult situations. This never stopped, even in the hours before her death.

Last summer, Sophie, 44, herself an actress, her brother Edward, 42, and sister Jessica, 40, were approached by the BBC, who wanted to make a film about their mother’s extraordinary final years of life.

Three years ago next Saturday, Anne Turner, a 66-year-old retired doctor from Bath, made the journey to the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic in Zurich to take her own life after being diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy – a rare, incurable degenerative condition similar to Parkinson’s that gradually destroys nerve cells in the parts of the brain controlling eye movements, breathing and muscle co-ordination, eventually leading to paralysis, making the sufferer totally reliant on others.

‘This was a future Mum refused to accept and on the day she was diagnosed, she told me of her intention to commit suicide,’ says Sophie.

‘We were horrified and deeply upset but as a doctor, Mum was under no illusions about the outcome of her illness. She was a fiercely independent woman and she could not face losing that independence or being physically reliant on others.’

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: assistedsuicide; euthanasia; moralabsolutes; prolife; suicide
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To: the invisib1e hand
you don’t sound like the sort of person who likes to be contradicted, big mama.

I believe in facts. I also believe your post is both immaterial since it has no relation to the subject of your original post or my response to it.

Too bad you couldn't come up with an honest reply instead of an insulting, opinionated little quip.

121 posted on 01/19/2009 4:55:27 AM PST by MamaTexan (I am not a political, public, collective, corporate, administrative or legal entity)
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To: wagglebee
Grown children have misplaced pride. Encouraging any one to end their life is immoral, a sin and is not act of love.

Losing their logic, I could go to the skyway bridge and encourage people hesitating to do it to go ahead and jump.

A poison elixor or a bridge - there's no difference.

When Terri Schiavo was murdered, my first thought was we're goin' medieval. So's the UK.

122 posted on 01/19/2009 8:10:18 AM PST by floriduh voter (NOBAMA TV Inauguration Week. - WATCH CARTOONS INSTEAD)
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To: narses

Obama is a punishment. Time will show my statement to be true. Half the country voted for a commie lovin’ radical.


123 posted on 01/19/2009 8:12:58 AM PST by floriduh voter (NOBAMA TV Inauguration Week. - WATCH CARTOONS INSTEAD)
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To: Pelagius of Asturias
Please. This was an individual’s choice, not the state’s. I’d make the same decision.

It is a very small step from optional to mandatory. You need to keep that in mind.

124 posted on 01/19/2009 9:35:41 AM PST by verga (I am not an apologist, I just play one on Television)
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To: The Duke

‘How can unending pain with no hope of reprieve be considered life at all?’

In a Catholic worldview where that suffering is united to that of Christ, doing with St. Paul the Apostles says ‘is making up what is lacking’ in the Cross of Christ; and following what Christ said “When I am lifted up on the Cross, I will lift all up with me.”

Finally, “Pick up your cross and follow me” says Christ.

In no other context can suffering make any sense.


125 posted on 01/19/2009 9:53:27 AM PST by wiley
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To: verga
It is a very small step from optional to mandatory. You need to keep that in mind.
Why do you say so?

We have the option of supporting our government. Does this mean that if we allow people to support the government, it is a small step from mandating people to support the government?
126 posted on 01/19/2009 10:24:01 AM PST by dbz77
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To: kewlhandluke2
Free people get to choose how they live and die. Not YOU, the state, the church or the courts.

So, you believe that the state has no right to make laws against euthanasia/assisted suicide?

127 posted on 01/19/2009 11:33:20 AM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: dbz77
Why do you say so? We have the option of supporting our government. Does this mean that if we allow people to support the government, it is a small step from mandating people to support the government?

What does this even mean? Seriously if you asking what I think you are it is apples to oranges.

128 posted on 01/19/2009 2:01:11 PM PST by verga (I am not an apologist, I just play one on Television)
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To: verga
You claim that allowing people to commit suicide is a small step from mandating people to commit suicide.

We allow people to agree with the government, and yet this has not led to mandating that people agree with the government (at least not since the Sedition Acts were repealed).
129 posted on 01/19/2009 3:58:53 PM PST by dbz77
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To: mckenzie7

I believe that life is a curse and death is the most wonderful thing that can happen to everyone. Everyone should suicide as there is no chance of a better future for anyone.

If things work out tomorrow, I’ll get to end it all on Barry’s inauguration. It will be one fantastic final “***** you!” to this hopeless and nightmarish world.


130 posted on 01/19/2009 4:14:11 PM PST by Soothesayer (The United States of America Rest in Peace November 4 2008)
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To: dbz77

“Prove”

There are plenty of people, such as many saints, who endured incredible agony without complaint until the bitter end. A modern example is Maximilian Kolbe. People who firmly believe in God have unlimited endurance. Atheists like myself (and maybe you?) have nothing to rely upon but our own patience with a world we often have little control over.

I have lost all patience with this world and will be suiciding tomorrow. God does not exist, so the only basis for the desire to live is love for the world, which I do not have.


131 posted on 01/19/2009 4:26:33 PM PST by Soothesayer (The United States of America Rest in Peace November 4 2008)
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To: Soothesayer

Heavenly Father, please help this tortured soul see some of the beauty of your creation. Have him look in the mirror and see himself as you see him. I beg you, in Jesus name. Amen


132 posted on 01/19/2009 4:32:22 PM PST by mckenzie7 ( ANNA THE RETIREE)
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To: Soothesayer
A modern example is Maximilian Kolbe. People who firmly believe in God have unlimited endurance
I know of Kolbe.

He ended up in Auschwitz for sheltering Jews from persecution . He later volunteered to save an inmate, Franciszek Gajowniczek, who was going to be starved to death. He gave all for others.

How does Julie Walters enduring progressive supranuclear palsy protect Jews- or anyone else- from persecution? Where is the Franciszek Gajowniczek that is alive because of Julie's condition? Who exactly benefits from this suffering?
133 posted on 01/19/2009 4:45:00 PM PST by dbz77
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To: wagglebee
So, you believe that the state has no right to make laws against euthanasia/assisted suicide?
If euthanasia/assisted suicide violates the rights of others, yes.
134 posted on 01/19/2009 4:46:59 PM PST by dbz77
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To: dbz77

Participating in KILLING AN INNOCENT HUMAN BEING is the epitome of violating the rights of others.


135 posted on 01/19/2009 4:50:59 PM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee

Agree. Also, what happened to suffering as a part of life? I look at what my Grandmother went through, and she INSISTED on dying a natural death.

“Its part of my life. Why would I skip it?”

I’m not so sure the hallucinations people have as they prepare to die are their minds playing tricks on us. I’m fairly certain we know squat about ‘the real world’, which is to say the spiritual one.

I can’t remember where I read this, but it might have been from ‘Hostage to the Devil,’ by the Vatican’s Chief Exorcist Malachi Martin (since died I believe). I believe he recounts the dialogue between an exorcist an the possesor of the person of a noted psychologist. When asked about why we can’t see demons, why they don’t show themselves, the demon replied (to the effect of), “If you could see us, our numbers would blot the sun.”

We know zero about the end of life, and I for one, while I am fine with having a DNR in my medical file, I’m completely opposed to assisted suicide.


136 posted on 01/19/2009 5:01:36 PM PST by RinaseaofDs
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To: RinaseaofDs
We know zero about the end of life, and I for one, while I am fine with having a DNR in my medical file, I’m completely opposed to assisted suicide.

There is a HUGE difference between foregoing life-support and taking proactive measures which WILL result in death.

We will all die, but there is no reason to speed up the process.

137 posted on 01/19/2009 5:05:45 PM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: dbz77

I don’t know. Most people do not learn anything from the endurance, commitment, and sacrifice of others. To value a human life to the bitter end is mainly a symbolic gesture. The currency of the world is not love but pleasure.

In the end, there is no point. There is no point in loving, no point in loving, and no point in having principles other than bestial hedonism. In the end, our lives are hopeless and absurd.


138 posted on 01/19/2009 5:20:22 PM PST by Soothesayer (The United States of America Rest in Peace November 4 2008)
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To: az wildkitten

Actually I’ve seen the disease quite a bit during my 25+ years as a hospice nurse.

It’s very unnecessary to knock yourself off.

As a matter of fact, there’s honestly NO situation that I’ve yet to see that makes suicide necessary.

Hospice and palliative care fills that void well.


139 posted on 01/19/2009 5:38:08 PM PST by tpanther (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing---Edmund Burke)
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To: Soothesayer; 8mmMauser; amdgmary; Brad's Gramma; floriduh voter; Fred; Gabz; GonzoII; ...
Urgent prayer request for a FReeper in trouble. And please ping your lists.

I have lost all patience with this world and will be suiciding tomorrow. God does not exist, so the only basis for the desire to live is love for the world, which I do not have. ~ Soothesayer

140 posted on 01/19/2009 5:39:19 PM PST by BykrBayb (May God have mercy on our souls. ~ Þ)
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