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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: GBA

The truth remains the truth no matter what you happen to think about it.


41 posted on 01/18/2009 10:46:16 AM PST by EternalVigilance (A dedicated, organized, united conservative movement is the only hope for America - www.AIPNEWS.com)
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To: Condor51

Everyone in Illinois is a Nazi. Sounds ignorant huh?

Seriously, your statement is evidence of a mental deficiency.


42 posted on 01/18/2009 10:48:19 AM PST by ExpatGator (Extending logic since 1961.)
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To: LibWhacker

I find that comparison to be offensive, frankly.


43 posted on 01/18/2009 10:48:44 AM PST by EternalVigilance (A dedicated, organized, united conservative movement is the only hope for America - www.AIPNEWS.com)
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To: The Duke
How can unending pain with no hope of reprieve be considered life at all?

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Ro. 8:18

Do you not know that [...] you are not your own? For you were bought at a price 1 Cor 6:19-19

44 posted on 01/18/2009 10:51:21 AM PST by Former Fetus
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To: Pelagius of Asturias
This was an individual’s choice. A doctor knows the ramifications of the disease.

Yes, she did have a choice. I look at it like this...with every bit of suffering that comes our way, we've got two ways to go. You can play into the hands of Satan and become hateful, full of self-pity and bitter in your suffering (i.e. false martyr) which leads to the suicide mentality, or you can grow holy and Christ-like. Nothing that is worthwhile comes easy which makes much more sense when, for example, we our bringing up our children or advancing in our career. But when it comes to our souls, we somehow figure we'll take care of it when the time comes, as if we'll be able to make a deal with Saint Peter at Heaven's gate. Who are we fooling?

More than anyone, Jesus showed us from the Agony in the Garden until his Death, that we can suffer and still be united to God's Will.

God Bless.

45 posted on 01/18/2009 10:52:16 AM PST by Gerish (Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death.)
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To: Pelagius of Asturias

She was a doctor. Her decision makes her a hippocrat (tee hee)


46 posted on 01/18/2009 10:55:48 AM PST by Owl558 ("Those who remember George Satayana are doomed to repeat him")
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To: EternalVigilance

Don’t take offense, none was intended... I just don’t see why someone should suffer at the end if he doesn’t want to.


47 posted on 01/18/2009 11:05:59 AM PST by LibWhacker
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To: wagglebee
‘I’m far more traumatised by the images of my dad dying a “natural death” – pale and thin like an Auschwitz inmate in his hospital bed – than of my mother drinking barbiturates and dying 20 minutes later.’

For those who do not believe in much beyond this world, suicide is a viable option. It is a materialistic response.

A few years ago, my father passed away after suffering horribly from untreatable cancer. I grieved horribly, but I know that he is now with his Creator. Had he taken his own life like these people, I would not be thinking of him quite so positively. Suicide is a grave error. It is shocking and tragic to most people except those who are so far gone, they they can no longer understand.

48 posted on 01/18/2009 11:09:25 AM PST by grimalkin (For everyone but America the free world is mostly a free ride. -Mark Steyn)
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To: Pelagius of Asturias

If Mum was an MD wonder why Mum didn’t mix up her own potion and just stay home to take it.

It seems strange she’d fly all the way to Switzerland to die in agony, even short lived.

I think the Hemlock Society has ingredients listed.


49 posted on 01/18/2009 11:10:27 AM PST by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: DesertRhino

No. It’s full blown “Reductio ad Hitlerum”


50 posted on 01/18/2009 11:13:08 AM PST by PurpleMan
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To: ChiMark
Life is once and no matter what happens there can be joy among suffering.
Prove it.
Those of us who have a faith in God believe life is a gift.
God refused to heal that woman.

He could cure every disease in the world by His sheer will; He chooses not to.
51 posted on 01/18/2009 11:13:50 AM PST by dbz77
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To: HungarianGypsy
A friend of mine is in the home health care field. I came to the same kind of struggle when he told me of a patient he had

I had always been prejudiced against hospice because of Terry Schaivo....but after learning the philosophies, I find it is the most caring solution to the end-of-life process.

I've been in hospice for a little over a year and a half...and the concept we use is comfort care. Most of our patients are pretty viable and able to care for themselves or with a little assistance ...up until a couple weeks before death. (sometimes just a few hours)

We make sure that the process is as painless and comfortable as possible....giving the patient and their families time to say good-bye and resolve sometimes life-long disputes/problems. To end life unnaturally by suicide.... robs everyone IMHO.

The most remarkable phenomenon I witness on a daily basis.....is that some of the most selfish, self-centered and hardened family members become humble and caring towards someone other than themselves....given that time to reflect on a huge dose of reality. It changes their perspective about what is truly important.....which is always a good thing. :)

52 posted on 01/18/2009 11:16:20 AM PST by LaineyDee (Don't mess with Texas wimmen!)
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To: penowa
If this woman was an MD, p.o'd about how she might get too sick to travel to another country to be assisted in committing suicide, why didn't she just write herself a number of prescriptions for the barbituates she consumed, and kill herself? The children say she attempted a botched suicide prior to going. An MD who didn't know how to do away with herself?
Very good point. an MD should have been able to procure the drugs necessary to kill herself.
53 posted on 01/18/2009 11:17:00 AM PST by dbz77
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To: Gerish
But when it comes to our souls, we somehow figure we'll take care of it when the time comes, as if we'll be able to make a deal with Saint Peter at Heaven's gate. Who are we fooling?
What does suffering from a debilitative illness accomplish, exactly?

People have endured hardship for the sake of others. But who would have benefited from this woman's hardship?
54 posted on 01/18/2009 11:20:00 AM PST by dbz77
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To: wagglebee
I'm ambivalent on this one.

Seems like a hard death.

Paralyzed with no movement or means to communicate is terrifying.....like Awakenings or Johnny Got His Gun....

I've been primary care coordinator over the deaths of both my parents....dad from cerebral megaglioma and my mom from colon cancer that went everywhere

they died as well as can be expected but it's still tough stuff....even under the best circumstances..to leave someone conscious yet incapacitated and maybe in a panic raises questions for me

55 posted on 01/18/2009 11:20:44 AM PST by wardaddy
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To: Former Fetus
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Ro. 8:18
Sounds like a good argument for suicide. If the next life is so good, why stay alive in this life?
56 posted on 01/18/2009 11:20:58 AM PST by dbz77
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To: The Duke

very few turn down the Sister M.

and it’s no big secret that ever increasing morphine doses contribute to dimished breathing cycles in those final days-hours.

turn that pump up a lot, use atropine drops to soothe that terrible death rattle struggle or move them at all and they will die somewhat quicker in those final hours...

it’s just how it is....

but if they’ve defecated all over the bed what are you gonna do?

make them lie in watery feces whilst they await God’s wings?

this is really hard stuff and I think some folks here just don’t have much experience with it


57 posted on 01/18/2009 11:26:46 AM PST by wardaddy
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To: dbz77; Gerish
People have endured hardship for the sake of others. But who would have benefited from this woman's hardship?

This from the person who is so indoctrinated by the culture of death that you even believe that people should kill themselves to save their family money.

58 posted on 01/18/2009 11:27:15 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

lol....quite a cynic eh?

young too I’m guessing

your first foxhole might help

i get where you’re coming from but there had better be more than this....that belief held by many is all that keeps us from the abysss.


59 posted on 01/18/2009 11:32:27 AM PST by wardaddy
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To: dbz77
If the next life is so good, why stay alive in this life?

You conveniently forgot the second verse: Do you not know that [...] you are not your own? For you were bought at a price 1 Cor 6:19-19

We are not our own, we do not own our lives. You may take something back to the store and get your money back, but how would you dream of refunding the price paid for your life, the blood of Christ?

60 posted on 01/18/2009 11:33:10 AM PST by Former Fetus
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