Lynn Ruane (Independent)
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No, I am not criticising that. I just struggle to see, in that there seems to be a thread of difference. With the removal of treatment we are saying that is somehow passive, but that the giving of morphine at particular rates and measurements is actually an active thing.

For me, it is more just what is either palpable for us to accept as "I am just relieving pain", rather than "This person will die in the next 30 minutes, and I will give this other treatment as euthanasia or assisted dying". For me, it is about which one is more humane. First, it has to be whatever the person considers to be the best option for them. I know if I was to think of myself in that situation, and having been with more than a few people in their last moments, administering morphine for days and days would sometimes leave someone in such an unconscious state, writhing in the bed and hallucinating. I ask if I would want that for myself, and maybe some people do. It is obviously a better option that none. Then would I want, if I had some sort of capacity, to communicate with my family, sing my last favourite song, tell them all I love them and then die within 30 minutes, instead of being so heavily morphined for days that I would not get those last valuable, beautiful moments conscious?

There is probably something really valuable to learn about life in those last conscious moments, when someone has to face death. Sometimes I think that making the distinction that the relief of pain with morphine is somehow seen as more superior to allowing those last moments to be as beautiful as life can give, given the conditions allowing for that. Is there really a difference between palliative care in terms of morphine being indirect euthanasia, and assisted dying, which is being given a different type of medicine where someone gives it to themselves, or are they ultimately the exact same thing?