Letter: “My mother could have been saved her awful agony”

Last week, I commemorated the first anniversary of my mother’s death. She broke her hip falling out of bed and, due to her age, the hospital consultant told us that they “were going to let her go”.

I spent the next eight days and most nights by my mother’s bedside helping her through her last days. She was in excessive pain and very disorientated. She knew I was there and that gave her some comfort.

She didn’t say much, but when she did she pleaded: “I want to die, I want to die.” On the seventh day she looked at me and whispered: “I think I would like to go now.” After eight days of pain and agony, she died peacefully the next day, four weeks short of her 100th birthday.

My mother could have been saved this awful agony. If assisted dying was an option, her family could have been close to her at her end; we could have shared that precious moment of death. She had a very good 100 years of life. Why should the last days of her life have been so traumatic?

Although I respect most views on this matter, I believe we should have the right to choose our death when we feel the time is right. Our laws are not determined on religious grounds. It is such a shame that many opinions have been expressed against assisted dying when it is religious belief that determines their opinion.

Name and address supplied