The right to die
- I must die, my love, to rid you of this burden
- Suicide is for rich carees
- Millionaire hotelier Peter Smedley
- Carers Rights Day - 29 November 2013
- I can’t afford to die
- Silverline
- Carers Rights Day - Carers UK
- Mature Times
1 I must die, my love, to rid you of this burden
On 14 July 2013, The Sunday Times told readers how the widow of a leading physicist - her “brilliant” husband, chose to die at a suicide clinic in Switzerland because he could not live with dementia and the thought that he was becoming an increasing “burden” on her.
The professor of petroleum engineering, who was knighted for his services to research, wanted his wife, Ann, to be “free to enjoy” the life she had missed out on while caring for him for eight years as his condition deteriorated, she said.
Ann, who wishes the couple to be known only by their first names, said her 82-year-old husband, John, had told her: “You are much younger than me; you have had no life since I’ve been really bad. There are precious years that you have missed. You haven’t had a day out with your daughters for years. Why should you be looking after me? I am going to get so bad I won’t know who I am.”
Source on this site - 14 July 2013 here www source
2 Suicide is for rich carees
On 7 June 2011, Telegraph readers learned about Peter Smedley who had planned his own assisted suicide and travelled to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland to end his life. He was a millionaire hotelier and scion of the Smedley’s tinned food empire, and had been an intensely private man.
3 Millionaire hotelier Peter Smedley's Dignitas assisted suicide - filmed by the BBC
A few days after Peter Smedley’s death last December, his close friends found individually-written letters from him in their post, telling each one how much they had meant to him. ...
“We didn’t know until after the event that he had gone to Dignitas, and we didn’t know about the film until we went to the memorial service and the film crew was there,” one of his closest friends said last night.
Telegraph 7 Jun 2011 here
4 Carers Rights Day - 29 November 2013
Carers Rights Day is on this website as seen here and here.. Carer support provision in every county is available to all unpaid carers. However, little attention has been given to the cared-for who have decided they can no longer be a burden to their carers.
Is it not time to make such choice available to all in the UK irrespective of income? Dying at home, if inevitable,
is the ideal. Why must we be forced into travelling so far away to achieve our end?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5 I can’t afford to die
Managing the cost of dying in an ageing society here
6 Silver Line
Deborah Ross (times2, Nov 21)
Britain must do more to ensure older people feel “valued”, said the television presenter Esther Rantzen this week as she launched the Silver Line, a helpline for older people modelled on ChildLine. She said old people are often made to feel like “rubbish that has been discarded”
Silver Line here
7 Carers Rights Day - Carers UK
This year Carers Rights Day is taking place on Friday 29 November and the theme is 'rights, advice, support', focusing on ensuring that carers understand their rights and get access to good quality advice that can support them to care.
Carers Rights Day aims to make carers aware of different kinds of practical support that could support them to care ..
Each year Carers UK organises Carers Rights Day to:
- Increase the take up of benefits – it’s estimated that millions of carers’ benefits aren’t claimed each year.
- Make sure carers know their rights – every year, more than 2 million people become carers, ...
- Guide carers towards practical support - it's not just about benefits. .
- Raise awareness of the needs of carers - Carers Rights Day raises awareness of the needs of carers with the public, decision makers and professionals.