Editor's Note: As the assisted suicide debates rumble on in the House of Lords and the Scottish Parliament, here is an incredibly brave article written by a palliative care nurse who used to work in Switzerland where assisted suicide is lawful. Her personal story gives an insight into the reality behind the headlines, slogans, and abstract legal arguments that so often dominate the debate.
Have you ever been asked by someone to end their lives for them? Or at least give them a helping hand? Or perhaps to refer them to Dignitas in Switzerland? Working as a nurse, perhaps especially as a palliative care nurse within oncology, this is not an uncommon request for me to hear.
How should we respond? What exactly do you say? You can choose to ignore the comment and move on because it makes you feel uncomfortable or engage in their query and start a conversation about how they could get to Switzerland.
Personally I wouldn’t advocate either of those approaches, and I have found that the best response is not an answer but a question. Ask them why they want this and as the conversation progresses get to the bottom of what might need to happen for this longing to die to be overruled with a longing and a reason to live.
Having trained and worked in Switzerland as a nurse and working mostly in oncology and palliative care, I would get these queries often, perhaps even most weeks. The current debates around legalising assisted suicide in England and Scotland have made me very sad but also nervous too. Will I be having these conversations over and over again in the near future? Will I have to dodge being involved in anything linked to this as I did when I worked in Switzerland?
