I’m 50 years old and healthy and not, to my knowledge about to die. My life doesn’t always sparkle. In fact it can be quite mundane. I trot along, working, paying bills, looking after my children.
But what if I’d really lived it up? Spending every last penny of my four husbands, drinking to oblivion, caring only about having a good time and about my looks rather than a career? We all have different values. We shouldn’t judge how others live their lives.
This is the position of a 50 year old woman who wants to die, having lived a decadent life she fears that the passing of her youth and beauty means the end of everything that “sparkles” in life and wants to be allowed to die. She is refusing kidney dialysis as a result.
The woman, of sound mind has been granted permission to die by the court of protection.
If we have mental capacity we should, quite rightly be entitled to refuse medical treatment. Does this ruling change anything? Not really. It’s purely a statement of law. I reckon this case is in the news because it’s highly emotive. We want to condemn this woman to death in our minds because she’s screwed 4 husbands and lived a self indulgent life not thinking about anyone else but herself. Good luck to her. The end outcome is that the cost of her treatment can be directed to somebody else who actually wants to live!