Did you watch it? It is the true story about Dr Anne Turner. If not and you want to it is available on BBC i-player here.
Having nursed her husband, Jack who had suffering from an un-named neurological disease, she then starts to become ill herself and upon discovering she has herself developed a similar illness and decides that she wants her life to end.
The story starts at one of their daughters weddings with both parents present and ends at a similar family gathering with neither of them there. In between these two joyous occasions in that particular families life we are taken through the trauma of a family who love each other dearly trying to cope and struggling with what is happening and what is going to happen. The acting is superb and I for one was drawn through a whole gamut of emotions. The courage is plain to see, but so is the anger, the guilt, the sadness along with the love, the joy and the respect. The subject matter is not easy, dying is part of living the final part, and for our society death of any kind is often a difficult subject.
I don’t think there are any right or wrong answers to this complex subject, each individual, each family is different. I can not imagine that the choices came easily for anyone, and while it would appear that the legal complexities of it all place added burdens and stress, without them there I would be concerned about the innocent ending up being railroaded into something they didn’t want. What happened to Anne is what she wanted, it took courage and I for one don’t think it was an easy way out. However one thing struck me that I have never thought about before and new question has raised its head in a subject full of questions to ponder.
We were never told the financial cost of what she did, could she have afforded to do it if she hadn’t been financial secure? At one point in desperation she tries, and fails, to take her own life the distress this causes to her family is obvious. At the end in Switzerland they are obviously still upset but there was a peace and serenity that was not there in her bedroom with a plastic bag over her head and a side table of vodka and ground up pills. How many times might she have tried again before succeeding or being hospitalised to stop her trying, what further distress might that have caused to those who loved and still love her? It has been said that death is the great leveler, rich or poor we all at some time will die and none of us can take our bank balances with us be they large or small. The new question I am left pondering this morning is whether, with the current state of affairs in this country regarding euthanasia is – Is euthanasia the ultimate prejudice?
