We all need a better way to say goodbye
I AM disappointed that Guernsey has voted against allowing euthanasia. Did those concerned speak to anyone in my situation? Until earlier this year when I lost my wife Gwendolen, I was against euthanasia in case of errors. But now I believe there has to be a law for assisted dying in certain cases. My wife had incurable multiple myeloma and wanted to die at home. I was happy to nurse her, but the point came when three times she asked me: ‘When is this going to end? Why can’t I die?’ After almost 60 years of marriage, this was a hard thing to accept, but there was nothing I could say or do. She had a syringe pumping painkillers into her body, but this wasn’t enough and I had to call out the district nurse in the middle of the night to give her an injection. The next day her dosage was increased and this went on for a few days until the doctors said they couldn’t increase it any more. They had to sedate her, which meant she could not move or speak. They told me she could still hear me, but as far as I was concerned she was virtually in a coma. I sat with her until she passed away 30 hours later. Surely if politicians had endured what I have, they could have devised a law whereby my wife could have been offered euthanasia three days earlier. I am not angry at the position we were put in. All I want is help for people in the same situation.
H. BEHENNA, Peterborough, Cambs.