So. . . . .would you be brave enough to end it all? And if so, how?

Of course it will, just like stopping taking insulin will if you are a diabetic.
Stopping thyroxine will be slower, but it controls your metabolism.

Or will that 'do you in' ?

Wrong thread dj ?

Anyone who has had their thyroid removed and is taking thyroxine can just stop taking it.

My honest answer to the OP is that I don't know.
We all like to think that we would be brave in any given situation, but the truth may be different.

Writhing

It might be 'braver', but it's not always a gentle fading away into death, watermeadow.

Weithing in agony and screaming in pain is hardly dignigied, is it?

How would you do it? Most women swallow a drug overdose, men tend to favour hanging, jumping off a height or in front of a train.
I can't think of a more selfish act than subjecting your family or strangers to witnessing your violent death or finding you afterwards. Very few people actually do it with medical guidance in Switzerland or at home.
I think it's braver and more dignified to die naturally.

Bluebelle sorry if I misunderstood. You wrote about not having any peace if you thought a family member was so unhappy that they had to plan their own death. If I choose to end my life it will not be because I am unhappy. It will be because I do not wish to continue to the logical conclusion of my condition. (e.g. Descent into dementia where I don't know who, where, or what I am, or the end of a terminal disease where pain and trauma for my loved ones and myself is totally pointless)
If I choose to go then I hope that everyone sees it as a statement of who I am and rejoices that I did it my way.

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/16/terminally-ill-man-challenges-uks-ban-on-assisted-dying-at-high-court

So why weren't the last two dignified, in your view, Annie?

Are you perhaps judging those people by your own standard of ethics?

The sucicides I have been close to were not dignified , one was brave, the others from depression and one from grief .

Is there dignity in suicide AB asked. Yes, and bravery too.

Yep. I think it the feeling of helplessness that must be so difficult. I remember seeing a woman on tv who had M.S and was trying to fight for her right to die.
She said she had finished finding anything remotely funny about her circumstances; she had found some humour in the circumstances that M.S had presented over the years, but it just wasn't funny anymore. How sad..

Exactly Miss thats what some of the research shows and it makes sense doesn't it?

I'm sure we could, Rigby. Personally, I'm all for it; at least having the option there. Sometimes that may even be enough? To know that it can be bought to a humane end, if it all gets too much.

MissAdventure we can learn from other countries who allow it and seem to manage it perfectly well.The present system leads to horrible abuse of a different kind.

I suppose because it could so easily be abused, if it were to become the norm.

Yes, I would be brave enough to do it. I'd have to be very sure that whatever I took (I couldn't do it any other way) would kill me and not leave me in a coma or disabled in some way, so serious research would be necessary.

But yes, I have witnessed undignified and agonising deaths. Why this is allowed I have no idea...

Thanks, Tricia. Even after five and a half years, it still has me questioning if it was right, but we know it was what he wanted, and had asked for, and it was written down.
It hurts those left behind, even when you know it was a rational decision.
The main thing to remember is that right up until the end it is possible to change your mind - but he never did, because he knew how horrible it would have been any other way.

Sorry, but it's not really chat to some.

I believe there can be dignity is suicide. Why not? Its choosing when the time is right, and hopefully passing away without pain. I've certainly seen a good few natural deaths which haven't afforded the sufferer that choice.

That's so sad DJ. But understandable.
I sometimes remind husband that I'm 8 years older than him and likely to die first, because he refuses to plan for that. I was a bit horrified yesterday when he said he would kill himself by driving off one of the steep hills here. He might do it too, his father tried it twice with pills, and his eldest brother actually did kill himself ( not sure how.)
Also surprised to hear him admit how much he depends on me

ab as you well know, it all depends. My ndn's husband had no dignity in his death - screaming out in pain 'I want to die, I want to die'

Thanks, Rigby.
He didn't suffer any more than he had before that.
He had carers coming in four times a day. He died in his own bed, which is what he wanted, rather than in hospital.
In fact he did not even need morphine for the last day, despite having been in pain for fifteen years before that.
If you ask any of the carers he had, they would have said it was a dignified death.
Apart from the brain tumour he also had cerebellar ataxia, which is a bit like motor neurone disease, where your body gradually gives up, so you end up not being able to swallow properly.
He did not want the indignity of being fed by tube, which was his choice.
Surely the whole point about dignity in dying is that you have choice.

Is there dignity in suicide?