Topic: Illness

The View from the Classroom – Euthanasia – What is euthanasia, and what do you think about it? Students from Key Stages 4 and 5 in schools all around the country give us the view from the classroom.

Curriculum Mapping

TrueTube films are designed for use in a number of ways. Some ideas of where this film could link to your curriculum are below:

AQA

Component 2: Thematic studies:Theme B: Religion and life:The origins and value of human life -Religious teachings, beliefs and attitudes about euthanasia. Religious teachings, beliefs and attitudes about euthanasia.

Edexcel

Area of Study 1 - Beliefs in action– Religion and Ethics- Matters of Life and Death - Implications of religious teachings about the value and sanctity of life for the issue of euthanasia.

OCR

Religion, philosophy and ethics in the modern world:Freedom of expression • Freedom of practice • Equality in society • The value of human life •Self-determination - Potential clashes between religious teachings and scientific development in medical ethics, including: • Abortion

WJEC

PART B -Theme 1: Issues of Life and Death --The origin and value of human life

Eduqas

Component 1 (Route A):Religious, Philosophical and Ethical Studies in the Modern World: Theme 2: Issues of Life and Death: The origin and value of human life. Theme 3: Life and Death:Death and the afterlife.

Transcript

The View from the Classroom – Euthanasia

Euthanasia is ending your life because you have an illness or a medical condition which you do not want to live with.

Euthanasia means assisted suicide. Um, when times are tough, maybe when the quality of life isn't great.

I know it's used a lot in vets. When an animal is in a lot of pain, or simply just won't live for long, rather than prolonging the pain, they'll just injection and done.

A terminal disease is when you're going to die from it in the end anyways.

Someone who's terminally ill might want euthanasia, because they won't get better, so they see it as, I can't do these things that I would like to do, and it's too much pain to live, so they choose to die instead.

Active euthanasia is where someone has used something to help a certain patient die. So for instance, a lethal injection would be active euthanasia.

In England it's not legal, I know that. Usually most people go to Switzerland.

And then passive is where-

people are allowed to die. So maybe switching off the life support machine, um, when they're suffering or very ill, they're not going to recover.

Voluntary euthanasia is where you know what's going to happen to you and you say that you want this happening.

And non-voluntary euthanasia is where another person made the decision for them, for them to die. So, for instance, a doctor or family member.

I don't really agree with it, because I think that you shouldn't end your life just because of like maybe if you're paralysed then you could still live maybe 40 years.

Quality of life is when you have a good life and you feel like you can do the things you want to do and capable of doing those things.

If the quality of life isn't good, I'd want them to have, um, you know, a nice ending to their life. Instead of being in pain, suffering.

Dying with dignity, is like, they want to go to euthanasia because they want to die before they get to a stage where they're no longer able to do things themselves, and they have to have other people to do it for them. So say, if you couldn't even, like, wash yourself and stuff like that, maybe that's classified as not being dignified.

Some people, they can't walk, some people can't do normal, everyday things that people take for granted.

If you have your family support and it's not, you're not undignified, are you? Because they're just looking out for you and helping you come through, like, your illness.

I think euthanasia should be allowed because it's their life, so they should be able to choose when they die.

I think that you're kind of wasting your life just because you want to end it, because it's too hard. But I think there's a lot of things that, like you could, that could help that, there's like groups that you go to. I think that going to euthanasia is kind of just taking the easy option.

I believe in the sanctity of life.

Sanctity of life is like how some Christians and Muslims believe God gave you that life, and only he has the right to take it away.

I think God gave us life, and we are not the ones that should be taking away our own lives.

In the Quran it says that you shouldn't. Only God has a decision to take a life and I'm not God.

This is where I will say I'm not a true Buddhist because when it comes to my religion, killing is very bad and especially when you kill yourself, that is the worst thing you could possibly do. But personally I believe it is your choice.

I think that people should let God decide when they die. He created us, that means he's gonna decide when he ends our life, because if you've been good all your life, Christians believe that you will go to heaven. Um, but if you decide to commit suicide or get assisted suicide you're gonna go to hell.

Euthanasia shouldn't be allowed, because, I'm a religious man, in the law of God, like you are still taking your own life, so it's classed as murder. So if you was to commit euthanasia, you wouldn't really have much to look forward to, because that's probably the biggest sin.

Well, it's not full out murder because they want to die and they're not living the life that they want to live.

If a cure was found after a person had had euthanasia, it wouldn't be so great because the family would be in more grief. They'd be thinking that the person would still be there with them when they've wasted their life. So that wouldn't be great in my opinion, that would be one of the negatives to euthanasia.

I think euthanasia should be allowed, but it should definitely be be their choice.

It's going to be checked by psychologists and people who know about that. So it's going to go through a series of tests to know if the person is mentally well for that. So it's not going to just be a spur of the moment thing.

If they're not mentally stable, then the choice should be going to their closest family member.

It should be taken with caution because it might just be a split second decision. So I think one day you apply for euthanasia and in a month they ask you again, if you still want to end it, then you should be allowed to have that choice. But of course, multiple doctors should confirm that you are definitely going to die. There's no way around it.

I think that there's other alternatives to euthanasia, like hospices, because they, um, you can go there for like end of life treatments. That could be a lot easier on the family as well, because at least then they've got time to take in what's going to happen. And they know that eventually the family member is going to die, but then they're dying in a nice way and not just ending it by killing themselves.

Well, I think a hospice is is a really good thing, because if you're have a terminally terminal illness and you're going to die anyway, you want to be around people, or you might want to be around people, who know what you're going through, and who understand you and are doing the best that they can to try and make your death, I guess, as smooth as possible and as comfortable as possible. And they're just trying to do what is best for you.

The View from the Classroom – Euthanasia

Video length - 06.18

Published date - Sep 2019

Keystage(s) - 3 and 4

Downloadable resources

Reply With A Full Stop If You Get This – Emily is a poet and a teacher, and has bipolar disorder. It’s a mental health illness that means she can feel very down or very up for no reason whatsoever. With eloquence and humour she describes how it feels, how she manages it, and how she’d like society to be more understanding and accepting of mental health disorders.

A film by Adam Tyler.

Winner of the Educational Film Award (from other organisation or individual) at the Learning On Screen Awards 2019.

Nominated in the Content for Change category at the BAFTA Children’s Awards 2018.

Advice for young people about mental health can be found at the following sites:

Reply With A Full Stop If You Get This

Video length - 10.32

Published date - May 2018

Keystage(s) - 3, 4 and 5

Downloadable resources

To Life – Tanwen’s father Gareth died when she was 19 years old. He was suffering from Motor Neurone Disease which was gradually taking away his ability to move, to speak, to swallow. And yet he remained positive until the end, and sincerely wanted Tanwen to continue enjoying life to the full. Tanwen talks about how her father died and how she dealt – and still deals – with her grief. He died before his time, but Tanwen now feels that it was the best thing that could have happened – that he died while he still had his dignity.

A film by Adam Tyler.

Nominated in the Factual category of the BAFTA Children’s Awards 2017.

Curriculum Mapping

TrueTube films are designed for use in a number of ways. Some ideas of where this film could link to your curriculum are below:

AQA

Component 2 - Religious, philosophical and ethical studies in the modern world: Theme B - Religion and life - The origins and value of human life - Religious teachings, beliefs and attitudes about euthanasia The concepts of sanctity of life and the quality of life.

Edexcel

Area of Study 1 - Section 4: Matters of Life and Death - Implications of the value and sanctity of life for the issue of euthanasia

OCR

Component Group 2 - Religion,philosophy and ethics in the modern world:Freedom of expression • Freedom of practice • Equality in society • The value of human life •Self-determination - Potential clashes between religious teachings and scientific development in medical ethics, including: • Abortion

WJEC

PART B -Theme 1: Issues of Life and Death --The origin and value of human life

Eduqas

Component 1 (Route A):Religious, Philosophical and Ethical Studies in the Modern World: Theme 2: Issues of Life and Death: The origin and value of human life. Theme 3: Life and Death:Death and the afterlife

Transcript

To Life

Tanwen I forgot to check if I had stuff in my teeth.

Director You don't.

Tanwen This shirt, by the way, it's got the worst buttons ever, ever buttoned. So, and, hello,, that's amazing. That is really clever. So you can't see a lens? Yeah, but your head is now in the wrong place to your body, but that's fine.

Director You're not religious, are you?

Tanwen No, I am not religious.

Director Yes.

Tanwen The one, there's the one question.

Director Is this the one about your dad's values?

Tanwen Valued most in his life. I haven't, I don't really know.

Tanwen So should we.

Director Yeah.

Tanwen Try. My dad's name was Gareth and my name is Tanwen. My dad really loved being outdoors, he was a gardener when I grew up. He loved music as well, and he loved to dance, and, uh, yeah, he didn't like to wear shoes so barefooted quite a lot. He was a very positive man, but also quite a quiet man. Um, so he would listen a lot, and then occasionally he'll come out with a story from nowhere and sort of surprise you. He used to, like, run away from boarding school in the evenings to go and watch Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix and stuff. Which I always thought was very cool. He was very caring and very kind. I remember me and my friend sitting in the park and seeing this chap cycling towards us, and he just looked so crazy and we were just commenting on how weird he looked, and as he got closer, I realised it was my dad and I'd ordered a rug, a big zebra print rug off eBay and he'd gone to the post office to collect it, but his car was in the garage, so he had to strap this giant rug to his back and cycle it home. We're like, oh, look at this crazy guy, I was like oh, it's my dad doing something really nice for me.

Director Um. Okay. Can you tell me about the illness?

Tanwen Yeah. Um, so I was 17. It was quite a long time that he had issues. He had a problem with two of his fingers not moving properly, and he was going to the doctor, to see many doctors about what, what it could be. He fell off a ladder, he fell over walking, and he wasn't a clumsy guy. These are not normal things that would happen, so when I found out he had motor neurone disease, I wanted to look it up more and I found out immediately that it's something that most people tend to die of within 14 months. It was a disease that kills, uh, your nervous system. Without your nerves your muscles stop working, you stop being able to breathe, talk, walk, move. Just shuts, it shuts you down, you can't do anything. When he told me we all, I started crying, my mum started crying, he started crying and we all just sat there crying for quite a long time before any of us could talk. Uh, my grandad died of it, my great grandma died of it, because it's it, it runs in the family, it's hereditary. Um, it means that myself or my brothers or my cousins could all die of it, there's, we've all got a 50% chance. So, yeah, it's one person every generation it, sort of, seems to take in my family.

Tanwen One of the things we had to talk about was that I was planning on going travelling for a year. Um, and I initially said that I just wouldn't go. But he said that he, he really wanted me to go, and he wanted me to enjoy my life, and he didn't want me to, to stay with him. So in the end, I compromised and I bought a six month flexible return so that I could come back at any point, if, you know, he got a lot worse. I didn't have money to phone them because it's the days before FaceTime and all this stuff. So I would get on the, go to an internet cafe because smartphones didn't exist. Uh, and uh, and email my mum and I, she was saying that he was getting worse, but I didn't, I didn't know, I didn't really know anything from not speaking to him. And then when I was in Vietnam, I heard my name shouted out and it was one of my brother's best friends, and he was like, I'm just going to call them because he had a phone that he could call them with, with money on it. I spoke to my mum first and then she said, okay, I'm going to put you on to dad, but I need to warn you that it's, he's got a lot worse. And, um, she, he, I, she passed the phone on to him and I could barely understand him, his voice had deteriorated so badly, and I got really upset, and I, I just said, mum, should I should I come home now? And she said, I think I had two months left, and she was like, no, he doesn't want you to come home. You need to stay out and enjoy yourself. He wants you to live your life and you can come back and he'll be waiting for you.

Tanwen When I came back, he had deteriorated a lot. I think it was four months that I had been back before he died. He was very skinny. Uh, he had no strength in him. He was in a wheelchair most of the time. His tongue muscle was also, started to deteriorate. To begin with, I couldn't understand him at all, but after getting used to his grunts and things, I, I began to understand him. And I became his sort of key carer, so I spent every day with him, um. There was a lot of the time I would ask him if he was having like a bad day or something, like, you know, how, how are you, dad? Like, how are you feeling? And you know, and rather than say, I'm having an awful day, he would say, I'm having the time of my life.

Tanwen When, when he was ill, he wanted to be outside and going on walks and be, just like when it was nice weather, he'd just be sat in the garden with his T-shirt off, just soaking in the sun, and I swear it looked like he had like an aura around him. He was like glowing, even though he was like this little skeletal of a man and really sick, he just looked incredible, he was, yeah, he looked amazing.

Tanwen And, yeah, we, we had a really nice time together. He was doing, he was doing really well, actually, and he had he had a couple of problems, he had to go to hospital to get checked out and when he was in hospital he got a chest infection. He came back and um, sort of got, got worse very quickly. There was a night that he was he was not doing well and I was checking on him. And he had all these different machines, like an oxygen machine, to help him breathe. He had a machine to stick down his throat, to suck phlegm out because his body couldn't do it, and it would make him choke. It was really grim. Um, I said I'd check on him in an hour, and I went up to my room and I turned on the TV and I started watching it, and I stuck with it and thought, you know, it's an hour and a half, he'll be fine. And, uh, when I went down after an hour and a half, he had funnily, like, he got rid of all of his machines and he had the football on, but he wasn't breathing anymore.

Tanwen When he first died, I was upset so often. I cried so much, even two, three years later, I'd be talking about him and I'd start crying. I'd never talk to him again, and I still find that hard. Um, but yeah, uh, so that's, yeah, that's what gets me. But on the whole, I can talk about it without, without crying, uh, now, and that's definitely time has helped so much. It really does. It does help.

Director You told me before that you were angry with the, the hospital, is that right?

Tanwen Yeah, um. To begin with, I was I was really cross because he was doing so well and he was still strong, like, he could still walk a little bit, and he could still talk a bit, and he could still eat a little bit, like he, he wasn't ready to die, and the reason that he did die was because he'd gone to hospital and caught a chest infection. If he hadn't gone to hospital, he would have lived for another three to four months I think. So at first I was angry, but the, the more I would think about it, I realised that he was actually amazing that he went when he did. The fact that he still had some dignity, he could still walk a little bit, talk a little bit, eat a little bit. I think of my granddad, for example, he was, he was bed bound for a long time, just rotting away in a bed before he actually died. So I'm, I'm so happy now that he died when he did, of the chest infection, and still had some dignity and some life left in him, uh, and yeah, I think that was the best thing that could have happened.

To Life

Video length - 08.38

Published date - Jun 2017

Keystage(s) - 3, 4 and 5

Downloadable resources

Alcohol and Cigarettes: Dance Off – Drinking alcohol can make you think you’re a great dancer – but great dancers know that alcohol makes them anything but. Here are the facts about the effects that alcohol and smoking can have on your health.

Alcohol and Cigarettes: Dance Off

Video length - 03.08

Published date - Feb 2014

Keystage(s) - 3 and 4

Loss Without Warning

Ella lost her father to a rare blood disease, after he had got over cancer only a few months before. With great strength, she talks about the experience of losing her dad and how she has coped since.

Loss Without Warning

Video length - 05.22

Published date - Aug 2009

Keystage(s) - 3 and 4

Downloadable resources

From Cocaine To Carnations…

Drugs, jail and coming out on top: this is Gina’s story.

From Cocaine To Carnations: Gina’s Story

Video length - 05.01

Published date - Oct 2008

Keystage(s) - 3 and 4

Organ Donors

TrueTube challenges the public on their opinions of organ donation, asking: whether or not they have a donor card; whether they’d be comfortable with giving others their organs; and if it’s right for the government to change the laws on organ donation.

Organ Donors

Video length - 02.29

Published date - Jan 2008

Keystage(s) - 3 and 4

Downloadable resources

Mental – The perceptions and consequent implications of mental illlness in today’s society, particularly as a result of the media.

Mental

Video length - 01.25

Published date - Jan 2008

Keystage(s) - 3 and 4

French Letters, British Lovers – David Machin condemns the media’s irresponsible attitude towards sex, and its implications. He argues that it is important to empower young people to make healthy choices by changing the way sex is publicised. The current portrayal is going to perpetuate the increasing rise in HIV and AIDS in the UK.