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Why assisted suicide should not be option in our society
Friday, 12 December 2008
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The Sky TV documentary this week showing a desperately ill man taking his own life in a Swiss suicide clinic has forced the issue into the public domain in the most dramatic way possible.
It was reality television at its grimmest.
Craig Ewert (below) was 59 and suffering from motor neurone disease which would, as he so eloquently put it, eventually leave him as a living tomb. He would be paralysed and fed nutrients through a tube in his stomach.
Understandably that was an indignity that he did not want to endure and so he decided to enter the clinic and end his life. He was shown drinking a deadly |cocktail of barbiturates and biting down on a switch which set off a timer which turned off his ventilator.
There probably are many people |suffering from debilitating, terminal conditions who feel as he did. Many of us have watched loved ones die of diseases which left them with precious little dignity in their final days or hours. Many of us have probably prayed that they would be released from their suffering.
But how many of us would actively help our loved ones die, especially at a time when they were still conscious and able to take the final step themselves?
The programme showed Mr Ewert being comforted by his wife Mary in his final moments. They even |exchanged a final kiss and said their final goodbyes. It is certainly not for me to say that what they did was wrong, even if I don’t agree with the concept of assisted |suicide.
I find myself in agreement with Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the issue. He told the Commons this week that assisted suicide is a matter of conscience for the |individual.
He added: “I believe that it is necessary to ensure that there is a never a case in this country where a sick or elderly person feels under pressure to agree to an assisted death or somehow feels it is the expected thing to do. That is why I have always opposed legislation for assisted deaths.”
Sometimes when we think of assisted suicides we imagine the nightmarish |scenario of pushy relatives hastening a person toward eternity to get their hands on their inheritance. It could happen, but as the Prime Minister pointed out, making assisted suicides legal would create a climate where such events would no longer be regarded as exceptional and could even become “the expected thing to do”.
Remember that when the Abortion Act was introduced it was for well-defined |exceptional cases, but over the years has |become so debased that terminations are now often contraception for the forgetful.
A shocking recent example of assisted suicide was that of Daniel James, the 23-year-old who had been paralysed in a rugby accident, and who could no longer face life. The Director of Public Prosecutions has decided not to level charges against Daniel’s parents who accompanied him on his death trip to Switzerland.
Legalising assisted suicides could mean more young people — not terminally ill although desperately restricted — opting to end their lives.
I can understand why the terminally ill may wish to die before dying becomes too awful. I can also accept that perfectly legal doses of morphine administered to cancer patients, for example, may cumulatively cause death.
And yet I can never accept that assisted suicide is right, at least morally. From ever I can remember, I have learned that nothing is more sacred — and not just in the religious sense — than life. I regard life as a precious gift. That is a belief which has seeped into every fibre of my body.
If we cannot accept the utter sanctity of life and be horrified and saddened at its ending, then there truly are no barriers left to prevent a descent towards inhumanity.
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It looks like 95% of people disagree with Mr White and quite rightly. Your life belongs to you and you can do what you choose with it. Who wants to put their family through the agony of watching them decay mentally and physically over years? Who wants the indignity of the horrible existance? Certainly not me.
Posted by patrick | 27.12.08, 19:07 GMT
Having watched so many relatives die in very much less than dignified manners I fully support assisted suicide. I came to this decision regarding my late grandmother's dimentia around 10 years ago, she suffered for years eventually dying as a confused, withered shell of her former strong self. Unable to eat, incontinent, CONSTANTLY crying, confused and miserable without a clue what was going on. After watching that happen to such a strong woman, both my Mother and I are of the opinion we'd rather die. If my Mother should fall to the same illness I shall be looking into A.S., she has asked as much, as I sincerely hope she would do for me! Such a life is not worth living. It is literally years of hell. My family all know of my wishes if I were to become severly disabled or terminally ill. I've joked "take me out in the backyard with a shotgun", but that's not entirely in jest...
Posted by Michael | 17.12.08, 13:51 GMT
I hate to break it to you Aurora, but your unlikely to find anybody willing to comment who has lived through an auwfull painfull death. It would be interesting to get their point of view though...you know, having been there done that type of thing. PS. 13wilson, your attitude is beyond disgracefull, you dont seem to have any grasp of what love is and what that makes people do. I pity you greatly. I have seen my uncle care for my cousin from birth for almost 30 years. We all know she will die young but they savour every day with her.
Posted by andy | 17.12.08, 10:01 GMT
Life is a precious gift, if you are able to live it to its fullest exent. What kind of life can a person have if they are hooked up to a ventalator and depend on a family member to aid them? What kind of life does a family member have who has to put their life on hold for this.
Hospital expenses are going through the roof. Who is to care for them when the money runs out? When a family is no longer able to pay the hospital bill, and the hospitals have to free up a bed for someone who can pay, then what?
Many feel that abuse will be the problem if PAS is legalized, abuse is already a problem when the patient is alive and being cared for by a family member or unable to care for themselves when life is all about enjoying its sanctity.
Posted by l3wilso | 17.12.08, 04:23 GMT
A new discovery this year has enabled chimps with spinal injuries to move limbs using a brain implant. The 23 year old who was assisted to suicide by his own parents may have benefited from this revolutionary scientific breakthrough. If i was them, i would not want to have been responsible for an unnecessary death when a cure could be round the corner.
Posted by fiona | 13.12.08, 17:35 GMT
At the end of the article you say nothing is more sacred - and not just in the religious sense -- than life. I think sacred only has a religious sense.
There are people who want to end their lives. Their live are unbearable. Some of these people get themselves in a position where they can not end their lives themselves, so it is an act of kindness for someone to help them do it. I think to prevent the kind of misuse of killing people against their wishes, as you seem to think would happen if assisted suicide were made legal -- there would be safeguards where you need proof the person choosing to die clearly wants to do so.
I don't understand who is going to pay for and take care of these people who do not want to live? Can they all come stay at your home and you'll feed and shelter them until they someday pass away at a future time?
I think the government should not be involved in these very private decisions.
Posted by Tim NYC | 13.12.08, 13:39 GMT
This view is obviously from someone that has never lived through a long & painful death. I am a big advocater of 'choose life' but lets be realistic... there are a lot of dieseses that torture, humiliate & degrade a person so much that if they get to the stage that they ARE going to die... let them have the easy way out. I have suffered through several family members dying... the first was my grandmother & as it was a first we put her through literal hell, radio, chemo, the works... we kept her alive for probably another 3 months & turned her into a a lost little girl whos brain was lost, body lost & suffered for another 3 months. We had an extra 3 months to say goodbye, to an empty shell. The next 2 deaths were dignified as we didn live in that 'denial' that keeping somone alive for longer is better. Im not saying kill your loved ones but hey, if they want to go... they should be able to have the choice. this article was written by a selfish person who really doesnt understand
Posted by Aurora | 13.12.08, 12:40 GMT
I strongly dissagree with you about the so called worthiness of life over death. Life can become a living death and horrible hell for a person who is physically healthy and with no other apparent deficiencies. Often a person throughout their life cannot perceive that life has a true worth and beauty to out weigh the continual effort required for the conflicts and stresses that are a a natural constituent of life. Finally after many years they cannot go on with the proven futile labor and just want the peace and happiness of oblivion.
Your idealistic reasons want them to continue on with the labor until they go crazy in utter dispair or walk through life supported by anti-depressant drugs. When their nightmare could have ended.
No person seeks to be born, surely they should at least have the option to exist this circumstance of "life" that they continually find to be a living death.
Posted by emma | 13.12.08, 10:13 GMT
I myself do believe that a person has the right to choose their own death. Having it forced upon them is something else.
If someone wants to have an assisted suicide, I would think that a psychiatric evaluation would be in order prior to the event (in the case of a conscious person).
If the person is unconscious as is the case of brain death, etc., I feel that it is the sole responsibility of the parents/closest family to make that decision.
Posted by Nick | 12.12.08, 15:06 GMT
When an animal is suffering unbearably we feel selfish for keeping it alive and have no hesitation in putting it out of it's misery yet we let human beings suffer incredibly even using drugs to prolong that suffering to get a few more days or weeks of "life" it should be a choice availible to all, after all if you disagree with it, you don't have to do it but I know at the first sign of any illness like cancer, I will be booking my place and checking out on my own terms.
Posted by Joe | 12.12.08, 12:48 GMT
The issue is liberty. A person has the liberty to decide what to do with his or her life as he or she sees fit. It is not up to someone else to tell another person they must stay. You have plenty of people who do not fit into society, yet they must suffer. When they finally make their choice to end it, you'll hear all kinds of people say, "Oh, I would have helped him." Yet, they could not be bothered to help when the person was alive! We need more death in this world, then maybe people will wake up to how we treat each other.
Posted by Eugene | 12.12.08, 11:21 GMT
I completely disagree with you on this one, if you think about it logically you'll realise that people have a right to decide if they want to die or not. You mention that you believe it to be unfair that old people should not be put under any pressure to die but I disagree, it must be a saddening sight for them to see there family tearful almost every day seeing them in serious pain and watching them suffering, but I see your point. Another point is the doctors who perform the euthanasia will assess the case before they make the decisions and if they say no it must be awful for them to travel all the way back to there home country, if the service was here then this wouldn't happen.
I also disagree with the fact that people believe that these doctors are "playing god". That is not the case, they are just doing there job, we all have to do things we don't like in life.
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Posted by Conor | 12.12.08, 09:40 GMT