Letters from A Tory has another post about ‘assisted’ suicide.
See it here.
I have argued repeatedly on that blog on this issue because, as an MS patient (victim? sufferer? casualty? what is the word?), it could easily apply to me should total paralysis set in. I don’t, basically, understand why the right to commit suicide should be tied to the physical capacity to perform the act. So I repost my comments below:
ONE:
Here here. It is especially telling that they chose to prosecute the offence of ‘murder’ rather than under the Suicide Act for assisting a suicide.
That’s how these people plan to circumvent the apparent gains made in Keir Starmer’s DPP statement on assisted dying. They’ll just ignore the very concept and prosecute everyone for murder.
The churches and Daily Fail must be very proud of themselves, knowing that their work condemns people they don’t know who may not share their beliefs to lives of suffering that they do not want.
TWO
But Charles – what about people who lack the physical capacity to end their own lives but are able to request that their lives be ended? I’ve long argued, well, since my diagnosis with MS in 2007, that there is no logical way that tying the ‘right’ to commit suicide to the physical capacity to do so serves only to discriminate against the disabled who may need assistance most.
THREE
“My fear now is that it will be impossible to police a law that allows assisted suicide. However, it was once common practice for the DPP to act with good judgement in such cases and only a very few would be prosecuted under Suicide act.”
Tony, the problem is that those they don’t want to prosecute will be viewed through the prism of the suicide assistance offence guidelines issued by the DPP whereas the rest, for all sorts of reasons including PR, will face murder charges.
This whole thing is ridiculous and has come about through an awful convergence of religious fundamentalists masquerading as victims (Muslim, Catholic, CoE, whatever) and cowardice of our society who seem to believe that death is not innevitable (eat right and don’t drink, smoke or do other sins and you will live!) and equally that sometimes it’s not desirable. My suspicion is that generations that experienced, say, total war, are probably a good deal more sanguine about it all.
