Today, assisted death has featured heavily in the news. A pro-euthanasia think tank has published a report advocating that doctors should be allowed to prescribe drugs to allow those with less than year to live to commit suicide. Currently, helping anybody to commit suicide is illegal under the suicide act and is punishable by up to fourteen years in prison. Strangely, suicide its self is not illegal (although how one would go about prosecuting it is anyone's guess).
Assisted suicide has occupied my thoughts for years now. As well as having my own moral views on it, I have developed more a more academic perspective. My law school dissertation was examining the legal issues surrounding assisted suicide. I won't bore you with the details (although gratifyingly my conclusions were the same as some extremely senior judges who passed judgement on a test case on this very topic about a week after I handed my work in). In addition to this, I started my academic life as a medical student and there was forced to confront issues surrounding death and dying.
Medicine has progressed almost exponentially over the last 200 years or so. Today doctors can do things which even a few years ago would seem unthinkable. People are living longer and longer. However, although much attention has been devoted to increasing quantity of life, similar devotion has not been given to quality of life. Many people live in pain, suffering and depression because their health is failing. It is for this reason that the law needs to be examined and, in my opinion, be tailored to reflect the current state of medical practice.
The law as it stands does not reflect the fact that medicine now makes it possible to sustain extremely unwell people. It also does not acknowledge that people in that state may suffer acutely from their condition and prolonging that existence may not be what the patient wants.
No doubt people who oppose assisted suicide will point to Prof. Stephen Hawking and his achievements as evidence that assisted suicide should continue to be illegal. There is no doubt that he has achieved some incredible things. However, this has been done by choice. Hawking made the choice to immerse himself in physics. Others may not want to do the same and why should they be forced into it? Free choice is valued highly in this country. People are allowed to choose who they are governed by, which religion to follow and are left largely alone in their personal lives (health and safety aside). Why should they not be allowed choice in death? Why should the opinions of some trump the opinions of others? For those that believe assisted suicide is immoral, feel free not to do it but it cannot be right to impose those views on all.
That said, I don't believe free reign is the way forward. Legal safeguards would be required. The report published suggests that assistance in committing suicide should be available to those with less than a year to live. Unfortunately, it is notoriously difficult to predict this and estimates of life remaining amount to little more than an educated guess on the part of the physicians. Also, there are likely to be many people with conditions that, in their opinion, make life unbearable before their final year.
There is no simple answer to this question. The emotive nature of the subject means that genuinely objective discussion will be almost impossible. It will be interesting to see how and when resolution is achieved.
JR
Assisted suicide has occupied my thoughts for years now. As well as having my own moral views on it, I have developed more a more academic perspective. My law school dissertation was examining the legal issues surrounding assisted suicide. I won't bore you with the details (although gratifyingly my conclusions were the same as some extremely senior judges who passed judgement on a test case on this very topic about a week after I handed my work in). In addition to this, I started my academic life as a medical student and there was forced to confront issues surrounding death and dying.
Medicine has progressed almost exponentially over the last 200 years or so. Today doctors can do things which even a few years ago would seem unthinkable. People are living longer and longer. However, although much attention has been devoted to increasing quantity of life, similar devotion has not been given to quality of life. Many people live in pain, suffering and depression because their health is failing. It is for this reason that the law needs to be examined and, in my opinion, be tailored to reflect the current state of medical practice.
The law as it stands does not reflect the fact that medicine now makes it possible to sustain extremely unwell people. It also does not acknowledge that people in that state may suffer acutely from their condition and prolonging that existence may not be what the patient wants.
No doubt people who oppose assisted suicide will point to Prof. Stephen Hawking and his achievements as evidence that assisted suicide should continue to be illegal. There is no doubt that he has achieved some incredible things. However, this has been done by choice. Hawking made the choice to immerse himself in physics. Others may not want to do the same and why should they be forced into it? Free choice is valued highly in this country. People are allowed to choose who they are governed by, which religion to follow and are left largely alone in their personal lives (health and safety aside). Why should they not be allowed choice in death? Why should the opinions of some trump the opinions of others? For those that believe assisted suicide is immoral, feel free not to do it but it cannot be right to impose those views on all.
That said, I don't believe free reign is the way forward. Legal safeguards would be required. The report published suggests that assistance in committing suicide should be available to those with less than a year to live. Unfortunately, it is notoriously difficult to predict this and estimates of life remaining amount to little more than an educated guess on the part of the physicians. Also, there are likely to be many people with conditions that, in their opinion, make life unbearable before their final year.
There is no simple answer to this question. The emotive nature of the subject means that genuinely objective discussion will be almost impossible. It will be interesting to see how and when resolution is achieved.
JR
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