Baroness Jane Campbell says:
Would you prefer to be helped to die rather than be in “unbearable” pain? To most people the answer to this question is straightforward. But is it? Unbearable suffering is not only a matter of physical pain. Someone may find life “unbearable” when they become physically unable to communicate and cannot afford
the equipment that would enable them to connect with their family and others around them. In one US case a man fought vigorously for the right to die via the courts while media coverage highlighted his communication impairment. But after a software company provided specialist equipment and
others raised funds to provide him with home-based support, he regained the dignity and independence he thought was lost for ever and decided that he no longer wished to die. Life was “bearable” again.Despair is a common reason for contemplating suicide, but research evidence from specialists in palliative care shows that the
principal reason that most people give for seeking assisted suicide is “not wanting to be a burden”. People also cite pain as a reason for wanting the option to ask others to help them die. But I would argue that society has a duty to relieve such suffering rather than use death as a way of sweeping it away.
And who exactly are the “terminally ill”? The reality is that there is no watertight way to determine whether a person is in the last months of life.I believe that the background noise to this debate feeds into desires for a body beautiful and a perfect life untroubled by illness. The debate promotes premature
death as a choice, especially for people with severe disability or “terminal” conditions. This choice agenda is false, because it will insidiously lead to less choice – the slippery slope. As we have seen recently from the enquiry into the Staffordshire Hospital scandal, the NHS is already failing to care for hundreds
of thousands of patients who die each year, many without proper pain relief. If assisted dying were to become law, the relationship between the givers and receivers of care would be damaged irrevocably. In the NHS “assisted dying” would become the cheapest, quickest and simplest option.Legalising premature death
would sow the seed of doubt about one’s right to demand help – not to die, but to live with dignity.
Baroness Campbell of Surbiton Baroness Campbell is a vocal campaigner for disability rights and an advocate of independent living. As a founder of Not Dead Yet UK (www.notdeadyetuk.org) she is strongly against any change in the law.
Terry Pratchett says:
I believe that it should be possible for someone stricken with a serious and ultimately fatal illness to choose to die a peaceful and dignified death with medical help, rather than suffer. I cannot see why the decision of whether to live or die is for anyone but the person facing the pain, suffering and indignity. As well as the sanctity of
life, there is the dignity of life and the dignity of dying. Providing that people are composmentis and making their own choices, assisted dying does not weaken the sanctity of life, but it does strengthen the dignity of our existence.At least ten per cent of suicides are committed by people facing serious and terminal illnesses.
Many of these suicides happen without consultations or conversations with anyone. My experience of the Dignitas clinic was that it provided an opportunity for individuals to have discussions with family members and professionals about the decision. This is, alas, an example of a foreign country showing dying Britons
more compassion than we do in the UK. If we had our own law on assisted dying, we could build in opportunities for counselling before someone was allowed to take the medication necessary to end their own life, or – what I’d like to see – being allowed a physician-assisted death. I am married; it would be foolish of me to believe
that I am never fully in charge of my own decisions. Ultimately, though, this does have to be a decision made by the individual after much consultation with loved ones.I would campaign as fiercely for those who want to choose to stick it out to the bitter end as I do for those who want the choice of assisted death – the key here is
choice. People with a terminal illness need to know that they don’t have to suffer. They need support. They don’t need the values and beliefs of others to get in the way of their experience of a good death. There are those who are genuinely fearful of a change in the law to allow assisted dying – and those fears are legitimate. I
have done research in those countries in Europe and elsewhere that allow assisted dying and have found no instance of foul play. I see no reason why the British experience should be any worse. In fact, with our love of bureaucracy, we just might do it better. The big debate the right to die “The debate promotes
premature death as a choice, especially for people with severe disability or ‘terminal’ conditions. This choice agenda is false, because it willinsidiously lead to less choice” “I would campaign as fiercely for those who want to choose to stick it out to the bitter end as I do for those who want the choice of assisted death – the
key here is choice”
Sir Terry Pratchett The author’s controversial 2010 BBC TV programme, Choosing to Die, showed an assisted death at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. He is a patron of Dignity in Dying (www.dignityindying.org.uk) and strongly favours a change in the law.
JOIN THE DEBATE