Wednesday 31 July 2013

No Assisted Suicide Decision Still The Right One

The court of appeal has rejected a request by Paul Lamb who is paralysed from the neck down that doctors should be allowed to help him die and its not an easy decision to say that i agree with them.
Paul Lamb had taken on the 'right to die' case originally brought by Tony Nicklinson who suffered 'locked-in syndrome' who died last year.
Lord Judge opposed the appeal and insisted that the law relating to assisting suicide cannot be changed by judicial decision but by the politicians.
In response to the decision, Lamb said: 'I am absolutely gutted by the decision. I was hoping for a humane and dignified end. This judgement does not give me that. I will carry on the legal fight – this is not just about me but about many, many other people who are being denied the right to die a humane and dignified death just because the law is too scared to grapple with these issues'.
A very emotive argument but for me it leaves a massive grey area with people being pressured to commit suicide and it is too big an area to ignore so it's the lesser of two evils and the judges should keep rejecting the appeals.
It may benefit the likes of Tony Nicklinson and Paul Lamb but the right of others to kill you without fear of possible prosecution, that's a potential minefield we don't need to wander into.

12 comments:

Cheezy said...

"the right of others to kill you without fear of possible prosecution"

If you really think that the bill would provide this, then it's no wonder you're against it!

Lucy said...

You can wrap it up in words to make it sound more palatable but that's what it is.

Anonymous said...

The pro abortion people should be arguing for assisted suicide. If a woman's right to control her body trumps the life of another human, why shouldn't a person be allowed to take their own life?

Personally I would vote against assisted suicide but because of emotion, not logic.

Q

Cheezy said...

Lucy: Do you know anyone from Switzerland? If you do, you should ask them if they think that their Dignitas clinic-
(a) gives expression to peoples' desire to end their own lives, or-
(b) gives expression to people's desire to end the lives of others.

I think you'd go a long way to find anyone people who'd say (b).

Q: "The pro abortion people should be arguing for assisted suicide."

I'm pro choice rather than pro abortion (because I don't think they should be mandatory), although I disagree with your 'hard'n'fast' rule here. One set of ethics does not necessarily imply the other... for many reasons... not least of which is that many people do not regard an embryo as worthy of the same protection as a human being.

Anonymous said...

I know my principle based approach to things doesn't sit well with folks that go wherever the popular wind is blowing...

Q

Cheezy said...

...either that, or other people have ethical principles that differ from your own, ones that are no less valid for that.

Lucy said...

I don't know any Swiss people but my issue is not with the people doing it, it is people being (or feeling) pressured into it by unscrupulous relatives/friends/beneficiaries.

Cheezy said...

If a person is feeling pressured into topping themselves by someone else, then they can always hang themselves, OD on pills, take a short jump off a railway platform, suck a tail-pipe, slash their wrists, etc, etc... and once they're gone, who's left to accuse the 'pressurizers'? Probably nobody.

What Dignitas and institutions of this type do is go through the reasons, in minute detail - before the fact - of why the person wants to die, to weed out any unacceptable or illegal behaviour. Which is what they do. Surely much better?

Lucy said...

If it was performed by a doctor in the patients bedroom after he or she signed some sort of disclaimer then i would continue to oppose it.

If there were the necessary checks in place and it was performed at a designated unit like Dignitas then i would reconsider my opinion.

Anonymous said...

ouch cheezy I need some aloevera cause I got burned...

q

Cheezy said...

No you didn't, mate :)

I just thought that your comment of August 02, 2013 1:11 seemed to imply that you felt your 'side' had a monopoly on ethical principles when it comes to this issue...

I considered that, because you're not a sanctimonious twit like David G (who is?), this is probably not the impression you were trying to leave.

Anonymous said...

I don't view different ethics or cultures as superior or inferior. I view them as different, each with pros and cons.

Q