If you have been affected by the issues in this programme, you can call Samaritans free from any phone on 116 123 (it will not appear on your phone bill), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit www.samaritans.org to find details of your nearest branch. The Motor Neurone Disease Association also provides support to people affected by motor neurone disease in England, Wales and NI - 03457 626262 or visit The Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Do individuals have a right to die? There are a welter of complicated issues around this apparently simple question, such as the distinction between allowing someone to die (by withdrawing treatment) and enabling them to die (by intervening). Let us put that to one side and consider whether someone suffering from a terminal illness, with no chance of a cure, who is suffering, and who is of sound mind and who has expressed a wish to die, should be allowed to seek assistance in dying.
The strongest argument for an affirmative answer is patient autonomy: in matters that affect us, and do not harm other people, we should be allowed to decide for ourselves. In matters of importance in our lives we have the right to make our own minds up. We can decide what career to pursue, where to live, who to marry. Why should we not be allowed to decide when our lives should end?
There are arguments on the other side too. These are the two that seem to me strongest. The first is an argument from unintended consequences: once the state allows the elderly and infirm this option then people who feel they are a burden might feel pressure to take it. Even worse, unscrupulous relatives, perhaps with their eye on an inheritance, might put pressure on someone to take it. There is a slippery slope: we start with some defensible cases, but soon the circle expands, and we end up with a situation that is much less morally clear.
The second concerns the kind of society we want to be. Do we want to take care of the elderly and infirm, making them feel valued, and investing in palliative care? Or the kind of society that shuffles them off to clinics so that they can dispose of themselves?
Here is a final thought. At the moment, people are able to obtain physician-assisted death if they are wealthy enough to pay the clinic’s fees and travel to Switzerland. Is the stable door already open? By disallowing physician-assisted death in this country, are all we doing is ensuring that it remains a privilege of the wealthy?
What are your thoughts? Have your say using the comments section below:
PLEASE NOTE: This discussion hub is intended for discussing the issues surrounding assisted suicide and the right to die, please do not use it for personal attacks on any individuals – either those featured in the programme or others using the hub. Any comments along this line will be removed.
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I am married with 2 kids and may i say in a happy stable relationship with a lovely home and job. So how is it i am so miserable. Each day i live for others and to go through the motions. I am a modern robot because society says i have to be. You may say i am not in the right mind therefore cannot make a decision on ending my own life. I have tried a couple of times when i am ill, each time more drastic. I cannot stop the demon within when my mind is taken over. The mental capacity act states people who lack mental capacity must be treated in their best interests.When i am saved this is not my best interest, but if i refuse treatment they will section me.
Life is unbearable at times as it is such a burden for myself and others around me who have to endure my pain and suffering. Even whilst i am fully cognitive i do not want to be here. I feel i have the right to die because my quality of life is 0. Having a personality disorder is like being a chameleon, i can fit into every situation and get involved in day to day activities, but who am i ?
Well i know my name but as for my purpose in life, it must be to please others because i certainly am not pleased and happy in my heart or head. Having mental health is just as serious as any other terminal illness of which we deserve our right not to suffer even further. I have gone through all treatments for my disorder from pills to psychotherapy but hey i feel the same, i can handle situations differently but my feelings are the same.
Like others with terminal illnesses we do not want to suffer further. Some may say this is selfish, but i think it is selfish and inhumane of others to expect us to endure the pain we go through. My family love me dearly as much as i love them but they understand my feelings, they may not like them but respect them. My pain and suffering has been everlasting and will be ongoing like lots of others therefore i feel we have a right to die humanely . One day i may become ill again and have no control of my mind and end my life drastically, but while i am competent of making my own decisions i have not got the choice, i have to live regardless.
It is my personal opinion that whilst we are fully alert and cognitively intact we have the choice to make the decision for when we no longer can tolerate the misery within if there is no further treatment available. I would love the right to refuse life saving treatment without being sectioned. Coming back to life for me is not what i want, i want to have the right to die.
I have been a practising Christian and churchgoer all my life. I support the principle of assisted suicide and believe this to be consistent with my faith.
Christians are expected to believe that God loves us because He made us. They are supposed to believe in neighbourly love and compassion. It is inconsistent with these principles that we should compel someone to end their life amid great suffering. It is not rational that a loving God would wish for someone to end their life in great pain, with all the grief that this would cause to loving relatives.
I have paid particular attention to Church leaders on the occasions when they speak on this subject. They reiterate the usual arguments. People could be put under pressure. What if greedy relatives were after inheritance? Maybe this; possibly that; ignore the problem we immediately face; possibility above reality. So it is as though we are saying to the terminal ill: "Sorry, you cannot have the choice to die and end your suffering because maybe others, in totally different circumstances, could be coerced against their will if we were to allow it."
In any case, this is a sociological argument. A legalised procedure to allow an assisted suicide would have built-in safeguards against possible unethical practice and each case would be assessed individually.
Meanwhile I am still waiting for Church leaders to come up with a theological or Biblical argument. I don't think they have one.