Mockery by the weak

Jan 26, 2017 by

CEN January 27:

Assisted Suicide – the Musical at the South Bank Centre on January 18 was entertainment like Private Eye is entertainment. It mocked arguments peddled by neo-liberal white, well, well-off and worried people who fear loss of control like the plague and who are the subject of pernicious documentaries in earnest BBC voices pleading for the choice of ‘dignicide’ or some other euphemism.

Centre-stage moving around in her motorised wheelchair like a Dalek on steroids was the very brave outspoken opponent of ‘assisted suicide’, comedienne Liz Carr. Around her danced and sang a cast of six playing doctors, nurses, carers, reporters, and the Pope. They illustrated a very articulate lecture with routines and skits. These sent up ‘blue-sky’ thinking sessions dreaming up euphemisms for ‘suicide’ ( which loses 20% of public support ), and a love duet by a young couple imagining a painful old age and pledging to love enough to ‘put me down’. They contested the argument of ‘you would not do this to a dog’ with a soliloquy by a healthy dog on death row in the dog compound on its seventh and final day. These snappy routines kept everything rattling along. However, their intricate and incisive lyrics were hard to hear in detail and so difficult to follow.

Particularly effective was a duet between Liz Carr the campaigner, who is in a same-sex marriage with her carer, also an atheist who is pro-choice on abortion with ‘the Pope ‘ highlighting their polar opposite ethical positions yet being aligned in opposition to assisted suicide.

Liz Carr has travelled to every country which has legalised assisted suicide for their citizens (only Switzerland allows assisted suicide tourists). She has protested on the red carpet of the premiere of Me before You, a sugar-coated Hollywood promo video masquerading as a serious movie.Once rights are enshrined in law for a minority, equality legislation then ensures that in time they are normalised for all ( a point she did not note applied to her other ethical choices). A segment showed how a ‘state-funded NHS right-to-die at home’ would look with carers on a final visit to administer the lethal dose.

The evening ended first with ‘Palliative Claire’, a glamorous cabaret dancer singing the praises of end of life care done properly to illustrate that all the resources and P.R. polishing poured into the campaign to legalise assisted suicide would be much better devoted to improving end of life care for those who live.

In a subtle finale, the dialogue carried on throughout the evening between Liz Carr in her wheelchair on stage and Liz Carr the Dignitas tourist in a video narrating her final journey and choice to die, finally revealed that “Dignitas Liz” was verbalising a debate raging in the brain of Liz the Campaigner, which in the dark watches of the night tempts her to end it all now.

So her final song is to “Keep the door locked and don’t trust the the key with me or anyone else”. For even the possibility of a ‘choice’ weakens the resolve of those with disabilities ( who are often confused with the terminally ill in this debate) to live life to the full.

Chris and Elaine Sugden. Elaine Sugden is a co-author with Philip Giddings, Martin Down and Gareth Tuckwell of Talking about Dying (Wilberforce Publications) to be launched at General Synod

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