We Locked Down to Save the Frail. With Euthanasia We Want to Bump Them Off
by Nick Rendell, The Daily Sceptic:
There’s a growing expectation that the U.K. will follow down the path taken by Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium and introduce euthanasia during the next Parliament.
Personally, if appropriate safeguards against the exploitation of the vulnerable can be guaranteed and providing that the decision to cut short a life is made by the patient or, where he or she lacks capacity, the next of kin (on the condition that this person genuinely has the person’s best interests at heart), then I’d support such a change. However, I have two reservations. Firstly, I suspect once euthanasia is introduced it will gradually morph into the situation where, rather than the individual (or next of kin) making the decision, it will be the state deciding when your time is up. And secondly, I don’t think such a fundamental change to our way of life should be taken in Parliament; such a decision could only have legitimacy if it was put to a referendum. This is a game we all have skin in, we should all be party to the decision.
If you’re looking for an article that covers the morality of assisted suicide, then this isn’t it. Far better read Kevin Yuill in Spiked, Matthew Parris in the Spectator or Tim Stanley in the Telegraph. Should you want an even more learned opinion turn to Lord Sumption’s piece in the Telegraph. Each puts his case far more eloquently than I ever could. I want to focus on some of the bumps that we’ll encounter as we slither down the slope towards normalisation of state-sanctioned deaths.
Market leaders in bumping off those ‘useless eaters’ cluttering up their communities are the Canadians. In Canada about 5% of all deaths are carried out by the state. There, assisted suicide is called MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying).
Initially, MAID was restricted to the terminally ill, those, according to their doctor, with a life expectancy of less than six months. However, recent amendments to the regulations have extended MAID to something akin to a human right which it would be discriminatory to restrict just to the terminally ill, opening the doors to a whole host of others, such as the depressed, anxious and poor. There have even been minors who have successfully been accepted for MAID.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
