Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
The sessions that were held in May 2023 by the inquiry being carried out by the Commons Health and Social Care Committee into the legalisation of assisted suicide, were just recently uploaded to the committee's website.
Pring reported that:
One of the four disabled opponents – all of whom were associated with disabled-led groups – told the inquiry that no-one had yet come up with a “magic bullet” that would ensure disabled people were protected “from any kind of coercion” or direct or indirect pressure if assisted suicide was legalised.There were no names associated with the testimony as the inquiry was anonymous.
Another of the four said the idea legalisation promotes that disabled people were “better off dead” than relying on support with their personal care “really devalues our lives”.
The third disabled participant said the “subtle pressure” caused by legalisation, including the guilt that might be felt by disabled people worried about their family spending money to support them when they could opt for an early death “could be really dangerous”.
The fourth disabled participant told the inquiry that there was a “massive preconception that people in the situations for whom these laws get written… in the majority do not want to live with the lives they’ve got, and that is not true”.
Instead of pushing for legalised assisted suicide, they said, the campaigning focus should be on “accessible housing, accessible transport, access to palliative care, access to support… the equipment that you need”.
Pring reported that there were 10 round tables where the majority of the participants supported assisted suicide and were relatives of people who had died with a terminal illness.
The last paragraph said much. People thinking they are putting themselves in the shoes of others, thinking they are being compassionate. Often they make that excuse because they are 1) unwilling to walk the distance in time, money or resources; 2) they think a quick fast result that benefits their time and resources is the practical way to go. There may be more, but jargons and buzz-words do not make the arguments legally sound, logical, nor moral just because such MIGHT become legal, or it might make life for them easier. Should they coerce someone to commit suicide, when does their conscience come to roost that they encouraged or even compelled another human being to kill themselves or to encourage another person to kill. Europeans of this generation have not seen the war and death as their parents have, and we in the States have many who have returned from battlefields and have seen gun violence. We know the issues of PTSD which are very real. With MAiD we will be faced in a few years with an onslaught of PTSD as people come to realize what they have killed another or let another be killed while they stood by and let it happen. Somewhere, we lost the value of others and turned humans into commodities. Why and for what purpose? Not compassion or dignity, certainly.
ReplyDeleteDeacon William Gallerizzo