Assisted Suicide

I have visited this once before but have decided to re write it and see what sort of reaction I get.

Before I go any further I think I need to say a bit more about myself. I am pro life, I believe that everyone has a right to life. I am 100 percent against the death penalty under any circumstances. I firmly believe that suicide leaves more than one victim, specifically someone has to find the person who has committed suicide and deal with the aftermath. I have had personal experience of suicide after attempting myself and dealing with an attempted suicide of another. Amy did not die of the injuries caused by her suicide attempt but of injuries inflicted before she hung herself.   The Catholic church teaches that taking life is wrong. It is also illegal in the UK to assist someone attempting to commit suicide. I have a living will which gives legally binding instructions if I am in a position where I am unable to make my own decisions.

In this context we are not talking about someone hanging themselves, cutting their wrists, taking an overdose or jumping off a building. We are talking about someone taking their own life in a controlled environment with minimal assistance after what I would hope is very extensive assessment. The person being provided with a lethal amount of a drug but taking it with their own free will.

Everyone has a right to life but should people have the right to choose when, where and at what time they die? Honestly no I don’t think a person should have the right to choose when and where they should die. Not in the context of suicide no.  

I have a living will to safe guard myself and to prevent others being put into the position where they have to make choices they will have to live with for the rest of their lives. There is a standard of life where I am not prepared to go below and if this means that I loose my life so be it, what I won’t be doing is committing suicide. I also have no issue with someone who decides to end treatment for a life threatening condition.  

We do have the right to life and this is protected by law, both nationally and internationally. likewise we also have the right to life without pain and suffering, we have a right to a standard of life so why shouldn’t we have the right to end that life when it falls below an acceptable level?  Because it is wrong, there is always hope (that maybe a poor argument but is is true) How does one judge what is an acceptable standard when it comes to illness or injury? To try would run the risk of valuing one life above another, you may even run the risk of turning someone with a certain injury or illness into a second class citizen and putting pressure on them to end their lives. What safe guards are there to prevent vulnerable people being pressured into killing themselves?

When a person decides to end their life they are considering one person only and that is themselves. Wether it be assisted or not, that person is not considering others. You may accuse me of wanting to see people suffer but that is far from the case. I wouldn’t want anyone I cared about to suffer, I would want the medical profession to ease their pain rather than assist that person to die. Isn’t that what they are there for?

Life is precious, we should not start to de value it by allowing assisted suicide.