Assisted dying is about poor care for older people
The British Humanist Association newsletter (it comes by email nowadays, so it thumps into the mailbox more regularly than when they printed it) is trying to get people to sign up to the petition on the No 10 website to get a commission on assisted dying. The BHA says:
Despite continued public support for a change in the law, Parliamentarians are reluctant to take a stand on assisted dying for fear of losing the support of a vocal minority of anti-choice campaigners.
It may be humanist to support allowing people to choose when and how they die, I’m not sure about that, but if this is code for ‘that religious lot’, there are a lot of people who are for and against assisted dying for all sorts of practical and principled reasons. Those who support choice because it sounds good have often not thought through all the implications, but they know what they think about the care they are likely to get in old age. For that reason a commission might be a good idea, because it might lead to a more informed debate, in which prejudice for or against ‘that religious lot’ is not the main issue.
Certainly, I can’t help thinking that if they want to get wider support, the campaigners against assisted dying are going to need more than supporters who have a committed religious view, because the social trends that are leading people to say ‘I don’t want to go there’ when they think about years of frailty in old age are still on the upswing. There was another couple in the papers today who were not terminally ill; they told their family they had had a good life and wanted to finish it off while it was still good. A lot of people think like that.
How far is this the product of not very good care services for older people? The legislative proposals are mainly about terminal illness, so they have engaged the interest of the palliative care lobbies, but I think many people might accept they will probably get good care if they have a major advanced illness, but they certainly don’t expect to get it if they are just frail for year after year. That is really what is fueling the demand for assisted dying.
The petition website (see if your friends have signed among the 3,000-odd): http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Assisted-dying/
November 13th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Malcolm
As somebody who works for Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for a change in the law to allow terminally ill, mentally competent adults the choice of an assisted death, within safeguards, I obviously have a (biased?) view on this!
Your right, that opposition to our campaign, is not limited to those with strong religious beliefs (that said they tend to be the most vocal). Both palliative care and disability stakeholders object. However, pitted against them is overwhelming public support for change.
Why do the public feel so strongly about this? Some decry ignorance of the dying process. I think that the opposite is true – too many have witnessed a loved one have a ‘bad death’. They quite clearly don’t want the same for themselves or other loved ones. Good quality end of life care will ensure that most of us have what we consider to be a ‘good death’ (if that’s not an oxymoron), but not all of us. Approximating figures from Oregon we believe that around a 1000 terminally ill adults would have an assisted death if it was available in Britain. Why change the law for so few people some ask. Well even if we ignore this amount of suffering, which I don’t think we should, a change in the law would benefit us all. It would allow all of us to confront our, understandable, fear of death in the knowledge that should the situation arise where good quality care and treatment don’t help sufficiently, we can take control over our death and end our suffering.
Going forward, I would hope that those on both sides of the debate would welcome an independent inquiry.
Finally, some colleagues and I had the privilege to visit St Christopher’s earlier in the year. For the record, we were hugely impressed by the facilities, care and treatment provided. We spoke to some of the residents about our campaign, which was a humbling (and reinforcing) experience. If only all people, could receive this level of care regardless of postcode and/or diagnosis.
With best wishes
James (Harris)
Dignity in Dying
http://dignityindying.blogspot.com/