VERSION|0.5.1|NAME|Dinah|DATE|1375459266|CONTENT|It appears that What the Butler Saw when confronted by the reality of a slow, protracted death of a colleague is that Church doctrine and teachings are not, in modern parlance, fit for purpose on end-of-life issues.  Specifically, they can get in the way of compassion and common sense.

However, allowing people to make an informed choice about how, where and when to end their lives when an un-assisted suicide is no longer an option will never be risk-free, no matter what safeguards are put into place.  Freedom of choice means accepting that inevitably some will make what we consider the ‘wrong’ decision.  While the danger that terminally ill people will feel pressurised into ending their lives is probably exaggerated, it probably will happen in a few cases.  Is it better to risk some unfortunate outcomes than force people to undergo painful, undignified and protracted deaths?  I would be inclined to say yes.

Far more dangerous is allowing other people to decide which lives are worthless and not worth living, based on subjective opinions about ‘quality of life’ when the only ones qualified to make such decisions are the individuals themselves.  This is the real ‘slippery slope’ given what happened in Nazi Germany.  Obviously, medical staff occasionally have to make judgements on behalf of critically ill patients – the very old, the very young, and the comatose – who may be incapable of making the decisions themselves.  In some cases, judges have to decide.  But usually these kind of dilemmas apply only to very tiny numbers of patients, all of whom are assessed individually.

The problem at the moment is that the arguments are polarised with those who are opposed to any loosening of the law – religious groups, ‘right to life’ groups, some doctors and disabled people on one side, with humanists, pro-choice, and those who have watched a loved one die slowly and painfully on the other.  The law is not good at dealing with ‘grey’ areas like assisted suicide and abortion.  There are probably never going to be any easy answers.
|IP-ADDRESS|79.71.126.137|MODERATIONFLAG|