Oh this really got my goat.
Having spent the last few years railing against the "nanny-state", Jon Gaunt wrote in his most recent column about how the parents of Danny James (who was left paralysed after a serious Rugby injury) travelled with him to Switzerland, in order for Danny to visit a euthanasia clinic.
After vilifying Danny's loving, and no doubt grieving parents, Gaunty points out that "Assisted suicide is a crime in this country and it should remain so."
That may be true, but it doesn't make it right. What right does the State really have to force a person to suffer a life they find unbearable? Surely the ultimate line between state authority and personal liberty is one of life itself.
Jon Gaunt is all very well bitching endlessly about the Labour government's interference in our daily lives, but then he takes utterly illiberal positions like this. I know I say this every time, but the guy's a 24-carat gold hypocrite ::
This is not a theocracy, Jon. I couldn't give a monkeys what politicians think about this, there is no "moral debate" worth having. The State has no legitimate right to block suicides - assisted or not.
Taking their son to Switzerland must have been a harrowing experience, but Danny's parents understood that his fundamental human right is to self-determination.
It was Danny's wish to die. That's all we need to know.
Having spent the last few years railing against the "nanny-state", Jon Gaunt wrote in his most recent column about how the parents of Danny James (who was left paralysed after a serious Rugby injury) travelled with him to Switzerland, in order for Danny to visit a euthanasia clinic.
After vilifying Danny's loving, and no doubt grieving parents, Gaunty points out that "Assisted suicide is a crime in this country and it should remain so."
That may be true, but it doesn't make it right. What right does the State really have to force a person to suffer a life they find unbearable? Surely the ultimate line between state authority and personal liberty is one of life itself.
Jon Gaunt is all very well bitching endlessly about the Labour government's interference in our daily lives, but then he takes utterly illiberal positions like this. I know I say this every time, but the guy's a 24-carat gold hypocrite ::
But no, his parents took him to Switzerland and instead of truly confronting the horror of their actions, politicians are now turning a blind eye to the death clinics and refusing to even have the moral debate in this country.
This is not a theocracy, Jon. I couldn't give a monkeys what politicians think about this, there is no "moral debate" worth having. The State has no legitimate right to block suicides - assisted or not.
Taking their son to Switzerland must have been a harrowing experience, but Danny's parents understood that his fundamental human right is to self-determination.
It was Danny's wish to die. That's all we need to know.
3 comments:
Even with assisted suicide illegal here in Britain, I cannot see how the UK authorities can do any thing about the clinics in Switzerland as they are not even within the EU.
I remember the days, before the 1961 Suicide Act, when suicide was illegal. After recovering from an attempted suicide the poor individual would be charged with'attempted self murder'! (sic)
Had the 'father of the modern computer', Alan Turing, survived his poisoned apple he would not only have been imprisoned for his homosexuality but also for trying to top himself.
Fortunately, times do change and things do improve, just not quickly enough.
What's more wrong-headed is that assisted suicide is most definately part of British medical culture, I've been present at all my 4 grandparents deaths and they were all 'put to sleep' so to speak by ever increasing doses of painkillers to avoid a painful and distressing collapse of the body.
It's something we've been doing in the UK for ages and long may it continue.
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