In this essay I intend to explore the ethical implications of assisted suicide and discuss why this debate is still raging when many countries today have a solution to prolonged suffering to justify my conclusion that everyone should have the right to choose the time of their death if there is no other recourse. Topics I will explore in more detail is the right to die, then I will talk about the legality of suicide and then I will move on to the delicate matter of someone assisting someone else in their suicide.
In this section we will be discussing the right to die. Ludwig A. Minelli, Secretary General Dignitas. States; ‘Even a teenager has a right to die when his girlfriend leaves him’ On the other hand he wouldn’t help him until he explained that things can get better, but this is not the case for someone that is terminally ill. Michele Causse ingested 15g of powdered Nembutal, dissolved in 60ml of normal tap water, ending her life. In Switzerland it’s legal to assist someone in ending their life if it is not done for egotistical reasons. Michele Causse loved life but didn’t want it to lose form; she’s basically saying that although she loves life it’s all downhill from here because of her health. Life is only going to get worse, so she wants to end on her terms instead of slowly deteriorating into a creature that can’t feed itself. She already can’t shop or cook or do a lot of the things she enjoyed in life. She asks; ‘what’s the point in living to lose more of things you loved to do?’ She has no control of her life anymore. Causse is choosing to die because her life is losing its meaning. Everything is taken care of, even her death, there’s nothing to worry about, all your worries are gone because you’re going to die. She wonders why people say life is sacred, when we should be able to do with our own lives as we wish, you don’t need to tell people to cherish life, one person choosing death doesn’t equate to the whole world following suit. Hordes of women didn’t all have abortions when abortions were legalized but they had the choice to do so. What she’s saying is her want for death doesn’t affect her or anyone else’s love for life, she loves life and people will still love life after she’s gone, death is inevitable, why shouldn’t we be able to control it?
In this section I will be discussing the legality of suicide. Remy Salvat (1984-2008) was a French man who suffered from a degenerative nerve disease. He wrote a letter to the French president asking for assisted suicide, he didn’t want to go to Switzerland because he didn’t think it was right that it wasn’t legal in France. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, wrote back to Remy stating that on philosophical grounds, the government does not have the right to take life, but if they can’t do it and the person can’t do it and the parents can’t do it, should these people hire assassins? Remy Salvat committed suicide alone in his room with a cocktail of pills and alcohol, his parents found him that way. He didn’t die peacefully in a bed he drowned in his own vomit on the floor of his bedroom. Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf – Minister of justice in Switzerland is against euthanasia because people come to Switzerland to die but are not seriously ill, it’s created a culture of ‘death tourism’, she doesn’t like the way in which it depicts Switzerland as a place to die. Marc Englert from the Control commission on euthanasia in Belgium says there are three conditions for lawful assisted suicide; Incurable disease, intolerable suffering and a conscious un-coerced request. 85% of people that request euthanasia are cancer patients. A natural death is a nice thought but in reality, especially for cancer patient it’s long and it’s horrible. People should be able to avoid that if they want to. Tony Nicklinson suffers from locked in syndrome as a result of a stroke, he is unable to communicate verbally or physically, and he is completely paralyzed from the neck down, he is literally a prisoner in his own body. The fifty-eight year old was denied the right to die by the high court. Nicklinson states that all these things can be endured. What he finds impossible to live with is knowing that unlike most people he has no way out. His struggle is not one of empathy, he seeks purely justice. Every human is an individual one-size-fits-all solution, which opponents advocate, is not the answer.
“It is astonishing that in 1969 we could put a man on the Moon yet in 2012 we still cannot devise adequate rules governing assisted dying.”
Tony Nicklinson (2012)
In this section I will be discussing the ethical dilemmas of assisting someone in their suicide. Lynn Gilderdale a young woman who was very ill and who wanted to die, enlisted her mother in assisting her suicide, her mother now is on trial for murder. Lynn injected herself with an overdose of morphine and then when it appeared that it didn’t work her mother crushed up some pills and gave them to her to make sure she was dead. Which is where the controversy lies; although Lynn initiated her suicide her mother essentially ended it. Baroness Campbell of Surbiton states that sanctioning assisted suicide is too dangerous and could lead to opening the flood gates for disabled people to be killed, what they’re worried about is that someone can be coerced or feel bullied into it by the standards society sets people. She thinks it’s as wrong to kill someone with their permission as it is to kill them without. Basically what she’s saying is by trying to prosecute Lynn’s mother Kay for murder they are setting an example as a deterrent to others that assisting in someone’s suicide is wrong but how can it be wrong in England and legitimate in Switzerland? Obviously the idea that it is wrong is just an opinion, so how can you try someone for attempted murder on a difference of opinion? There have been regulations set in place in Britain around assisting suicide. One of those regulations is that the person assisting cannot benefit from the death but in all likelihood it will be a family member enlisted to assist who will more than likely benefit financially so who else could you get to do it? Doctors and strangers can’t do it for liability reasons and you’re family can’t do it for it financial gain, so who does that leave? Debbie Purdy (sufferer of advanced ms) has won a court case in which her husband will not be prosecuted if he takes her to another country to die if her ms worsens. She says that it’s a failure in the democratic process to ignore people’s rights to die. The law is saying it’s ok to take your own life but not ok for someone to assist you if you are not able. Lynn was acquitted and the crown prosecution was heavily criticised for seeking attempted murder.
In conclusion I do think assisted suicide is justified in a democratic society, as the idea of democracy is that you can decide what happens in your life, i.e. changing government and policy. The idea that this principal should not literally stretch to the nature of actually living and quality of life is absurd because democracy is supposed to be a fair system that allows everyone their own choice.
Bibliography
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B8cNmbASQs
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Dignitas - la mort sur ordonnance (death on prescription) (2010). Retrieved from
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Gallagher, J. (2012) Tony Nicklinson loses High Court right-to-die case. Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19249680
Kant, Emmanuel. (1804) The metaphysics of ethics. Translated with an introd. and appendix by J.W. Semple (1836)
Nicklinson, T. (2012). Assisted dying debate: Tony Nicklinson in his own words. Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-18398797
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBMXpVLLfZ0
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