Lamh Foistenach Abu!
Posted on 12/10/2008 4:53:02 PM PST by GOPGuide
Helping someone to commit suicide is a matter of conscience, the Prime Minister said today.
Gordon Brown condemned the idea of new laws to allow assisted suicide - but he did nothing to stop it in the wake of a landmark test case decision that paved the way for more deaths in the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.
His response in the Commons to the outcry over the televised suicide of motor neurone disease sufferer Craig Ewert appealed instead for compassion for families agonising over the suffering of a loved one.
The end: The moment motor neurone sufferer Craig Ewert, 59, switches off his ventilator at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland Mr Brown spoke following the statement by Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer QC that there will be no prosecution in case of Daniel James, who killed himself after being paralysed in a rugby accident.
Mr Starmer said there was evidence to convict Daniel's parents and a family friend. But he said there was no public interest in a prosecution when no-one had tried to persuade the 23-year-old to die. Rather his family had begged him to live.
The 1961 Suicide Act sets down a 14-year maximum jail term for anyone found guilty of aiding or abetting someone in arranging their own death.
Debate: Gordon Brown during Prime Minister's Questions at the House of Commons today The combined effect of the opinions of the Prime Minister and the chief public official responsible for bringing charges sent a powerful signal that no-one will be prosecuted in future for taking a terminally ill relative or friend to a death at the Dignitas suicide clinic in Switzerland.
Only those who help in suicide for their own gain are likely to be brought to court.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Lamh Foistenach Abu!
No, it’s more than “a matter of conscience.”
It’s immoral.
It’s criminal in most places.
“It’s immoral.
It’s criminal in most places.”
It’s British!
First they came for the unborn, now the aged...who’s next? Handicapped, mentally ill, depressed? One thing’s for sure, prisoners jailed for murder will be last.
Yeah, right? Can these brits possibly kill themselves off any quicker? Everyday there is some new story of just how much they’re losing it over there.
“First they came for the unborn, now the aged...who’s next? Handicapped, mentally ill, depressed? One thing’s for sure, prisoners jailed for murder will be last.”
Can you “socialized medicine?”
Well, after 6 months in bed a fast way out was starting to look good to me. I won’t pass judgement on this issue.
Not everybody has supportive relatives. When this is first discovered they should be kept away from the patient.
By Mr. Brown’s logic killing a moslem is just assisted suicide, since the muzz think suicide bombings, etc. are just dandy. Sounds like Mr. Brown would support an open season on the muzz.
Ping...
You have hit the nail on the head. What good is a conscience if it is bad? None. Thanks to the moral morons running the education system.
My father died of a heart attack in his 50’s, while out on his own excercising.
His father died of stomach cancer over the course of two or three years.
How would you rather go?
Doc says, OK, the good news is, you’ve got a a few years left. The bad news is, you’re going to be sick and in pain the whole time. Who are we to say that that you shouldn’t have the ability to check yourself out? I’m not even talking about people who are irrational. At some point, suicide can be a rational choice (depending on your beliefs about the nature of God and the universe).
I think a rational person can decide to die. Heroes do it for others. The terminally ill can do it for themselves. There are people who say doctors can’t help them because they swore to “do no harm”, but if a patient asks you to end their suffering, I don’t think that qualifies as harm.
For people on the Right who say that it does, I think there’s two political Rights, the one that says people need to make their own private decisions free of government intervention, and the one that says that people should do what “conservatives” want them to.
As an added bonus, the terminally ill old person who elects to die costs me (a tax payer) less than the terminally ill old person who demands that they get the most expensive care possible to keep them alive in a hospital bed for another day, or month, or year. I see a clear line between allow doctor-assisted-suicide and requiring it. I also don’t think dying is the worst possible thing. Keeping your life at any cost (for lifes own sake) can cost a lot.
More like ghoulish egotism to me.
Im wondering do people here think of suicide as a crime. Say I kill myself with no help. Would that be a crime
I can think of some people I would like to help in that way, but my conscience wouldn’t allow it. Unfortunately, I am certain that there are others who would enjoy assisting me similarly and I don’t really trust theirs. It would probably be best if that decision were not left up to the individual.
Megadittos to your post.
But is it really fair to defer that kind of decision to doctors?
I personally would say that it is, but that is a function of my religious sensibilities. Man is made in God’s image, if you kill yourself you are destroying that image. Besides, to kill oneself means that you have given up all hope, and there is always hope.
A counterargument often put forward is that “its my life, surely I can choose to end it”, but I would argue that your life is not your own. Life is a gift that is given to you, to end it implies a despisement of that gift.
the your life is not your own statement I dont agree with. You may or may not have been given your life as a gift, but you do in fact own your own life. That argument sets up all kinds of stuff about well...my God says you should do this with you life...or I can enslave you because you dont own your own life.
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