It is time for us as a society to revisit the issue of euthanasia. The most recent call for the government to change the law and make assisted suicide legal was in 2015. The last time there was a call for euthanasia in the UK to become legalised was in 2010. Both of these calls had an overwhelming rejection towards them by the UK Parliament. The organisation Dignity in Dying position in this argument is they believe that “assisted dying for terminally ill, mentally competent adults should be legal in the UK”. In 2015 the Dying in Dignity chief executive Sarah Wootton disagreed with the parliament’s decision on this matter as she made a statement saying, “The vote only goes to show how ridiculously out of touch MPs are with the British public on this issue”.
There is a need for a necessary change in the law as it should be up to the individual whether or not they want to end their life. It is not right that people who are constantly suffering should be denied the right to die. Cancer victims or patients with terminal illnesses who have no cure know that in the last stages of their illness that they will have a physical decline and the pain might increase. The patient should not be forced to stay alive if they are suffering daily and as a result their loved ones are forced to see them in that way. A doctor should be allowed to give a lethal injection or an overdose of pain relief to stop the suffering and let them die peacefully. The UK government needs to realise that the people who are in a sound state of mind have made a definite decision and they know all the facts about ending their life. They might not be able to go through this procedure without professional help. People who are able to commit suicide, which is not illegal in the UK, can easily choose to end their life so why should people who need assistance to end their life be denied it?
An article by the American journalist Christopher Bucktin relates the case of Stan Curtis who had to watch his wife Cody suffer from one of the most aggressive forms of cancer for 2 years. It was unbearable for friends and family to watch as she had no quality of life left due to this disease but it was Cody who made the decision herself supported by her family, to end her life. Twelve years after the Death with Dignity Act that was introduced in Oregon, Cody drank a mixture of legal drugs which ended her life. Her husband Stan said “Cody wanted to be in control of her destiny that was the most important thing to her and Death in Dignity allowed for that to happen”. This case study shows that it is possible for assisted suicide to be conducted with appropriate circumstances and laws. In 2014 a Dying Bill was to be shown to the Parliament. If this was to be passed then British patients would no longer have to travel to the Dignatas centre in Switzerland to end their life and then they would be able to die peacefully in their own home if they chose to do so. In the end the bill passed its second reading in the House of Lords after the politicians discussed the matter for ten hours. This meant it would be considered but the chances of it happening was very low. This bill has not been passed yet.
The most recent poll of public opinion published on assisted suicide was in November 2017. A poll was put out by the campaign group Dignity in Dying who asked Scottish people if they would help a dying friend to end their life. Over 65 percent of Scots said they would accompany their friend to the Dignatas clinic in Switzerland. The rest of the majority of people said they would “help plan and pay for the trip”. Along with the results of this poll came a report which exposed the large sum of money people have to pay to Dignatas. The campaign group said that from their findings, they had discovered that the current law forbidding assisted suicide is “untenable” in Scotland. A recent survey done in the summer of 2017 showed that 79 percent of Scots would support a change in the law of assisted suicide to allow terminally ill patients an assisted death however this poll has faced backlash as Dr Gordon MacDonald of the Care not Killing campaign group said “That the demand for assisted suicide is vanishingly small…” who goes on to say that we should focus our attention on “ensuring that the care and support for people who are terminally ill is properly funded” instead of trying to change the law on assisted suicide.
The Netherlands, Belgium, Columbia and Luxembourg are the only places in the world where euthanasia is legal. The legal age for euthanasia is 12 in the Netherlands and 18 in Luxembourg.Euthanasia is now becoming available to young people as well as adults.
In Belgium it now allows any age group to have the option of euthanasia. The only exception for children is that is it very rare doctors will allow a terminally ill child to be euthanised. These countries are leading they way that other countries will soon follow as they show that it can be done successfully as they have the right measures in place and is working to a suitable standard.
Child euthanasia became legal as doctor’s and politicians fought for there to be changes to the law so that children who are terminally ill have the same right as adults that are sick.
Not everyone agreed with this new change to the law as they argued that is was very rare that children that are sick would have to go through with a procedure such as euthanasia. They believed that this new law could be abused by doctors making unclear judgements for the life or death of a terminally ill child. Under this law the child can appeal for euthanasia but this would have to be approved by the parents and doctors as they would assess if the child knew what exactly they were doing.
Anti-euthanasiasts fear that the law of Assisted Dying could be abused. Places such as the Netherlands where euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal, report that doctors do not always record their cases oh helping people, so even if laws are put it place we can never really control it. If it were to become legal, it could lead to non-voluntary and involuntary euthanasia which leaves it to doctors to decide whether or not a terminally ill patient’s life is worth living. In 1990 around 1,000 people were killed without their or their families consent. There are other options such as palliative care or hospices and nearly all pain can be helped.
The topic of euthanasia will always be an emotional subject as it is a literally a matter of life or death. If it were to become legal there would have to be strict rules and regulations put in place so doctors and patients would not mistreat the system. At present there are examples of countries that have Assisted Suicide and make it work and shows it can be done. Society is making advances in technology, medicine, human and civil rights and it is now time that our laws on assisted suicide caught up. People have more information on the procedures and laws. In modern first world democratic countries where this is legal, have safeguards in place in the form of the legal system and medical profession code of conduct. I believe that as human beings placed under extraordinary circumstances, we should have the right to choose and “die with dignity”.