Sunday, August 02, 2009

 

Right to live, right to die

Reports of the legalisation of death are exaggerated. All the UK’s Law Lords have done is rule that the law should be clarified, so people like campaigner Debbie Purdy can let their loved ones help them die abroad without fearing prosecution here. We’re a long way off a policy change that would officially sanction helping somebody else to end their own life.
And a good thing too. I’m sure it’s a small comfort, facing an illness that gradually takes away all your physical capabilities, your freedom and your autonomy, to think that you could at least decide how and when to end it. Nor is there anything absolutely sacred about human life in the sense of mere survival, stripped of everything that actually makes us human.
It’s not even the fear of unscrupulous families, bumping off Grandma to get their inheritance before the care home exhausts it, that makes legalising assisted suicide such a bad idea. It’s the idea that the right to a friendly shove off this mortal coil should be seen as some kind of triumph. When there is so much room to improve the lives of the living, not only medically but in all sorts of practical and social ways, is a more convenient and comfortable exit really something to celebrate?
The Law Lords ruling is based on the European Convention on Human Rights, which agrees that everyone has the right to respect for their private life. But there is scant respect for our right to choose a shorter and better life in other ways.
Take smoking. It can lead to a premature and sometimes painful death, but millions of smokers knowingly take that risk in return for the ephemeral pleasures of tobacco. Alcohol too is a short-term pleasure many of us pursue in spite of potential impact on our life expectancy (though those calculations are more ambiguous, and in fact moderate drinking – whisper it – is more healthy than abstinence. Unless you're combining it with driving or heavy machinery.). Is our autonomy respected when it comes to choosing a smoker’s or a boozer’s death? Is it bollocks!
Eating for pleasure and ignoring the obesity police, having unprotected sex, spending time reading instead of doing aerobic exercise, none of these assertions of autonomy in our private lives is remotely respected by the authorities who harangue us to live longer lives whether we want to or not. To drive without a seatbelt or ride a motorcycle without a crash helmet is against the law, though it’s only our own lives we’d be risking.
So, though I’m all for everyone’s freedom to determine their own death, I’d prefer to join a campaign for more freedom in how we live, our freedom to take risks in the name of living to the full for as long as we can.

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