{"id":131,"date":"2009-06-02T12:06:27","date_gmt":"2009-06-02T11:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=131"},"modified":"2009-06-02T12:06:27","modified_gmt":"2009-06-02T11:06:27","slug":"purdy-tries-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/06\/02\/purdy-tries-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Purdy Tries Again…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Debbie Purdy goes to the House of Lords today<\/a> to seek assurance that her husband won’t be prosecuted for assisting suicide should he accompany her to the Dignitas clinic.\u00a0 It’s hard not to sympathise with her request – but, speaking on the Today<\/em> programme this morning, former DPP\u00a0Sir Ken MacDonald said that he hoped her bid failed<\/a>.\u00a0 And, at least\u00a0from a legal point of view, I think he might be right.\u00a0 In essence, his point is that there’s something wrong with going to court to get permission in advance to break the law.<\/p>\n

He added, though\u00a0– also correctly – that there’s a very good reason to review the law.\u00a0 MacDonald came over as thoughtful and insightful – and a whole lot more impressive than George Pitcher, who had spoken on the same topic a little over an hour earlier<\/a>.\u00a0 Quite why he should have been given airtime is beyond me – his qualifications seem simply to be that (a) he’s religious affairs editor of the Telegraph<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and (b) the BBC seems to think that you can’t have ethics without a large slice of\u00a0religion (just have a look at this page<\/a>\u00a0to see what I mean).\u00a0 Still – there he was.\u00a0 And, lordy, did he talk some bollocks – which is appropriate enough<\/a>.\u00a0 Worse, it was tired, hackneyed, and false bollocks.<\/p>\n

There were\u00a0several\u00a0claims:\u00a0that allowing PAS or euthanasia is socially harmful and undermines the “social fabric”\u00a0– whatever that is; that it diminishes the importance of death as a part of human life; that it undermines palliative care; that this point can be proved by looking at Holland and its non-existent palliative care system; and that allowing PAS or euthanasia for the ill will inevitably lead to its being available to the healthy.<\/p>\n

Let’s deal with the last point first.\u00a0\u00a0It’s false – there’s no reason to suppose that the two things’d be linked at all; and that leaves open, of course, the question of just why it’d be so wrong for a healthy person who wanted to die for some reason to be able to seek assistance.\u00a0 I simply don’t see why not [insert blatant pimping of own work here<\/a>].<\/p>\n

Does PAS\/ euthanasia undermine palliative care?\u00a0 Again: I don’t see why it should.\u00a0 Some people will prefer not to be killed just yet; others will want to cash in their chips.\u00a0 Oh – and the claim about Dutch hospices is simply false.\u00a0 Even a quick and shoddy internet search seems to indicate that, far from there being no such thing, there’s an increasing number, and that they enjoy government support<\/a>\u00a0– which could be construed by someone less charitable than I as an indication that Pitcher doesn’t much care about evidence.<\/p>\n

Does PAS or euthanasia devalue life or death?\u00a0 Not a bit of it.\u00a0 Pitcher himself indicates that death has to be seen as a part of life – and, this being the case, a good death would seem to be a component of a good life.\u00a0 If someone finds the prospect of pain\u00a0or\u00a0helplessness inimical to a good life, then I don’t think they’ve made a mistake.\u00a0 Of course, if a person wants to relinquish an easy exit for whatever reason, then that’s up to them.\u00a0 Still – if such an attitude is admirable, it’s still not one that merits being forced on those who don’t share it.\u00a0 That would be monstrous.\u00a0 It would undermine the dignity in dying that – notionally – we’d be seeking to preserve.\u00a0 (Because death is sooooooo<\/em> dignified, isn’t it?)<\/p>\n

Finally, is the social fabric threatened?\u00a0 Well, I suppose that the recent Dutch civil war, famine in Brussels, the absence of any kind of education in Oregon, and so on all lend supp…<\/p>\n

WAIT A MINUTE!<\/strong>\u00a0 Holland, Belgium and Oregon all seem still to be perfectly decent places to live.<\/p>\n

Pitcher nil, Thought 5.\u00a0 Away win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debbie Purdy goes to the House of Lords today to seek assurance that her husband won’t be prosecuted for assisting suicide should he accompany her to the Dignitas clinic.\u00a0 It’s hard not to sympathise with her request – but, speaking on the Today programme this morning, former DPP\u00a0Sir Ken MacDonald said that he hoped her […]<\/p>\n

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