The question “why don’t you just kill yourself?” is a question that could cause great upset and distress, according to internet safety experts. But soon in the UK, it could be a question doctors and health care providers might be encouraged to ask as part of a range of options offered to those facing the end of their lives. At least the proposed law requires them to give alternatives to suicide.
Now, let me say at the outset that, philosophically, in principle, I am in favour of assisted dying. As a libertarian, I really don’t think it is the State’s place to tell me how to live, or how to die. However, I have many concern about how this might work in practice.
It is interesting that both The Telegraph and The Guardian have similar reservations about “cost savings” for the NHS being factored into the Bill. I know the NHS already has a sort of treatment triage equation they dub the ‘QALY’ which balances the number of extra years of quality life a patient will get with the cost of the treatment. It is a ghoulish – but necessary – equation, since our society does not have infinite resources for infinite people. My concern is that strongly suggesting that early assisted death is an option may guilt-trip people into making this choice. Many may worry not only about the cost to the NHS, but also to the cost to their families. “I don’t want to be a burden,” many may think. It is a reasonable concern, but should be balanced by the thought that we all die one day and therefore we only burden those who will be a burden to someone else in turn. It is the circle of life.
Another worry is the “slippery slope”. The slope has been slipped down considerably in other countries and there is no reason to think the same won’t happen here. Activism on social issues is more or less globalised today – especially across western countries. Canada now allows assisted dying for the mentally ill, and some European countries for the depressed. This seems mad. By all means, if you are feeling so low that you feel suicide is the answer, I think it is a terrible idea and you have no idea what tomorrow might bring, but it’s your life (and your death). However, I do not think the State should be helping you do this. It is likely the difficulty is what dissuades many from taking that step. Some are so determined to walk towards the light, that they can’t see there’s another light at the end of the tunnel.
I’m also concerned why people concerned about the “cruelty” of the death penalty carried out by drug cocktails don’t seem in the slightest bit concerned that the same drugs will likely be used for assisted dying, with the same potential for things going wrong. (As an aside, I wonder if assisted dying might be offered to criminals as an alternative to the misery of spending life in prison… but, as usual, I digress…)
There will naturally be implications for the insurance industry. In most cases, life insurance is invalidated by suicide. The answer seems to be to change death certificates from “suicide” to “natural causes” for those who have chosen legal assisted dying, in the same way birth certificates are legally falsified for those who have changed gender. That’s apparently what the Dutch do.
It seems to me that the UK passage of the Assisted Dying Bill has been rushed an shambolic, with many of the “we won’t go down that slippery slope” assurances at the start leaving many with mud on the bums today.
In short, “assisted dying” seems like another one of those modern conundrums in which it is hard to fault a proposal philosophically, but one knows in one’s bones that in practice we’re heading for a disaster. Not everything that makes rational sense always makes common sense.
