BPX061: The Cost of Choice

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.politics.co.uk/opinion-former/press-release/2021/10/25/humanists-uk-comment-on-peers-backing-assisted-dying-bill/

Peers have passed the second reading of a bill that would permit Doctors to help terminally ill patients to die.

The bill though has resparked a debate around assisted dying and whether it should be allowed within the UK. Those who are in favour point to the suffering those in a position of pain find themselves in, that people should have the choice to end their lives when the quality of life is too diminished.

Those opposed though fear it will open a door to exploitation, that people may choose it out of a sense of being a burden on others and that the ramifications may prove to be incredibly wide reaching not to mention the impact the responsibility of being the individual to administer the decision brings upon people who entered their career to save lives will have now that they would also find themselves executioner.

Are the costs of this choice too high or is it too much of a moral issue to not allow it?

[MartyG]

It already happens by sleight of hand - this would just be taking away the legal danger of prosecution of people who are having to live with the situation, so I don't have a moral issue with it - it's still murder if it's not by consent.

It hasn't lead to a huge increase in people offing their relatives in countries where it is already legal for their inheritences.

[Asura]

This is difficult; I grew up in a religious environment, so this was a topic which came up for discussion occasionally in "sunday school"-type situations where people debate ethics. Consequently though, I faced a lot of discussions which started out with it as an open topic that were designed to end as a "this is wrong and you need to go away knowing why"-sort-of-deal.

My opinion on it hasn't changed all that much, however. I feel that, as of right now, the freedom to end one's life is something we all have. Even if you're worried about doing it painlessly, you can probably go into town and get the necessary stuff at the supermarket & pharmacy. It might be illegal, in a sense, but it's a freedom that all of us have.

Situations such as paralysis strip us of that freedom, and allowing people the dignity to die, if they so choose, restores it.

I'm aware of all the drawbacks; like the slippery slope argument that it creates - but as has been said above, there have been studies of this in countries where it has been legalised, and there's little evidence to suggest that this actually happens in practice.