It was inevitable that a society, committed to killing the unborn, would turn its attention to the other end of the age spectrum and look at ways of ridding us of those who are, because of ill health or old age, an unnecessary drain on resources. Those considered well past their ..... Sell By Date.
When Nazi Germany embarked on its horrific eugenic cleansing of the Jewish and other minority races, who would have dreamt that before the century was out the UK and other European Union countries would be considering similar courses of action?
In 1967 when the UK passed a law that would effectively condemn millions of unborn children to death by abortion, a door was opened which has led the UK steadily towards legalising euthanasia.
Euthanasia: n. bringing about a gentle and easy death, particularly in the case of painful and incurable disease [Gk, eu = well; thanatos = death]
Sounds so reasonable doesn't it, almost benevolent? Well, have no doubt about it, this is no benevolent ideology, but rather a malevolent and dark course which we are on, because we are not simply talking about an individual's personal choice to end their life, but the wholesale governmental termination of certain sections of its citizens.
But first let us look back along the path.....
In July 1999, the UK Government unveiled plans that Social Workers, appointed by the courts as 'managers' will be given the right to make decisions on behalf of those no longer to make decisions for themselves. Who are those who will be thrown into the 'merciful' hands of these new breed of 'managers'? The mentally incapacitated. In extreme cases these 'managers' will have the right to decide whether to stop a patient being given food and water. In other words, they will have the right to decide whether a fellow Human Being is denied the basic requirements to sustain life; the right to murder them legally.
The scheme, dreamed up by the Lord Chancellor's Department, will, of course, by couched in legal jargon; 'extended Power of Attorney', and 'Courts of Protection' etc., etc..
Family campaigner, Dr. John Campion, commented, "There is great danger here. There is so much pressure from within the medical profession and the courts. The courts have already described giving food and water as, 'treatment', when in fact it is basic care."
Does no-one else find the irony seriously disturbing that it is certain sections of the medical profession which is pressurising for euthanasia? But should we be surprised? It was inevitable. Since the UK National Health Service is now a business, with increasing pressure to balance the books rather than cure the diseased and heal the sick, anyone who is seen as a drain on these resources; the old, the long-term incapacitated, the inconvenient, is going to be looked upon as a financial liability to be off-loaded, rather than someone in need of care.
Sadly the euthanasia movement is even further down the road in at least one other European country. In July 99, a government Bill was delivered to the Dutch lower house of parliament which proposed that doctors should have immunity from prosecution when performing euthanasia. The Dutch have tolerated 'mercy killings' for a number of years, but this Bill would remove the legal grey areas.
So just what does our medical hierarchy really think in the UK? The British Medical Association's Ethics Committee issued a report (July 1999) that states, 'artificial nutrition and hydration can be withdrawn from patients on the decision of doctors alone, and that doctors should not routinely be obliged to seek court approval before withdrawing such nutrition.
In December 1999 the government condemned any form of so-called voluntary euthanasia which deprives elderly patients of food and drink. Speaking at question time in the House of Lords, Junior Health Minister Lord Hunt of Kings Heath said any such action by NHS doctors would be "quite wrong".
In January 2000, a Private members Billl, launched by Tory MP Ann Winterton, called for a tightening of the law on euthanasia. Mrs Winterton's Medical Treatment (Prevention of Euthanasia) Bill was prompted by allegations that the NHS was denying treatment to the oldest and sickest patients in order to free beds. The objective was to make it clear to doctors that they cannot bring about the deaths of their patients either by a positive action, or by an omission, such as withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging treatment, or withdrawing food and drink for the terminally ill. The Bill received its second reading after MPs voted to close the debate by 113 votes to two, a majority of 111. In April 2000 the Bill was effectively killed off after being blocked by MP's.
The common law precedent was the Tony Bland case. Tony Bland, severely injured in the Hillsborough stadium disaster of 1989, was left in a Persistent Vegetative State (PVS). He was not dying but had no cognitive ability. After a long and protracted haul through the courts by the Bland family, the final ruling from the House of Lords was that this form of murder-by-starvation was to be permitted in PVS cases such as Tony Bland's, but future cases had to be overseen by the courts.
Because of this case, the medical and legal taboo has been broken. It's now medically and legally OK for the old, the sick and the dying to be hastened on their way, whether they want it or not, by the deliberate with-holding of the basic need of nutrition and hydration - food and water to you and me.
The case of Diane Pretty, the motor neurone disease patient who went to court to seek the right to die elicited enormous public sympathy. She sadly died in May 2002 having lost her right-to-die court challenge in the European Court of Human Rights.
As in the case of abortion and all the rhetoric in 1967, which categorically said we would never have a situation of 'abortion-on-demand', we do have. It will be no different with euthanasia. In less than a generation it is quite feasible that we will be living in a society which routinely kills the old, sick and infirm on nothing more than a scrawled signature on a crumpled form.
On the 6th June 2003, the UK House of Lords gave a second reading to Lord Joffe’s "Patient Assisted Dying Bill", commomly known as, "The Voluntary Euthanasia Bill", which would have legalised Dutch-style euthanasia throughout Britain for "competent, terminally ill individuals.". Although this reading meant the Bill took one more step towards become law in the UK it eventually failed through lack of parliamentary time.
Over the ensuing few years, various attempts to clarify the law have been made. In 2009, a landmark decision was made when Debbie Purdy won the right to have the law clarifies as to whether her husband would be prosecuted if he helped her end her life in Switzerland.
full story here
Attacking the decision, Phyllis Bowman, executive officer of Right To Life, said Much as we sympathise with Ms Purdy, we are extremely concerned about the manner in which this will leave the vulnerable - that is the disabled, the sick, and the aged. Without exception, every disability rights group in the country, are completely opposed to any changing of the laws on assisted suicide and euthanasia."
full article here
We will doubtless continue to see attempts to open the door leading to legalised euthanasia in the UK, which if successful, as in the case of the Abortion Bill, will see us yet again swept away by the flood. If this does happen, and it is almost inevitable that it will, how many steps away will we be from the situation of doctors becoming executioners?
In Dec 2013, The Dean of the Faculty of Law at a Belgian University warned that laws permitting euthanasia cannot be introduced without endangering the lives and safety of patients, and that safeguards and controls introduced in any such legislation will not work.
Speaking at a press conference in Quebec, Professor Etienne Montero explained that it is difficult to maintain a strict interpretation of safeguards in a way that is consistent with the intentions of the legislator, and that once euthanasia is legalised, the boundaries of what is acceptable become wider. full article here
In November 2014, speaking in a personal capacity, Dr Kailash Chand, the deputy chair of the British Medical Association (BMA), has thrown his weight behind Lord Falconer’s private member’s bill, which would offer assisted dying to terminally ill patients who are deemed mentally capable and are likely to have less than six months to live. He commented further that, 'A change in the law that will allow terminally ill people to be helped to end their lives is inevitable and will happen within as little as a couple of years'. full article here
As we march inexorable towards the slippery slope of legal euthanasia, the question remains: once mutually consensual euthanasia becomes legal, how long will it be before society judges that those who no longer contribute 'worth' to the society: the terminally ill, the disabled and the old, those who are using up precious financial resources which would better be spent elsewhere, should be 'removed'?
Our 'Best Before' dates might be a lot closer than we would like to think.
"I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and
judgment, but I will never use it to injure or wrong them. I will not give
poison to anyone though asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a plan…
But in purity and in holiness I will guard my life and my art."
(excerpt from the Hippocratic Oath) R.I.P.
(C) David A. W. Peddie 2014
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