On Choosing When to Leave the Hell Hole.

Earlier today I read the BBC article on the upcoming Assisted Dying Bill shortly to come before the British parliament. This is the Bill which proposes that terminally ill people who are suffering badly and wish to end their lives should be allowed to have medical assistance to achieve that wish. Naturally, it has safeguards built in to preclude any possibility of people being pressured to accede against their will.

Many MPs have been expressing their views this week and making known their voting intention. Some of the objections are religious in nature, some stem from imagined demons which I think are unlikely to exist, and the Rt Hon Gordon Brown said that he will vote against the Bill because he believes that life is a ‘gift’ (without, as far as know, saying from whom) and that it is ‘beautiful.’

I could wax eloquent on this subject. In fact, I have been waxing eloquent in my mind ever since I read the article. But I dislike long blog posts these days so I’ll just offer two remarks:

To Gordon Brown I would say ‘not if you have Motor Neurone Disease, it isn’t.’ And I would suggest to other detractors that they should consider the possibility that one day they might be struck down by a condition which leaves them tormented by agonising pain, locked into a body which has become a torture chamber, and crying desperately for the mercy of release. Do they think they might then wish that they’d voted differently?