The Assisted Dying Bill 2021 is before the House of Lords and the British Medical Association has just voted for a “position of neutrality on assisted dying, including physician-assisted dying.” (The BMA is the largest union of British doctors.)
This Bill tasks doctors with the assessments, provision of poison, supervision of ingestion and supervision of the death of the terminally ill person. The BMA’s position is akin to the Taliban claiming they are “neutral” on women’s rights!
The BMA vote was painfully close — 49% voted FOR neutrality; 48% AGAINST, and 3% abstained.
Credit must be given to those who voted, because both sides have a profound empathy for the dying. That said, there can be little respect for the eight delegates who abstained.
The first cost is to the honour of British Medical Association which may have abrogated almost 200 years of Hippocratic principle on the basis of a handful of abstentions. This perfectly-timed coup means that there is radically less opposition from the medical profession as Bill-13 [HL] comes for the Second Reading in the House of Lords. Ireland has shown that opposition to Assisted Suicide legislation can be effective.
Regular, non-assisted Suicide
If there is a single concrete argument against Assisted Suicide [AS] it is the increase in regular, non-assisted suicide. There has been over 30% increase in regular suicides in the Netherlands since Euthanasia was legalized there in 2001. Similarly, there are more suicides in those US States which legalised Assisted Suicide.
By 2023 it will be legal for Canadian doctors and Nurse Practitioners to euthanise patients suffering from mental illnesses alone. All together this means that decades of suicide prevention are being flushed away.
Please listen to Lia (Garifalia) Milousis tell her poignant story in the video below. Imagine what might happen to a 2023 version of Lia.
“I’m the future version of myself who survived to tell you this.”
The media tout AS & Voluntary Euthanasia [VE] as the “strong” and “compassionate” thing to do. This is likely to lead to “suicide contagion”: the Werther Syndrome. I believe we have a responsibility to prevent someone from taking their life out of despair — not to help them do it.
Family, Friends & Community
There must be a profound sense of abandonment and loss felt by the children who are left to pick up the pieces. “Mum didn’t love me…” or, “I should had loved her more…” It will be years before we can truly assess such trauma. This trauma is likely to affect future relationships and increase regular & assisted suicide.
We have no longitudinal evidence about how AS affects family members, friends and their community. The rationalisation that “death is a private matter” can only apply to a hermit living in some desolate place, devoid of all human contact.
The disabled, the handicapped & the mentally challenged
Baroness Hale noted that “Democracy is founded on the principle that each individual has equal value. Treating some as automatically having less value than others not only causes pain and distress to that person, but also violates his or her dignity as a human being.”
Many disabled individuals have voiced their concern that they may be coerced or put under duress to accept AS, simply because it is more “cost-effective.” This happened to Canadian Roger Foley who suffers from a progressive neurological illness. He wanted to live at home but was offered AS/VE as an alternative to forced discharge or $1,800 per day charge. (He found basic home-care services inadequate for his needs.)
Palliative Care
Palliative Care will suffer when accountants see the costs of treatment versus the cheaper AS. In time the funding for ‘expensive’ palliative programs will be reduced, which in turn will drive more people to seek Assisted Suicide.
It is telling that Medical Assistance in Dying [AS/VE] in Canada is perceived to be “a Right” and is now provided universally…while palliative-care is not.
Society
The devaluation of human life means that people will be perceived as objects. That always ends badly. This leads to the acceptance of eugenics; torture; involuntary euthanasia; capital punishment, etc.
(Editor: It might be worthwhile for readers to reflect on Britain’s role in the torture in Abu Ghraib, the torture there and the denials by Blair are evocative of the moral culpability for coercive assisted suicide The greatest moral failure of Tony Blair's premiership | Andrew Rawnsley | The Guardian )
Abu Ghraib (2004) under the Bush administration.
We can see this dehumanisation creeping into attitudes towards even political opponents; Climate-Deniers; etc. As Daniel Goody said, ‘Human beings, have by their very existence, inherent value, worth, and distinction.’
Demographic Death-Knell
Most western countries have birth rates which are already way below replacement levels. A terminally ill person receiving AS will only change demographics very slightly. That calculation will change completely in Canada when younger people are euthanised for non-terminal conditions.
Health Care Workers
Caring people will leave the medical & nursing professions when they are forced to participate in a morally and ethically offensive act.
The Bill does not recommend or mandate any psychological testing for providers. In Canada, many doctors only performed one or two cases before giving up completely. Many noted an existential crisis from the killing of another human being.
The Bill does not require psychological testing of the curious few who continue to provide AS regularly. Convicted murderers, UK’s Harold Frederick Shipman and American Jack Kevorkian (“Dr. Death”) would really be in their element with legal Assisted Suicide!
Involuntary Euthanasia
In time, Health Care will attract the sociopaths who relish an ability to kill patients: some might graduate to Involuntary Euthanasia. (The killing of a patient without consent: a.k.a. murder.)
Medical Ethics
Others can better describe the damage AS/VE is causing to medical ethics and conscientious objection (noting: Ontario’s “effective referral” requirement.)
The British Medical Journal is published by the BMA and the Journal of Medical Ethics is a subsidiary of the BMJ. The JME published: “After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?” by Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva in 2011. Giubilini and Minerva suggested that infanticide (“after-birth abortion”) is ethical. This sort of tripe has been fed to BMA members over many, many years so is it any surprise they have lost their way?
Medical Education
Medical students are being taught how to kill patients before knowing how to heal properly in the first place. This means that in Canada MAiD [AS/VE] has become a regular therapeutic option.
Humanist Dr. Donald Boudreau of McGill University, said “My personal belief is that healing and euthanizing are simply not miscible.” It is only a matter of time before job requirements specify the need for applicants to provide AS/VE in all Geriatric, Palliative-Care & Family Medicine (etc.) positions.
Please listen to Dr. Leonie Herx’s succinct comments as she reviews the issues in Canada in the video below. She is a palliative-care physician, Division Chair of Queen’s Palliative Medicine & Past-President of the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians.
Human Rights
There is an open season on the Right to Life throughout the developed world.
The Supreme Court of Canada redefined the ‘Right to Life’ to mean some Canadians have the “Right to Die.” Unbelievably the SCC also gave this select group of Canadians the legal right to demand their death at the hand of another citizen (VE.) As human beings we have free will — the Freedom — to kill ourselves. There is no Right to kill ourselves (and definitely we do not have a Right to require some other person to kill us.)
International Relations
The Assisted Dying Bill allows the UK to kill citizens of other countries! That might cost dearly if a country like the People’s Republic of China objects to their citizens being killed.
The Slippery Slope
Look at what has happened in the Netherlands and Canada already.
In Canada euthanasia for mental illness will be legal by 2023.
In the Netherlands euthanasia for infants was illegal but occurred for many years under the tacitly accepted Groningen Protocol. There are many other egregious examples of non-compliance with the Dutch legislation.
Conclusion
If introduced, Assisted Suicide will cost the UK dearly.
That said, take heart from the Irish experience. Strong opposition can succeed!
Dr. Kevin Hay MRCPI MRCGP (inactive) FCFP
Kevin was born in the UK, graduated from UCD and now works as a Specialist Family Physician in rural Alberta, Canada. You can follow him on Twitter @kevinhay77.
