‘Assisted suicide’ is what is being proposed
OUR chief minister and a group of supporting deputies have presented a requete to the house to debate assisted dying. As is often the case in emotive issues, the language is altered to make it sound more acceptable. What is being proposed is assisted suicide. It is ironic that at this very time, when legalisation of assisted suicide is proposed, the Guernsey Press has had days of reporting on the prevention of male suicide.
Suicide is a situation brought on by severe depression, this can affect people of all ages. So we have to ask ourselves who will be offered assistance to die and who will be offered help to live?
We are told that all people are equal and all have a choice, but an 18-year-old person who is suffering from acute depression should have the same choice as an 80-year-old person also suffering from the same problem.
Who will be given the choice? Moreover, given that death is much cheaper than life, killing people much cheaper than caring for them, we also have to ask ourselves who will choose, the patient or the state?
We need to be very careful what we allow to be passed into law because, as has been seen in other countries that have introduced assisted suicide, all the conditions and safeguarding that are put in place at the beginning are always altered to suit what the state wanted in the first place.
The people of Guernsey need to be aware.
TONY MEADOWCROFT,
ant.meadowcroft@gmail.com
