Assisted Suicide
I wanted to write briefly about my thoughts on Assisted Suicide after the bill legalising it passed Second Reading in the United Kingdom. For those unaware of how bills work in the UK, Second Reading is the most substantive debate stage on a bill. The typical life cycle of a parliamentary bill is:
First Reading - Bill is read off, no debate.
Second Reading - Merits of the Bill are debated, primary yes/no vote on the merits.
Committee - Bill is dissected line by line.
Report - Changes to the bill are discussed and approved.
Third Reading - Debate is limited, largely a formality, yes/no vote on the bill.
Kim Leadbeater's bill on Assisted Suicide is now currently in committee and is set to return to the House of Commons in April. I am personally opposed to the bill due to it being a Private Members Bill, but remain undecided on the principle of Assisted Suicide and remain open to any perspectives others want to share.
The Assisted Suicide bill, also known as the Terminally Ill Adults Bill, is what is known as a Private Member's Bill—These are bills that are introduced by backbench MPs and not by the Government of the day.
This is quite significant because Government bills have support around their drafting as well as protected time on the parliamentary calendar. Leadbeater's bill, as a result of being a PMB, has neither the support of the Civil Service nor the luxury of parliamentary time. The Bill had to go through on a Friday—a day that typically gets less attendance— with only 4.5 hours of debate, which in my opinion was far too little for what, after listening to the speeches, was actually a great debate.
There were, of course, some pretty bad speeches with the typical reading off of phones, but overall, I enjoyed the debate. However, it was far too little time for a topic of such magnitude.
Personally, I feel as if legislation is proceeding debate on the topic. Public debate has sparked because of the legislation, however, the bill is already halfway through the legislative process. Any valid points raised by the public are far too late to ultimately influence the bill.
Second Reading is also the most significant stage on the merits of the bill, and those who were suggesting that MPs should vote for the bill just so the debate can continue fundamentally do not understand how legislation works. Report and Third Reading are normally formalities, and it is extraordinarily rare for a bill to fail at those stages.
Ultimately, as the bill has passed Second Reading, I have no doubt it will pass regardless of the issues raised. This is, of course, disregarding the coercion that will be placed upon MPs by their constituents to vote for the bill.
On the merits of Assisted Suicide, I am conflicted.
The opportunity to provide dignity in death after one has decided it is their time is valuable. No one should have to suffer through an illness if they have made their choice to pass.
Giving people the ability to choose when they die, and giving them the ability to say goodbye to their family and loved ones, is truly the dignity we all deserve.
Yet, on the other hand, I have two issues with Assisted Suicide.
Firstly, I am concerned about the incentives provided by the National Healthcare System around Assisted Suicide. There is already a culture of 'we must protect our NHS'; the implicit pressure that will be placed upon older people to opt for Assisted Suicide so that they are less of a burden on the medical system will be hard to ignore.
Secondly, whilst the current bill has limited scope around the provisions on which you can opt for Assisted Suicide, I am highly concerned about the potential for the qualifications to change.
The case that haunts me on the topic is Zoraya ter Beek. Zoraya was a Dutch 29-year-old woman with chronic depression, anxiety, and trauma who opted for assisted suicide in May this year. She had attempted many treatments for her mental illnesses and ultimately reached the point at which she saw Assisted Suicide as the only option.
Personally, it is her life, she can do with it what she wants, but I think for someone with no physical degenerative illness to end their life so early is a tragedy. I will, of course, never know how she suffered, but I just can't see death as a better alternative to living.
I must explain something. Personally, I have always struggled with religion; I have often thought about it and would hesitantly call myself an atheist—I fear to use the term because of the connotations most have with atheism, and I would never in a million years push it on someone, but at the end of the day, I do not believe there is a God nor an afterlife.
I have a true appreciation for religion, the ceremony, the faith; I wish I did believe, but I just don't. To me, this is your one and only life. And that colours my beliefs in every way.
I remember speaking to two close friends earlier this year after a breakup, and one of them said—jokingly—"you're not going to kill yourself, right?" to which the other friend said that I would be the last person to commit suicide as I enjoy living too much.
This is true; the simple act of being alive no matter how I feel nor what I am doing is pure ecstasy to me. Suicide would be unthinkable. To wake up in the morning and just have a cup of coffee to me is the point of it all.
To quote one of my favourite authors, Albert Camus, the absurdist French novelist (someone who I will write about in the future), even if life has no inherent meaning, it has inherent worth, and you must "live to the point of tears".
In his 1942 classic, "The Stranger", his main character, after having his mother die, his whole life collapse, committing murder, and being sentenced to jail, writes:
“Mother used to say that however miserable one is, there’s always something to be thankful for. And each morning, when the sky brightened and light began to flood my cell, I agreed with her.”
―Albert Camus
The point of life is to live against the absurdity of existing, regardless of it having no meaning. So in my eyes, the act of committing suicide is a true tragedy, and it is why I am so violently repulsed by the story of Zoraya.
That ultimately makes it very difficult for me to conclusively decide on Assisted Suicide, because who are you to say that someone doesn’t know when to end their own suffering?
Yet I struggle with someone taking such a final act when I think there is nothing afterwards and that no matter how bad your situation is, there is always something to appreciate.
And ultimately, this is why I am so happy that I do not have to vote on the legislation, as I would not be able to decide which way to vote.