subscribe: Posts | Comments

The dangers of assisted suicide and ‘austerity’

0 comments

DPAC, protest, assisted suicide billDisabled People Against the Cuts (DPAC) explain why assisted suicide is dangerous for disabled people.

The Falconer Bill is another in a round of Bills advocating assisted suicide for those who are terminally ill.

Previous Bills of this nature have been defeated because quite simply they are considered dangerous.

The report of the self-styled ‘commission’ funded by those who are leading and financing the pro assisted suicide lobby say assisted suicide should not be offered to disabled people who are not terminally ill ‘at this point in time’so don’t fool yourself we’re not next on the list.

While we fight for human rights for assistance in life, support and independent living, against devastating cuts we have a Bill suggesting people need assisted suicide. In a time when the NHS is being decimated when social care is being decimated, and the ILF is facing closure- is the only assistance we’ll get for suicide?

Then they say we’re safe, there are safeguards!  Since when were disabled people safe from having their lives (and deaths) dictated to them by others – or seen as anything other than ‘suffering’ from impairments when it is often society, the care and health systems, and millionaire politicians policies that consistently fail to address our human rights in life, often viewing us as a burden and a drain on resources.

We don’t have the financial millions of the pro assisted suicide lobby nor the slick web sites. We don’t pay campaigners to lobby. But we have the history and determination to keep fighting while our human rights and dangers to us are ignored

The bill being debated would initially allow people who are terminally ill, have less than 6 months to live and who consent, to have assistance from a doctor to end their lives.  We oppose it because:

We do not believe that the bill has sufficient safeguards to make sure diagnoses are accurate, consent it informed or that undue pressure is not put on anyone to use this act;

The law should exist to protect the majority, in particular those who have no voice, little power and the greatest needs.

The bill would mean that doctors who assist anyone to end their lives would be immune from prosecution;

The most recent assisted suicide and euthanasia laws in Europe illustrate that bills like this are initially introduced for terminally ill people only in order to get passed, however, very quickly, the definitions are extended to include disabled people, those with dementia, children and even those experiencing ‘existential angst’;

The majority of doctors, including the BMA and the Royal College of General Practitioners have overwhelmingly voted against legalising assisted suicide and euthanasia in the UK because they believe it will change the relationship between doctor and patient and the role of the doctor from healer to killer; and

Negative changes in public attitudes towards disabled people are increasing- note, when people who are not disabled want to commit suicide, we try to talk them out of it, but when a disabled person wants to commit suicide, we focus on how we can make that possible.

We believe that the campaign to legalise assisted suicide reinforces deep-seated beliefs that the lives of old and disabled people are not worth as much as other people’s.

That if you are disabled or terminally ill you are simply a burden.

Please sign the petition against the Bill here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *