Thank you for your very nuanced ideas on this very sensitive subject. Yes, you are correct, assisted dying must be regulated properly by the law whatever my beliefs may be on the subject. It is an extremely hard decision to be made by anyone facing the trauma that prompts the discussion. I only hope that each such supplicant will be given kindness, hope, support and all the help available to them.
My wife and I are elderly and have DNRs, signed by our GP each year, which we expect others in the medical profession to honour, including paramedics. While I understand that section 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961 makes the aiding and abetting of a suicide a crimminal offence, I am unclear how the act of doing such a thing is, in the context of which you wrote, so qualitatively different to aiding the dying of someone who has expressed a wish not to be resuscitated.
One could imagine a case where a DNR and suicide are involved: one spouse takes an overdose to alleviate long suffering and the other spouse finds them still alive but clutching a note that says "Don't you dare ignore my DNR if you find me still alive". What happens to that other spouse if they don't call for assistance and simply remain at the side of their partner, comforting them in their final moments? Are they "aiding and abetting a suicide" in such circumstances?
Thanks for this analysis. That the so called "slippery slope" is here now rather than a danger of the legislation is an aspect I hadn't realised.
Thank you for your very nuanced ideas on this very sensitive subject. Yes, you are correct, assisted dying must be regulated properly by the law whatever my beliefs may be on the subject. It is an extremely hard decision to be made by anyone facing the trauma that prompts the discussion. I only hope that each such supplicant will be given kindness, hope, support and all the help available to them.
My wife and I are elderly and have DNRs, signed by our GP each year, which we expect others in the medical profession to honour, including paramedics. While I understand that section 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961 makes the aiding and abetting of a suicide a crimminal offence, I am unclear how the act of doing such a thing is, in the context of which you wrote, so qualitatively different to aiding the dying of someone who has expressed a wish not to be resuscitated.
One could imagine a case where a DNR and suicide are involved: one spouse takes an overdose to alleviate long suffering and the other spouse finds them still alive but clutching a note that says "Don't you dare ignore my DNR if you find me still alive". What happens to that other spouse if they don't call for assistance and simply remain at the side of their partner, comforting them in their final moments? Are they "aiding and abetting a suicide" in such circumstances?