The British are a restless people, who leave their island kingdom for holidays as often as they can afford the time and expense. For each of the past 30 years my wife and I have exchanged homes each summer with different English and Scottish couples with lovely properties and have never wanted for takers.
Of late, there is another reason for Britons to leave. Some who are terminally ill or just sick of living make the final trip of their lives to another country to commit suicide, with a doctor's assistance.
Conspiracy to help someone die is a crime in the United Kingdom, whether it's a physician who assists or even a spouse or other family member. Since 1961 suicide itself has been decriminalized, but the law continues to threaten anyone who "aids, abets, counsels, or procures the suicide of another" with a 14-year prison sentence.
So those who want to end it all, but need some assistance in lowering the final curtain, go to another country where local law does not interfere. The best-known facility, named Dignitas, is located in the Swiss city of Zurich. Some 115 Britons have recently taken advantage of its service, which promises death with dignity.
A recent poll by the Times of London reveals that three-fourths of the nation's population wants to permit doctors to help terminally ill patients end their lives. Belgium, the Netherlands, and the states of Oregon and Washington have already decriminalized physician-assisted suicide, citing compassion as a motive.
Unfortunately, many who are not terminally ill seek help to end their lives. Compassion applies to relatively few cases. In the United States, suicide ranks 11th among the leading causes of death. Young Americans as well as the elderly choose to end their lives for a range of reasons. Even when terminal illness is the motive, the sick person may be succumbing to pressure from families to die rather than be an expensive burden as they linger.
Christianity takes a dim view of suicide, deeming it an injustice to God, the author of life, who has direct dominion over our lives. That argument, of course, will not persuade secularists, but there are other reasons to object to doctor-assisted suicide. For example, legalized abortion, originally intended to confront fetal handicaps or risk to the mother, quickly turned to abortion on demand for any reason. The same could happen with any legalization of assisted dying.
Nigel Biggar, a professor at Oxford University, argues that civilized society has a vested interest in saving the lives of their citizens, rather than facilitating death for those who have given up on life. To legalize assisted suicide cheapens life, he warns, "generating indifference and carelessness. If my life only has the worth that I accord it, then it has no objective value, and if it has no objective value, then why should anyone else care for it?"
(David Yount's 14th book, "Making a Success of Marriage," will be printed this fall. He answers readers at P.O. Box 2758, Woodbridge, VA 22195 and dyount31(at)verizon.net.)
AMAZING GRACE
Post new comment