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I wonder if any of you heard the Today programme's recent report on people who believe the UK government should allow assisted suicide. It's a subject I find fascinating, so much so that it's worked its way into my novel. Call it morbid curiosity, but I am drawn to finding out where different individuals draw the line between putting up a fight and deciding their number's up. It's a complex subject and I confess I'm not yet 100% certain where I stand in the debate. But I must say I found the pro-choice arguments in this particular report quite horrifying.
One of the people interviewed is a woman in her nineties who is beginning to show "a certain amount of dementia," is quite frail and requires a great deal of care. At one point she says she would "like to go" because she's "had enough" and "there's no point" living any more. Her daughter states that she recently wondered if her Mum would have "missed" anything important had she died four years ago. The conclusion she comes to is that, no, the last four year's of her mother's life haven't been worthwhile in any way: "She's experienced everything she wants to experience ... it's the end of the story for her."
Another woman (why were no men interviewed?) claims that she has "the right to control" her own life and that she wants "to go out" when she's "fit and well," not when she's suffering from some debilitating disease. She does believe in the sanctity of life but she doesn't see any sanctity in mere existence and doesn't understand why she shouldn't be allowed to decide when her state of being is no longer worthy of being called 'living'.
So far I've been fortunate enough not to have to look after anyone in a truly awful condition. I've been blessed with excellent health and I haven't had to undergo extreme physical pain. I've never felt disconnected from the love and support of people who care about me. So I suppose it's relatively easy for me to be shocked by the decisiveness and confidence of the statements made by the people in the report. But the main thing that struck me about the comments was that they showed yet again that, as a society, we seem to have extended our freakish desire for control over every single aspect of our lives into the realms of death.
I'm sure it's no coincidence that the growth of the assisted suicide movement has corresponded with the growth of secularisation. At some point, any religious faith requires submission to unfathomable truths, an acknowledgement that some other being's plans and intentions must take precedence over our own. But we're becoming an increasingly non-deferential society, so it's not surprising that many people find it difficult (or unnecessary?) to make the proverbial leap of faith. So if people no longer believe that they must defer to some divine force, then it's hardly surprising that they deem it appropriate to decide for themselves when they should leave this earth.
Centuries ago astronomers shocked the world by revealing that our planet is not at the centre of the Universe. Isn't it strange that as we're learning more about how microscopic we are in relation to everything else that's out there, we're trying to convince ourselves that we're entitled to have ultimate control of all that happens to us?
One of the people interviewed is a woman in her nineties who is beginning to show "a certain amount of dementia," is quite frail and requires a great deal of care. At one point she says she would "like to go" because she's "had enough" and "there's no point" living any more. Her daughter states that she recently wondered if her Mum would have "missed" anything important had she died four years ago. The conclusion she comes to is that, no, the last four year's of her mother's life haven't been worthwhile in any way: "She's experienced everything she wants to experience ... it's the end of the story for her."
Another woman (why were no men interviewed?) claims that she has "the right to control" her own life and that she wants "to go out" when she's "fit and well," not when she's suffering from some debilitating disease. She does believe in the sanctity of life but she doesn't see any sanctity in mere existence and doesn't understand why she shouldn't be allowed to decide when her state of being is no longer worthy of being called 'living'.
So far I've been fortunate enough not to have to look after anyone in a truly awful condition. I've been blessed with excellent health and I haven't had to undergo extreme physical pain. I've never felt disconnected from the love and support of people who care about me. So I suppose it's relatively easy for me to be shocked by the decisiveness and confidence of the statements made by the people in the report. But the main thing that struck me about the comments was that they showed yet again that, as a society, we seem to have extended our freakish desire for control over every single aspect of our lives into the realms of death.
I'm sure it's no coincidence that the growth of the assisted suicide movement has corresponded with the growth of secularisation. At some point, any religious faith requires submission to unfathomable truths, an acknowledgement that some other being's plans and intentions must take precedence over our own. But we're becoming an increasingly non-deferential society, so it's not surprising that many people find it difficult (or unnecessary?) to make the proverbial leap of faith. So if people no longer believe that they must defer to some divine force, then it's hardly surprising that they deem it appropriate to decide for themselves when they should leave this earth.
Centuries ago astronomers shocked the world by revealing that our planet is not at the centre of the Universe. Isn't it strange that as we're learning more about how microscopic we are in relation to everything else that's out there, we're trying to convince ourselves that we're entitled to have ultimate control of all that happens to us?
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