Michael KellyChanging legislation in Britain could prompt copycat policies in Ireland, writes Michael Kelly
Irish politicians and policymakers increasingly take a lead from Britain when it comes to drafting and proposing legislation. Unfortunately, a national inferiority complex has taken hold to such an extent that many opinion-formers-and-shapers now spend their time looking over their shoulder to see what is considered modern and progressive elsewhere without stopping to pause and consider probing and challenging questions.
This was much in evidence during the referendum on same-sex marriage earlier this year. It was not uncommon to hear politicians and journalists insist that Irish voters should back the proposal to redefine marriage to show the rest of the world how progressive we are.
James Reilly, deputy leader of Fine Gael, even went so far as to suggest that in the event of a ‘no’ vote, Ireland would be thought badly of overseas. This despite the fact that only a handful of countries in the world have opted to redefine marriage.
We might well paraphrase the popular quote to read that “when Britain sneezes, Ireland catches a cold”. It is for this reason that Irish people should look with extreme caution at the current debate in Britain about legislation to permit what is euphemistically-termed ‘assisted dying’.
The push to permit people to help another person take their own life is, supporters say, based on the notion of a ‘right to die’. Such a notion seems, to me at least, bizarre.
There is no right to die at the heart of what it means to be human: death is the inevitable consequence when a human being is faced with a fatal pathology.
Assisted dying, on the other hand, is based on a radical ethic of autonomy which will destroy the fundamental trust between doctors and patients, care-givers and those being cared for.
Depressingly, one of the key supporters of the push for assisted dying in Britain is George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. According to Lord Carey, a doctor or a friend helping someone to take their own life is “gracefully handing back to God”.
“There is nothing sacred about suffering, nothing holy about agony, and individuals should not be obliged to endure it,” he wrote in a letter.
But no one is arguing that human beings should suffer as their lives near an end. In fact, opponents of euthanasia have consistently argued for greater invest-ment in palliative care and the hospice movement.
The cruel paradox around assisted dying is brought in to sharp focus as western governments move towards permitting euthanasia at the same time as they allocate more and more resources to suicide prevention.
The mixed messages are extraordinary. If Lord Carey can insist that in certain circumstances, taking one’s own life is “gracefully handing back to God,” why is this not the case in all circumstances? In his world view, why are some suicides okay but others not okay?
The double standard is staggering.
Consequences
The chilling consequences of euthanasia are clear from countries where it has been legally-permitted for some time. Earlier this year in Belgium, a 24-year-old woman who suffered from depression and had a ‘death wish’ since childhood was granted the ‘right to die’ — this despite the fact that she was not terminally ill.
Doctors gave the young woman, identified only as Laura, the go-ahead to be euthanised by lethal injection. “Life, that’s not for me,” she said in a newspaper interview shortly before she was euthanised. Forty two people with mental illnesses were killed by lethal injection in Holland last year.
In 2013, Belgian doctors euthanised two deaf twins in their 40s who were told they would soon go blind. Doctors agreed with the two brothers that going blind was unbearable suffering and that they would be better dead.
Gaby Olthuis, a divorcee, was a brilliant clarinet player, but said she suffered “24-hour noise”. To end her suffering, she was given a lethal potion to drink by one of her doctors at her home. Shockingly, she left behind two teenagers, a boy of 13 and girl of 15.
There are dozens more such cases which pro-euthanasia supporters would rather ignore.
Make no mistake, the macabre debate that has stalked other countries wreaking havoc is on its way to Ireland.
Those who want to stand up for the vulnerable and offer a better way for those who suffer will have to make their voices heard. Such voices won’t be popular in the midst of a media that will push for change.
