"There are lots of people up and down Scotland who would like to make sure that they miss the last, and for them most intolerable part of life, because of incapacity, loss of dignity, loss of control, insufferable pain perhaps."Margo herself is one of them, as a sufferer of Parkinson's.
Ultimately, you own yourself. If you suffer from a terminal illness that is going to slowly debilitate you and cause you to endure great pain, I say you should have the option to end your own life.
The British Medical Association disagrees, arguing that people may "contemplate ending their life when that really isn't their wish." I'm sorry, but in the end the only person who knows their true wishes is that person. The choice should be taken with great care, with full patient-doctor consultation. It should be a thoroughly safeguarded, sure system - as Ms MacDonald has proposed.
But it's a morally right policy, one that can ensure people who die of terminal illnesses do so in a manner that is in accordance with their expressed wishes. The BMA should rethink their stance, and I urge one and all to sign an http://epetitions.scottish.parliament.uk/view_petition.asp?PetitionID=296">online petition calling for a referendum on the issue and parliamentary debate - Margo MacDonald needs the support of at least 18 MSPs to submit proposals in the first place.
I wish her all the best.
1 comment:
i signed the petition.
i think everyone has the right to decide how and when they die as part of self ownership.
reading the book the quality of mercy
http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&id=gN8knNi1qfAC&dq=ross+anderson+quality+of+mercy&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=P7tre0H4sq&sig=Q3BeihzuXtD2o5DExsND3u20Z-U&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result
only served to convince me more of the vital importance of this right being enshrined in law.
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