Religious leaders gained a rare victory this week in the House of Commons; they managed to persuade MPs to reject Rob Marris’ private members bill about assisted dying. This would have allowed people with six months to live to take a lethal medication. A similar measure passed in the Lords last year before running out of Parliamentary time.
The religious leaders were clever they didn’t base their arguments on the ‘so called’ sanctity of human life. Nor did they make the mistake of trying to impose religious beliefs on the non-religious majority. The crucial argument appears to be the supposed vulnerability of ill patients being pressured into committing suicide by relatives who don’t have their interests at heart.
The BHA has issued a splendid document showing the misinformation propagated by religious groups at the time of the Lords bill http://humanism.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/BHA-Report-In-Bad-Faith.pdf. In this they state:
‘Being elderly does not make you stupid, automatically vulnerable, or unable to speak for yourself. It is patronising to assume that elderly people will easily be persuaded to die. Such attitudes expressed by religious groups demonstrate a profound lack of respect for elderly people.’
We surely have the right to determine our own fate. MPs are still relatively young and do not know the fear of the process of physical deterioration of both mind and body leading to death. Feelings of pity and protection to the elderly have been misapplied. We all die but we all want to die with dignity.
