Morning, it’s the weekend, so once again we will search for stories that brighten our day!
To start with I’m going to post something in full that I feel paints a fairly accurate picture of the slippery slope assisted dying has the potential to be, should we not treat it with the respect it deserves - and it appears we’re not. It’s stretching perhaps in the last few lines, but overall I see nothing here we haven’t seen examples of elsewhere. I know people have strong opinions on this topic and I’m not against it in any fundamental way, but like many things in the present day, I do not trust those who would be responsible for implementing the legality and communications around it to do so in a humane and responsibility way. Please take a moment to consider what is possible and remember how much of what we used to think impossible, is now the norm.
“For the first year or so it will just be an option, you won’t hear much about it except in articles with headlines like “Assisted dying saved my parent/partner/child from years of pain”. After a year or two a report will come out claiming success via some tortured invented statistical measure like “assisted dying boosts patient well being scores in surveyed NHS hospitals”. Another will follow claiming waiting lists have improved due to decreased overcrowding in palliative care wards. They might even claim it’s decreased the NHS’s carbon footprint. Opinion pieces will appear with titles like “Assisted dying success story shuts down conspiracy theorists”. The minimum age to be considered for assisted dying will gradually be lowered. And the list of diseases and conditions for which assisted dying is a “recommended treatment alternative” will expand. Eventually non-lethal diseases will be included, then psychological illnesses too. Then will come an “emergency” - and the NHS will come out of it shining thanks to resources “freed up” by euthanasia programs. Next will come the editorials. “Assisted dying is good for patients and saved the NHS during ‘X’ emergency', it’s time to make it mandatory”. A backbench MP will introduce a bill forcing anyone diagnosed with a fatal illness to be put on an assisted dying list. The bill will fail, and most of the press will oppose it, but the government will issue “common sense” compromise regulations where assisted dying is the default, but patients can opt out of if they want. It will never actually BE mandatory. But it WILL be harder and harder to get out of. Patients who don’t want to sign DNRs or opt for end of life care will be branded “selfish” and “irresponsible”. Studies will claim they are a strain on the NHS resources. Down the line, opting out will incur penalties to your pension payments and mean you are charged for healthcare, making it impossible for many older people to afford to stay alive. Then they’ll start panels where patients who are “mentally incompetent” have assisted dying recommended by “mercy tribunals”. …and the whole time the establishment will claim there is freedom of choice, and no slippery slope at all.”
