I really think everyone should watch this documentary about assisted suicide, which aired last night on the Beeb. To be honest I have been thinking about what to say about it all day, but ultimately I can only agree with it’s conclusions: legalising assisted dying in any capacity would open a very dangerous doorway, and sooner or later we risk people being coerced into ending their lives for more and more tenuous reasons. Ultimately there is a danger that non-terminally ill disabled people might be given the ‘option’ of ending their lives simply because they feel like a burden to the people around them. The presenter, Liz Carr, does a good job of presenting both sides of the debate, but when all is said and done the idea that people like me might be better off dead just because we have a disability is truly sickening.
I relish my life. Every morning I wake up knowing that the potential for something incredible to happen is infinite. I also wake up remembering all my friends who aren’t here any more, who lived their lives to the full in spite of profound disabilities. They taught me that life isn’t something to be thrown away, or opted out of just because you might no longer be able to do all the things you once did. That’s why I find the idea of assisted suicide so repugnant, and those who advocate it no more than self pitying cowards.