Friday 20 March 2009

Patricia Hewitt Seeking Suicide Law Change


Patricia Hewitt is seeking to change the law to allow people to take terminally ill patients abroad for assisted suicide. A debate in parliament on this is more than “long over due“ it's necessary. Increasing amounts of people are going abroad to end their lives. Families shouldn't come back to Britain and face the prospect of prosecution, they should be allowed to grieve. Where is the compassion in this continuing to happen when a clear definition of the law, or just working with EU states to assure there are no abuses would end it?

Some would argue that changing the law for what is essentially a small percentage of people is unnecessary, but the figures only represent the people willing to publicly challenge the law, there are many more who would want to do this, but fear their families being prosecuted too much. Laws should protect vulnerable people, but there is a difference between inciting people into suicide and someone making a rational choice to end their own life, essentially for them it's a decision on the quality of their life.

Assisted suicide is a deeply personal decision, and one that represents much more than a choice, it represents your right to your life and your body being your own, not the states, yours. It is long overdue that this should be debated in parliament, as that should be a human right.

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