Assisted Suicide

Group Funded Assisted Suicide

By WESLEY J. SMITH
The daughters of a cancer patient, who wants to fly to Switzerland to be made dead, started a group funding effort to pay for their mother’s assisted suicide.
When that got shut down, people apparently sent cash to help pay for the death.
From the Carmarthen Journal story:

A WEST Wales mum has had a flood of cash from strangers to help send her to a Swiss suicide clinic to end her life after police forced her daughters to cancel a fundraising party.

Jackie Baker, aged 59, is “amazed” that a fund has topped £3,000 in the past few days to pay for her £8,000 trip to the euthanasia clinic.

An online fund in her name has had £3,435 from 83 people who support her aim. She has now registered with Dignitas to plan her last trip, despite the £15-a-head ladies only night in Llanelli being scrapped.

I never judge anyone who is suicidal. None of us know what could drive us into that darkness.
But how we respond? That’s a different story. Here are a few of my thoughts:
*People who pay to help someone become dead have that death on their own shoulders. They are morally accountable.
*Such pro-suicide efforts hurt others struggling with difficult health conditions such as cancer. I know. I hear from them.
*The tenor of the story is pro-suicide, par for the course these days in the media.
*The newspaper story is utterly devoid of information about the many opportunities for symptom control and palliative care that help cancer patients tremendously.
*That’s an abdication of community responsibility which makes the story pro-suicide.
How about group funding to ensure Baker receives the best of palliative and hospice care?
Would that even make the papers? Maybe one day Dignitas will offer suicide scholarships. Ugh!
Editor’s note. This appeared on Wesley’s great blog.