Real help for those in pain
Sir: The fickleness of existence is exemplified by the fact that being Tony Blair’s ex-flatmate puts you in the position of further eroding the moral fabric of the nation without ever having had stood for office. An advert for Charlie Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill is rather cynically placed opposite Jenny McCartney’s nuanced examination of the implications of this potential legislation (‘Terminally confused’, 5 July). Among other points, Ms McCartney quite correctly reprises the ‘slippery slope’ argument, which in the case of legalised abortion turned out to have been prophetic.
One of her issues is the involvement of medical staff. Apart from the actual executioner’s role, there is the thorny problem of what constitutes ‘dying’. Every week I come across patients with terminal illness for whom an exact timescale is simply not possible. In another context, Keynes was quite correct to point out that ‘In the long term we’re all dead.’ The ‘six months or less’ clause is simply guesswork, and is an open invitation to abuse. I would be wary of assuming that all of the medical profession are as high-minded in this regard as Lord Falconer seems to be hoping.
These are very important practical issues, although the ultimate argument remains a moral one.
None of this is to diminish the genuine suffering outlined anecdotally in the advert. If the truly laudable aim is indeed that ‘fewer people will suffer’, then the answer lies in expanding and improving the neglected provision for palliative care in the NHS, which in some areas of the country is in a disgraceful state. It is perhaps the most powerful example of how the enormous NHS budget is so badly directed away from areas of true need.
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