Is it the government’s desire to control its citizens, the hand of religion, or the vested interest of a set of multi-million industries ‘caring’ for the terminally dependent or dying?
A memo from author Terry Pratchett in the Huffington Post, UK on the guidelines from the Director of Public Prosecutions puts a finger on the danger of a spouse or family friend assisting somebody to die, even if they clearly acted out of compassion and love.
It is the fact that when ‘amateurs’ try to help other amateurs to die, the results he has seen in his life as a journalist were often ‘traumatic to the extent of making hardened police officers vomit’.
He points out that, ‘as a society, we seem to be quite kind even to serious offenders’, but censorious of those with a ‘debilitating and unforgiving’ disease who wish to end such a life.
Is this due to the the ‘dark hand’ of ‘a religion that subconsciously regards illness as a sin requiring atonement’ as he surmises, or is it really a control issue? He ends:
“In fact, the government of the welfare state is not very happy about citizens who take total responsibility for themselves rather than hanging from the teat of the welfare state; apparently such people must be punished.”
- Or are there friendly corporate interests at stake?
To read the article click here.
Follow Sir Terry Pratchett on Twitter: www.twitter.com/terryandrob
Comment on an article sent by a Tokyo reader:
Mercedes:
Our culture wants us alive. Among other things, dead people don’t work and generate taxable income, or pay taxes. Dead people do not generate employment which in health care is rather substantial.
http://zocalopublicsquare.org/thepublicsquare/2011/11/30/how-doctors-die/read/nexus/