Assisted suicide

Imagine this: your brother has just been a victim in a motorcycle accident in London. He is in intensive care, the doctors say he is suffering greatly, and there is no chance he is going to survive. His last words, before he loses consciousness, are that he wants his family to help him end his life. Imagine this: your brother wants nothing more than to pass away with dignity. But the doctors tell you - this is not allowed.  Now, how would you feel? Maybe, maybe it is a fact of life that every man will suffer for his needs, but here, his suffering is useless, incurable.  If a man is suffering and can hope for nothing more than a long and painful end, is it not the simple duty of a human being to help him end his life?

Why is it illegal that this should be so? Fighting the legal system has only lead to distress on the part of those who want to end their own suffering, and honest families must endure hours of right-wing bureaucracy when their real concern is the dignity of the people they love. It should not be illegal to honour the decision of a family member when they have chosen to end their suffering. But what right does the government have to tell us when we are supposed to die, anyway? They force us to pay taxes, they spend all our money on prisoners' jobs when honest people are rotting on the dole, and they think they can tell us what to write on our gravestones, too! No. We are individuals. We hold our Rights and Freedoms up as beacons of hope, fairness and justice, and it is upon these that we build our society. If we allow these freedoms to be taken away, then the pillars of society will crumble. Is this the legacy we wish to leave our children? Or do we want to leave them a future where, instead of sweating out their last morphine filled hours in a white hospital bed, they can die with their family around them, in the arms of their loved ones, safe, at home? But not only do they force us to die slowly, but they demand that we pay for it, too! £200 million is spent on running life support machines every year, when in many cases the doctors are certain that there is simply no hope. Don't get me wrong, I'm not George Osborne or Hilary Clinton – I know how wrong it is to speak about the 'financial value' of a human life - but when that human life is painstaking and devoid of hope, and when a human being has decided that they want, with dignity, to end it; to refuse that right is ridiculous and wrong, and the costs fall on all of our shoulders, as well as the family involved. In short, this government, however flimsily elected, needs to learn to respect the Rights and Freedoms of individuals in our society. The legalisation of assisted suicide is a major part of this. Anyway, in the run of things, as human beings, we are all going to die. But if we are allowed to choose when to die - to die gracefully - surrounded by the people whom we love; the people whom we love will rest easier knowing that we can Rest In Peace.