One Step Closer to Death

It’s a very sad story. According to the BBC, in “MS woman wins right-to-die fight,” Debbie Purdy has successfully taken another step in her campaign to protect her husband from legal action if she chooses to patronize a Swiss suicide center.

According to the decision by the Five Law Lords in the UK, the Director of Public Prosecution must specify when someone who assists in such a case might face prosecution. From that decision officials will develop interim policies and put the issue out to public discussion before permanent policies come out next year.

The House of Lords has also debated vigorously about how clear and precise the present law is and how it should be applied to those who go abroad to help someone kill themselves. The house rejected an attempt to decriminalize such an act, but, as Purdy understood it, the lack of clarity in the law removed her ability to decide if and when she would kill herself. She could not be sure if her husband would face up to 14 years in prison if he helped her in any way. She is seen to be very relieved and happy with the decision of the Five Law Lords.

But echoing the sadness is the way in which the BBC presented the story. The title, for example, places “MS” before “woman.” She is a disease before she is a human being. An embedded video shows her relief at being freed to make her decision without fear of her husband’s prosecution. The subheads offer such words as “Significant victory.”

Another startling touch is the BBC's choice of spokespersons. The spokesperson for the MS society was carefully neutral. One of the few dissenting (“attacking”) statements came from Right to Life, an organization whose very name raises the hackles of many. There are other, less vilified groups the BBC could have chosen to state opposition to assisted suicide. Also, the story also does not feature responses by any of the aged or people with disabilities who must be watching the proceedings with shock and horror.

The comment section is entitled “Should we decide how we die?” Many commentators liken the aged and the disabled to suffering animals that “should be put down” (euthanized). Others exercise one of the last fashionable bigotries and proclaim victory over faiths that condemn assisted suicide. However, a few do warn that even the strongest safeguards against outright murder will erode as greed and long-held resentment turns family members against the aged or disabled.

And, as a final indicator of how little contact the BBC has with those considered disabled, the story is filed under “health,” completely ignoring the modern concept that disability is a social construct rather than a medical issue. Stories listed as “related” do not include any about efforts to improve conditions for the aged or disabled so no one feels obliged to commit suicide.

In the meantime, the sad, slow process of inserting the choice of suicide into the last days of life goes on. Such a process is probably inevitable in a society in which the choice to abort has been inserted into the first days of life.