I strongly oppose the concept of assisted dying/assisted suicide, because as long as our lives are not safe in their hands, neither are our deaths.
This Government has Blood On Their Hands.
They are guilty of Democide; of hundreds of thousands of Extra Deaths of Disabled People; Benefit Deaths; Austerity Deaths; Deaths due to Cuts, NHS Privatisation, Underfunding, Under-staffing; Deaths On Our Streets; Infant Mortality; Excess Winter Deaths; Covid Deaths; Deaths from Hunger and Malnutrition, etc.
I stand with DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts), to oppose the Assisted Dying Bill because the individual’s decision to opt to die, is “shaped by many external factors including the sense of guilt and anticipation of suffering”, as Dr Bob Gill quite rightly said and because of the Mental Health Crisis this Government has caused, then further exacerbated with their cuts to the number of Psychiatric hospital beds and other Mental Health support services, and because, with its rhetoric and propaganda, the Tories have increased Disability Hate Crime, Depression, Anxiety and Suicides and fostered the internalising of the Dehumanisation and Worthlessness this Government and the #MSM have ruthlessly pushed, knowing the human cost of their words and actions.
I oppose Assisted Suicide being made lawful, because of the enormous risk of people being coerced into choosing death.
Even one extra death by coercion is one too many. And as long as there is a risk of coercion, this cannot be safe or acceptable.
“Modern palliative care strives to prevent suffering and ensure a peaceful death”. We must first ensure everyone can live fulfilled lives with dignity, respect, fairness and inclusion and fully fund our NHS, including providing palliative care for all who need it, before we can even consider assisting people to die, let alone enact laws to kill them.
I choose life.
Links for further reading and action:
Vigil for Jodey – 31st January outside Royal Courts of Justice
https://dpac.uk.net/2023/01/vigil-for-jodey-31st-january-outside-royal-courts-of-justice/
Join DPAC:
https://dpac.uk.net/join-dpac/
Dr Bob Gill writes on assisted suicide:
https://dpac.uk.net/2023/01/nhs-gp-dr-bob-gill-writes-on-assisted-suicide/
Help to die or help to live?
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/help-die-or-help-live
Put to death – Canada’s laws devaluing disabled people’s lives:
https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/put-death-canadas-euthanasia-laws-devaluing-disabled-peoples-lives
Review of Ellen Clifford’s brilliant, award winning book ‘The War on Disabled People’:
https://workerspower.uk/review-the-war-on-disabled-people/
‘Who can die? Canada wrestles with euthanasia for the mentally ill’:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64004329.amp
Greenpeace UK – Fuel Poverty and chaos costs lives:
https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/activists-fuel-poverty-chaos-costs-lives/
Fuel Poverty Action – Campaigners ceremoniously lay the coffin representing the 13,400 excess winter deaths this year outside Downing St.:
https://twitter.com/FuelPovAction/status/1616052706560425985?s=20&t=oRdLD-kmMPtT3CdMdXj4Bg
Downing Street ‘Death March’:
https://socialistworker.co.uk/news/downing-street-death-march-as-excess-winter-death-figures-published/
Scribblings of a Petal Rebel 