An end to unspeakable acts of violence

“So, you support suicide?”

“Yes, provided it is managed well.’

The problem with the official religious position on voluntary assisted dying rests with its failure to distinguish between a good and bad suicide.

And the trouble with blanket moral condemnation of suicide, as reflected in an open letter to Victorian parliamentarians penned by the Heads of prominent Christian churches is that there is no way of helping, guiding, advising or monitoring those who choose to die on their own terms and out of institutional care.

With the absence of a legal framework there is in no real way of gauging whether people like my neighbour were of sound mind and free from coercion. And there is no reliable way of knowing if those who died by their own hand were depressed, confused, had second thoughts, or in desperate need of counsel.

But somehow it is legally acceptable to turn a blind eye to such unthinkable acts of self-destruction than to enact laws that offer medical assistance to the terminally and incurably ill who choose to die on their own terms.

These people are compelled to take their life into their own hands because our legislators have washed their hands of them. And those who wish to assist have had their hands tied by a law that unintentionally criminalizes compassion.

If we want the elderly and the terminally ill to live out their life free of violence and the tyranny of mandatory suffering, then we need to encourage our politicians to enact laws that offer a far more humane alternative to unspeakable acts of suicide.