Page 4387 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 19 November 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
circumstances we might find ourselves in in the future, and to project the circumstances in which one might feel the requirement to have life terminated is an immensely godlike vision, which I suspect most of us do not possess.
We need to be aware that there would be intense difficulties in defining the circumstances under which a doctor might exercise some discretion. I assume in all of this that there is some discretion on the doctor's part, and I will come back to that in a moment. Assuming that there is some discretion, there would have to be a very tight definition, presumably, of the circumstances where death might be administered by a doctor. It assumes, although it is not expressly stated, that a patient needs to be seriously ill.
But the seriousness of that illness is not anywhere, that I have seen, attempted to be defined; nor is it made clear whether that is a condition of the exercise of some power to administer a drug or whatever that would terminate a person's life. For example, a person with a terminal illness who is lying in bed in a hospital and who may be literally weeks or days from death would presumably be the ideal candidate, should they so desire, for euthanasia.
Alternatively, there are people with very much less serious diseases, possibly not even life-threatening diseases, who might under these circumstances wish to avail themselves of the opportunities presented in these proposals. I give an example: I knew a person who thought she had been diagnosed as suffering from diabetes. This person was intensely distraught and upset about the prospect of living the rest of her life with diabetes. She was not in any way nearing death - diabetes is generally not a fatal disease - but she foresaw the circumstances of her life, having to administer injections to herself for some time to come, and seriously considered suicide. I wonder whether, under the proposals Mr Moore has referred to, her suicide would be sanctioned by the law.
One could choose cases of even less medical seriousness, if I might put it in that way, where under these guidelines a person might be entitled to come forward and say, "I wish to exercise an agreement with my doctor and to prescribe circumstances where my life would be terminated". I would be grateful if those who come after me in this debate could attempt to define the circumstances where that might happen. Frankly, I believe that those sorts of abuses are open to patients or even to doctors, unless a definition is presented which prevents them from happening.
A third problem that presents itself to me is the opportunity for abuse. I believe that there is a great danger that euthanasia could become not just an instrument of personal choice but also one of public policy. I am aware that there are some communities - Holland, for example - where euthanasia is practised and where very real questions have been raised about the capacity of doctors or
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .