Socialists should back support for living not assisted suicide

The vote in favour of the second reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on 29th November, proposed by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, was welcomed with unalloyed enthusiasm by the bourgeois media. Photos featuring jubilant campaigners for voluntary euthanasia were plastered across web front pages. The real promise of this Bill is far from joyful for many. The Bill, which will now go to parliamentary committee with the opportunity for amendment, if finally passed into law, would represent a major political attack at a time of huge inequality and significant shortages in access to health care, social care, support for independent living, and end of life care, including adequate, high quality palliative care. Despite all this – and the loud opposition of disabled people’s organisations in particular – this measure is still mistakenly understood by some on the left as merely a matter of personal choice: an enabler rather than a threat.

Socialists should back support for living not assisted suicide

Once euthanasia is legal, the expansion of the act is inevitable

The Politico published a pro-euthanasia article by Claudia Chiappa and Lucia Mackenzie on December 29, 2024. Chiappa and Mackenzie are suggesting that the legalization of euthanasia is inevitable but when they interview Theo Boer, a former member of a Netherlands euthanasia review committee he actually tells them that the expansion of euthanasia, once legal is inevitable. Boer states:

“I have seen no jurisdiction in which the practice has not expanded, not one single jurisdiction,”

“By imposing really strict criteria we can slow down the expansion … but they will not prevent the expansion.”

Once euthanasia is legal, the expansion of the act is inevitable

Related:

[2014] Boer: I was wrong — euthanasia has a slippery slope

UK: Will Labour legalise assisted dying?

As things stand, “assisted dying” is illegal in England and Wales under section two of the Suicide Act 1961 — but will this change under Keir Starmer’s government? Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill had its first reading in the House of Lords last week and has just been published.

Will Labour legalise assisted dying?

As if privatizing the NHS wasn’t enough, now they want to kill off the plebs!

Related:

The Nazis’ First Victims Were the Disabled

Disability groups legally challenge Canada’s euthanasia law

On September 26, 2024 a coalition of disability rights organizations and two personally affected individuals filed a Charter challenge with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. The Court Challenge opposes Track 2 of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) law, which provides euthanasia to people with a disability who are not dying, or whose death is not “reasonably foreseeable.” 

Disability groups legally challenge Canada’s euthanasia law

Is Assisted Suicide Really Painless?

Jordan Peterson discusses how people die by euthanasia. Some people may disagree with Peterson’s other comments but the video is informative. 

Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

Source

Related:

YouTube: Assisted Suicide Lethal Drug Experiments on Humans in the USA

Assisted suicide is neither painless nor dignified.

Assisted Death may be a Cruel Death

Is death by euthanasia similar to death by drowning?

Is death by lethal injection (euthanasia) similar to drowning?

Aktion T4: The Nazis’ First Victims Were the Disabled

Euthanasia Used in Canada to Get Rid of Poorest People

Euthanasia Used in Canada to Get Rid of Poorest People

Related:

Canadians Turn to Euthanasia as Solution to Unbearable Poverty

Why is Canada euthanising the poor?

The problem is neoliberalism—or capitalism, whatever you want to call it! The government doesn’t want to spend more on healthcare (Medicare), welfare, or affordable housing—things that fiscal conservatives, and corporate democrats won’t fund! Yet, there’s always money for war!