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

Personal: Health update 01-12-2025

I’m feeling better, somewhat. I don’t want to speak too soon, though. The last two days, I’ve been drinking electrolytes. I just have to be careful and not drink too much, as that’s not good either. My sinuses are better, too.

I also started taking a low dose of lithium orotate. It’s not working yet, I suppose, but I haven’t been as moody. Sure, I started crying after I listened to a clip from The Electronic Intifada, but at least I wasn’t crying while playing the world’s smallest violin.

I’ve also been staying up longer than usual. Usually, I can only stay awake for a couple of hours. I’ve been up since Midnight, and I am getting tired now, though. It’s time to switch to my deadmau5 playlist. I either listen to that one or my Trance playlist when I go to sleep. Have a pleasant day!

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

Gender and Psychiatry: Pathologized Emotions

As Phyllis Chesler warned us in 1974, gender bias has accompanied psychiatric power throughout its history. Years later, in 2005, in the last annotated edition of Women and Madness , the author insisted on the persistence of this bias, which even today, 50 years later, seems to remain unchanged. Authors such as Ussher, Caplan, Margot Pujal and many others were situated in that same space. With their differences and nuances, they all converge on the same point: gender problems and discomforts produce deep suffering. This suffering leaves marks on our bodies and our behavior.

Gender and Psychiatry: Pathologized Emotions

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