A debate over ‘assisted suicide’ is already taking place in Ireland and is only going to gain in intensity over time as the population ages, healthcare costs increase and notions of personal autonomy continue to override other important social and moral goods.
In any debate we have about this matter, it makes absolute sense to look at the experience of other countries, for example Belgium, where people can be ‘assisted’ to kill themselves even if they are children and even if they are not terminally ill.
The law and practice of assisted suicide in Belgium was the topic of a conference organised recently by the Anscombe Bioethics Centre in Britain. (Breda O’Brien attended the conference on behalf of The Iona Institute).
The conference heard from experts on both sides of the debate but all agreed that the Belgian law is being abused.
The Anscombe centre has now published a summary of the contributions made by the various speakers and has made the various talks available online.
I was particularly struck by the contribution of oncologist, Dr Benoit Beuselinck. (Assisted suicide requests are often made to oncologists).
Dr Beuselink told conference delegates that the conscience rights of doctors who want nothing to do with assisted suicide are already under pressure.
But he also noted how notions of autonomy are regarded as so paramount that the impact on others, including the family, doctors and society, is insufficiently considered.
This, of course, illustrates how a decision to commit suicide is never a private one and should never be treated purely as a matter of ‘autonomy’.
Here is the document [1] summarising the proceedings of the conference.