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A 70 year old idiot called Ray Gosling went on a regional chat show and claimed that he had killed a former lover suffering from Aids by smothering him with a pillow. The Independent wrote an Editorial questioning all this: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-a-misguided-intervention-1902769.html

Gosling’s claim (if true), was to say the least, totally absurd and if he is campaigning for a “Right to Die”, totally counter productive to the “cause”. This man is no martyr, just another vain attention seeking old gay fart who can’t get a shag and because being GAY is all now ‘de rigeur in the Media’ let his gob runaway with him without regard to the potential audience. It is highly likely that because of idiots like him, the ‘acceptance’ of Gay People generally by the public at large will be put back somewhat rather than’advanced’, silly old Queer !

Not Easy This One

Having just over the past 6 years nursed both my 80+ year old Parents until their respective deaths, my Mother at 89 + 5 months, at the age of 64, if dying at 89 means that, personally I would rather not but, that said as a Christian, I will accept what God decides with as much grace as I may. When it comes to this kind of thing, suicide/killing, in the Laws such as this, there will always be “Grey Areas”.

It is a very difficult area and a degree of “greyness” may well prove to be the best and only outcome in the end because British Law is very literal in the sense of Guilty or Not Guilty and the only real flexibility lies in the Police collecting the evidence and the DPP making the final decision on whether or not to bring a case. We do not have the luxury of a Gallic Shrug of the shoulders in these matters just the DPP deciding whether a successful prosecution is likely and furthermore, whether it is in the Public Interest to prosecute.

Even the most ardent supporter of the “Right to Die” campaign must be fully aware of the difficulties of framing a Law that provides such a right whilst also delivering adequate and reliable safeguards against abuse. There is also a fundamental issue here in considering the introduction of any such right.

Murder

Yes I am a Christian and I personally find that we are doing 200,000 abortions a year, totally offensive. That we have abortions which are called ‘terminations’ (death insurance called Life Assurance ?), I will accept in a secular society but frankly, whilst I can understand that there may well be good reasons and situations to ‘terminate a pregnancy’, abortion as ‘birth control’ is totally offensive and should be to all people.

Whether someone is or is not a “person of religious belief”, the concept of a right to life and that killing someone else is wrong, has been enshrined in the culture of pretty much all civilisations throughout time. Also there is assumed in this that there are two people involved in this “transaction” the person who at sometime previously expressed a desire to die and is now no longer capable of the physical and mental faculties sufficient to confirm or carry out their wishes and someone who does the actual killing because ‘killing it is’.

It is indicative of the sheer lunacy under this Labour Government that there has been an endless stream of “rights legislation” the majority of which is total nonsense because human dignity and respect cannot be legislated for on matters that are essentially “Hearts and Minds” issues. Of course it is right that people should not be discriminated against on the basis of skin colour, race, religion or sexual proclivity but surely that requires more education and cultural change rather than legislation over rights.

In This Case

Let us be honest here, if the Police can find out who the victim was and prove in Court that Gosling and regardless of his age, committed this offence, he should be banged up as the murderer he claims to be for the rest of his days simply because he broke the Law and therefore is no different to Harold Shipman, a serial killer disguised as a Doctor, whether he (Gosling), likes the comparison or not.

Back to Grey

We already have a similar “grey area” that whilst difficult, mainly works reasonably well and that concerns the idea of self defence and the use of reasonable force (proportionate), in doing so. Some years ago as a doorman in the West End of London, I had the right to ask anyone to leave the premises if they were or likely to be in my opinion, a danger to themselves or other members of the public. If they refused and having made my intention clear that I would remove them by force if necessary, I could do so by putting them in an arm lock say, I did not have the right to take a Baseball bat and beat them senseless safe in the knowledge that I was immune from prosecution for my actions.

The Moral Hazard…

This is as relevant to the right to die campaign as it is to Banking today and may be described as the problem of “Moral Hazard” in the sense that any individual should feel uncertain and therefore restrain their actions accordingly. A Doorman who like the Police has to deal with violence as a daily occurrence, may get ‘brutalised’ and become immune to the experience but they must never be in a position where they are immune from the consequences of their actions, “In the Situation”.

The problem with bailing out incompetent Banks is that devoid of the restraint of market forces and being “Too Big to be allowed to go bust” by the Government, the Nick Leasons of the Square Mile and unconstrained (like Shipman), can go on to repeat the same mistakes and be reckless all over again safe in the knowledge that they will suffer no personal consequences.

Suicide is not a criminal offence any more, assisting one is, killing is. We as a society need to ask: “Do we really as a society want to introduce legal murder because once you stop playing the violins and using ‘euphemisms’ to describe actions such as having a pet “put to sleep” as what it is, killing that animal via a lethal injection, what “The Right to Die campaign” amounts to is State Sanctioned Murder of the old or in-firmed ?