{"id":97,"date":"2009-04-03T12:47:23","date_gmt":"2009-04-03T11:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=97"},"modified":"2009-04-03T12:47:23","modified_gmt":"2009-04-03T11:47:23","slug":"suicide-documentary-on-the-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/04\/03\/suicide-documentary-on-the-bbc\/","title":{"rendered":"Suicide Documentary on the BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

In case you\u00a0missed it, there’s a little under a week left to listen again to last night’s Radio 4 documentary on the Swiss assisted suicide movement: follow this link<\/a>.\u00a0 For what it’s worth, I couldn’t help thinking that it was a little scare-mongering and tabloid.\u00a0 (So the mentally ill or non-terminal might be able to access AS; maybe even the not-ill-at-all.\u00a0 Woo-hoo.\u00a0 I don’t really see why that should have to be a problem.\u00a0 At the very least, it seems to display a shoddy blanketing of all those with mental illness as being, like, CRAZY ALL THE TIME.\u00a0 Not so.\u00a0 It seems perfectly reasonable to imagine, say, a schizophrenic or bipolar person deciding calmly\u00a0that they no longer want to live this kind of life – and the mere fact that, strictly speaking,\u00a0they have a mental illness is neither here nor there for most of the time.\u00a0 Granted, you might want to assist with suicide during a psychotic episode – but there’s more to it than that.)<\/p>\n

The programme gets a reasonable write-up in The Times<\/em><\/a>\u00a0– with, unsurprisingly, extra comments from people like Care not Killing<\/a> and Dignity in Dying<\/a>.\u00a0 Sarah Wootton, of the latter organisation, is quoted as saying that<\/p>\n

We believe the law should change in the UK to allow terminally ill, mentally competent, adults to have the choice of an assisted death but we are also very clear that should be within a strict framework of legal safeguards.\u00a0 I am very concerned about Dignitas. Mental competence is an essential precursor to an assisted death and we are absolutely immovable on that. We need to give a clear signal that to assist non-terminally ill adults to die is wrong.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, yes: legal safeguards are probably in order.\u00a0 But I find myself siding with Dignitas’ Ludwig Manelli here – why the terminal illness criterion?\u00a0 (Apologies for the blatant spamming, but this is a question I’ve\u00a0raised elsewhere<\/a>.)\u00a0 If a person wants to cash in their chips and they’re competent, and if there’s someone who’s willing to help, then why not let them?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In case you\u00a0missed it, there’s a little under a week left to listen again to last night’s Radio 4 documentary on the Swiss assisted suicide movement: follow this link.\u00a0 For what it’s worth, I couldn’t help thinking that it was a little scare-mongering and tabloid.\u00a0 (So the mentally ill or non-terminal might be able to […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,591,479],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-life-and-death","category-navel-gazing"],"yoast_head":"\nSuicide Documentary on the BBC - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/04\/03\/suicide-documentary-on-the-bbc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Suicide Documentary on the BBC - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In case you\u00a0missed it, there’s a little under a week left to listen again to last night’s Radio 4 documentary on the Swiss assisted suicide movement: follow this link.\u00a0 For what it’s worth, I couldn’t help thinking that it was a little scare-mongering and tabloid.\u00a0 (So the mentally ill or non-terminal might be able to [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/04\/03\/suicide-documentary-on-the-bbc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-03T11:47:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/03\\\/suicide-documentary-on-the-bbc\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/03\\\/suicide-documentary-on-the-bbc\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Suicide Documentary on the BBC\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-04-03T11:47:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/03\\\/suicide-documentary-on-the-bbc\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":360,\"commentCount\":13,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"In the News\",\"Life and Death\",\"Navel-gazing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/03\\\/suicide-documentary-on-the-bbc\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/03\\\/suicide-documentary-on-the-bbc\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/03\\\/suicide-documentary-on-the-bbc\\\/\",\"name\":\"Suicide Documentary on the BBC - 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