April 20, 2024
end of life issues

Former British schools head backs assisted suicide

Michael Cook

Chris Woodhead diagnosed with motor neurone disease
Chris WoodheadIf you think that assisted suicide is only a cause for “progressives”, think again. The latest luminary to back it in the UK is a prominent education official who was the scourge of teacher unions for six years under both Tory PM John Major and Labour PM Tony Blair. Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of schools, has vowed to kill himself before he is left paralysed by motor neurone disease.

Now 62, Mr Woodhead is still crusading for higher standards in education. He is currently writing a book decrying the damage inflicted upon British education by soft-headed progressives.

He was diagnosed with MND in 2006. Although he is only mildly impaired at the moment, he dreads being dependent upon his wife. “I am clear in my own mind that it is better to end it than continue a life that is extremely frustrating for me and onerous to others who are involved with me,” he told the Daily Mail.

“The quality of one’s life is more important than the quantity. I have found it frustrating not to be able to dress myself properly. I find it humiliating that Christine has to do everything, even take the rubbish out, so the prospect of being completely incapable, of relying on computer-assisted breathing, or assisted speech, is not one I would ever want to tolerate”.

He feels that a UK government will not have the courage to change the law on euthanasia. However, he does not want to ask the Swiss assisted suicide group Dignitas for help, or to involve his wife or daughter in illegally helping him to die. “The truth is I would be more likely to drive myself in a wheelchair off a cliff in Cornwall than go to Dignitas and speak to a bearded social worker,” he added. ~ Daily Mail, May 4

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