Hi there,

What drives people to consider
assisted suicide and euthanasia is the thought of becoming dependent and
undignified. Speaking personally, I would respond that dependence of one sort
or another is part of the human condition and that a caring and compassionate
society will not allow people to die without dignity.

But I have to admit that this week’s
report on care for the elderly in institutions run by the National Health Service
takes the wind out of my sails. There is a danger of sensationalising its
horrifying stories: surely not every elderly person in UK hospitals is treated with
heartless bureaucratic inhumanity. But the picture that the Health Service Ombudsman
paints is bleak:

“The reasonable
expectation that an older person or their family may have of dignified,
pain-free end of life care, in clean surroundings in hospital is not being
fulfilled. Instead, these accounts present a picture of NHS provision that is
failing to meet even the most basic standards of care.”

In increasingly atomised and
cash-strapped Western nations, I fear that things will only get worse. Pressure
for euthanasia is bound to grow – but not because it is a human right, as
alleged by campaigners, but because it will make caring for unproductive
elderly cheaper. As the proportion of over-65s soars in the coming decades,
will there be a greater challenge in bioethics?

Cheers,
Michael Cook
Editor

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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