As a supporter of assisted suicide, Lord Sumption\u2019s argument is commendably honest. He recognises that the Leadbeater bill creates a new kind of society. Although it sprinkles us all with the same fairy dust of autonomy, our new-found entitlement does not land on us all equally. Rather, because of pre-existing social inequalities, it creates two distinct groups. In one, we find \u201cstrong-minded, articulate individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They have a high sense of self-worth and good support networks. To them, assisted suicide represents an idealised form of dying on their own terms. It is an empowering possibility for a future dark day, an option (perhaps that such a person will never actually use) rather than an obligation. In the other group, Lord Sumption writes, we find \u201cthe genuinely vulnerable\u201d. For many reasons (illness, old age, hard life circumstances) people in this group often feel dictated to by life. They cannot hold prime ministers to personal account, and are not of much interest to the media. In many cases, their support networks are threadbare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lord Sumption admits that such people have good reason to fear the Pandora\u2019s Box opened by Leadbeater\u2019s bill. For them, in time, it will be less an empowering hypothetical option for a future day and more a dark cloud that will hang over every day, a silent obligation to be resisted rather than a liberating insurance plan. Although he supports assisted suicide, it is for the sake of the vulnerable that he is unable to \u201crejoice\u201d in the first wave of an incoming tide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read it all<\/a> (subscription).<\/p> Excellent piece!
\u201cWhen elevated to life\u2019s highest value, autonomy is an uncompromising and rapacious master. Given time, the strength of its logic bursts through our arbitrary restrictions on it.\u201d –@DrJamesEglinton<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/BbAOKmEeWl<\/a><\/p>— Keith Plummer (@XianMind) December 7, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote>