On Sunday 19 March 2023, a “citizens convention” in France concluded a discussion on end-of-life care by calling for the introduction of assisted suicide.1 Opponents of the proposal have already warned that legalisation will lead to the killing of people who have not asked to die — beginning with children.2 Such concerns are well-founded. In the Netherlands, “the jurisprudential ‘legality’ of euthanasia that was fought for by advocates of voluntary euthanasia on the basis of the principle of autonomy and self-determination of patients, actually has increased the paternalistic power of the medical profession above its last limit, above the law.”3 Placing such power in the hands of doctors not only corrupts the medical profession but the whole of society — a danger that can be illustrated by the stories of two children born in England over 40 years ago.
Posted by 