Proponents of assisted dying have proposed a new method of assisted suicide in the form of an implant timed to release a fatal drug. Michael Robinson, SPUC Director of Communications, has labelled the suggestion “dystopian” and “truly horrifying”.
“Advance directives” are instructions issued to doctors to withhold medical treatment to patients who fear that they will be unable to communicate their wish to die.
However, advance directives are not legally binding, and a doctor may refuse.
But the “advance directive implant” has been proposed as a solution to this so-called problem by bioethicists Margaret Battin and Brent Kious
The implant, detailed in the American bioethics journal the Hastings Center Report, would have a timer set to release a lethal drug into the patient’s system. It is suggested that the implant would be especially popular with people suffering from dementia.
Battin and Kious admit that the device would be highly controversial, saying that initial responses to the idea included “yuck” and “gross”, as well as “that causes me fear, disgust”.
Worryingly, advance directive implants (ADIs) could also be used to coerce older people to end their lives so that their families will be spared any unnecessary stress.
As Battin and Kious say: “The greatest advantage of ADIs is that they would reduce the distress that living and dying with dementia imposes on others.”
Vulnerable people will be coerced
SPUC’s Mr. Robinson said: “These bioethicists appear to place less value on the ill person in question and much more on their family, and to ensure that they are sheltered from any emotional stress as a result of seeing their loved one suffer from a long-term illness.
“Rather than imposing distress on the family, they seek to impose death on the patient.
“Any form of assisted suicide, no matter how it is carried out, puts vulnerable people under pressure to end their lives to avoid any undue pressure placed on their family, but this shocking proposal openly views ADIs as means of ridding families of the inconvenience of a ‘problem’ family member.
“Over a third of Canadians who were killed by assisted suicide in 2019 claimed that they feared being a burden on their family, friends and caregivers if they continued to live.
“We must resist all attempts to normalise this horrifying trend and instead promote a society where each human life, no matter how vulnerable, is valued, respected and given equal protection.”
Find out more about the campaign against assisted suicide at SPUC's Lives Worth Living page
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