Making a conscious and pre-determined choice to end one’s life is simply the most important decision an individual could ever undertake. The consequence of such a judgment is quite literally a matter of life or death.
While some people are firm believers in an individual having complete control over his or her destiny, others see life as something that just shouldn’t be messed with. It’s the same old debate of pro-choice versus pro-life. But now things have grown even more controversial.
Last month, a scheme was launched by Salford City Council giving anyone the right to refuse medical treatment in the event of an emergency. The Advanced Decision to Refuse Treatment card can be carried around in a person’s wallet, sitting innocuously between credit cards and the like. It is currently available in banks, libraries, doctors’ surgeries, churches and even pubs (which baffles me slightly, as in my experience I end up regretting almost every decision I’ve ever made while under the influence of alcohol – but that’s a different matter entirely).
Anyone wanting to join the scheme will have to fill out a form on the card and make a statement saying what treatment they do not wish to receive. The statement will be kept by a family member or doctor and is legally binding. This means that once a decision is made, there is no going back.
So is this measure a practical way of allowing an individual to make a personal choice about his or her own fate? Or is giving people the opportunity to ‘play God’ with something as sacred as life just plain wrong?
From reading the comments on the BBC News website, it is clear that the scheme has already been welcomed by many with open arms. A surprisingly large majority of respondents strongly expressed the attitude that an individual has the right to control his or her life and body, and to determine at what time, and in what way, he or she will die.
There are definitely strong arguments in favour of choosing death rather than being forced to lead a physically or mentally handicapped life. If a person suffers an accident that would completely take away his or her ability to exist independently, or leave him or her in constant pain, perhaps respecting a decision to refuse medical treatment is the kindest thing to do. Anyone who’s seen a loved one beat a potentially fatal illness only to spend their final days in agony can understand that putting an end to such suffering is potentially the best option for everyone.
So yes, I can completely understand the appeal of these cards. But for me, there is still something deeply disturbing about them. It is not so much that I am against individual choice, but the fact that the scheme allows decisions of life and death to be made so easily greatly concerns me. I’m not saying that people are so naïve as to sign up without carefully thinking about what they want, but how can anyone understand the complexity of the matter until they actually find themselves in such a situation?
When first reading about the scheme, I came across the opinions of Dr Andrew Fergusson from the Christian Medical Fellowship. His claim that “the things people want when they are well are very different to those they want when they are unwell” particularly got me thinking. It’s all very well for a person to be adamant now that they would not want to lead an incompetent life, but this view could completely change if they were ever to face such a reality. By which time it would be too late.
Furthermore, the view of David Entwistle, Salford Council’s Head of Social Work, that these cards allow people to make an “informed decision on the medical treatment they would want to receive” is, quite frankly, nonsense. How much does the average person on the street know about medical treatment? Certainly not enough to make any informed decisions, in my opinion, especially when making a choice about a situation which has yet to take place.
And call me an optimist, but I’ve always been a glass-half-full kind of person. Medical science and technology is advancing all the time; there are constant reports in the media of ‘miraculous’ recoveries by people who were told that their days were numbered. No one knows what the future holds and, for me, these cards are just too simple a solution to such an unbelievably complicated issue.
Now maybe my views on this matter would change completely if I was ever to find myself in a situation where life as I know it was cruelly snatched away from me. Perhaps the reality of facing a slow and painful death, for example, would just be too much. But until I know for sure, I’m far from willing to sign my life away.
