By PABLO_MAC
Updated: Thu, 05 Jul 2012 14:42:26 UTC

Yesterday I read a heartbreaking story about a man called Tony Nickelson, who suffers from locked-in syndrome. He is currently in the UK court system, battling for assisted dying to be made legal: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-18398797

As a Scot, I'm also familiar with MSP Margo McDonald's attempts to table a similar argument in the Scottish parliament - with (so far) little success.

As far as I can see there is a real, practical debate to be had on this issue around safeguarding against vulnerable people being coerced or persuaded into taking their own life if they have become a burden to a (in my view callous) family, for example.

That "real" argument notwithstanding, I'm curious to see if anyone can think of any "special" reasons why assisted dying is a bad idea, other than the religious concept that a person's life is not their own to take, but that it belongs to god (whoever he/she might be), and that to end your own life is somehow to "sin".

To clarify, by "special", I mean a reason that is, if you like, a trump card that beats all reasons why assisted dying is a good idea. Mr Nickelson refers to people that subscribe to these special reasons himself in the article; unsurprisingly, they will not discuss the issue at all with him.

I'd like to add that this question is not an attempt to start a god-botherer-bashing thread ('god' knows there are enough on the www already), rather a sincere attempt to understand how people think on this issue.

TAGGED: HUMAN RIGHTS, MEDICINE