Member

It seems obvious that there are two problems relating to this. If a person is dying and goes to the trouble of organising obtaining and ingesting a lethal substance—poison—that is suicide. That is an accurate use of language. By removing the word “suicide” from the discussion, there is another danger. Advocates of this Bill, without saying the S-word, none the less argue that assistance in ending one’s life can, in certain circumstances, be dignified, a positive choice and a happy release. I am afraid that normalises taking one’s own life. Even if you do not use the S-word, that is the sort of thing I associate with the propaganda on pro-suicide, pro-self-harm sites, rather than with a Bill such as this. I suggest that normalising and even glamourising taking one’s life as a happy end result is not something we should do. Therefore, I would at least like to call it suicide so that people might gulp and think again.