Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Who made you fucking God Almighty Jan?

Jan Moir has wound me up.

How dare she patronise Kelly Taylor with this disgusting piece in The Telegraph today? With the headline

Kelly Taylor deserves pity, but not euthanasia
she wastes no time in presuming to know what this woman 'deserves'. How in the name of hell would you know what she deserves? What she most certainly does deserve is to be spared your righteous, cruel brand of pity that does nothing to alleviate or end her suffering but presumably helps you to sleep at night (God knows how you do) by lecturing us and her about what she deserves.

Kelly Taylor wants to die. Last year, she tried to starve herself to death, but after nearly three weeks found it too painful to continue. She still wants to die, but is she right to demand that doctors kill her? It may be unpalatable to some, but the only civilised and sane answer is "No".
Of course she demands no such thing. If you had listened to the interview with her devoted husband you would have learned that she has no shortage of doctors who respect her judgement and wishes and would administer the necessary dosage of morphine to put her in a coma. She wil then be in a similar position to other people who have stipulated that they should not be nourished or hydrated while in that condition, and thus be allowed to die. What she is demanding is that these compassionate professionals should not be prosecuted should they carry out her wishes.

Oh and wouldn't the fact that she kept going for three weeks starvation in an attempt to end her own life and gave up because it was too painful be just a teeny weeny clue to the magnitude of what she is suffering? My God, anyone who has the strength, courage and determination to come out of that hell and then say "Right, now I'm going to take my case to the High Court and battle all the arrogant pricks who will tell me that my end is not my business but theirs", has my admiration in spades. You, on the other hand, have my contempt in whatever beats spades by a bloody mile.

Doctors and medical workers spend a lifetime learning how to cure and heal. To ask them to administer lethal injections, not dissimilar to those given to dying household pets by kindly vets, is not only unethical and unlawful, it is morally wrong. Yet many people do not believe this to be the case; they are putting pressure on the British Medical Association to ensure that just such a provision is available in this country - and sooner rather than later.

These doctors and medical workers also presumably learn how to care for people in the event that healing and cure are no longer possible. They no doubt agonise over the moral boundaries between ignoring patients wishes and striving to prolong life at any costs, despite the agony inflicted on the person in their care, and the provision of pain management therapies that require larger and larger, and possibly finally fatal, doses of drugs. How dare you presume to be the only one who knows where these boundaries lie!

This week, Mrs Taylor has taken her fight to die on demand to the High Court, with all the usual media barrage and hysteria that sad cases such as hers now routinely attract. On the courthouse steps, pressure groups such as Dignity in Dying miss no opportunity to highlight Mrs Taylor's intolerable and painful condition, while the Care Not Killing alliance advocates better palliative care for those, such as her, who need it.
Of course her application to the courts, and the media hysteria (your article included presumably) would not be necessary if we had the courage to put in place a sensible structure to allow people in her condition to request fatal treatment rather than forcing each brave individual to re-run the arguments and be forced to die in agony by arrogant cunts such as you. Do you think these organisations exist for their own amusement? They are there because we are cowards and the people they seek to help are brave. We avoid the question, dither, delay and avoid responsibility while these brave people fight for others who may follow them. My God you do seem so small in comparison with them!
By the way, why is it that I find the slogan "Dignity in Dying" so much more symapthetic that the dictatorial "Care Not Killing"? Perhaps because the former is simply asking for something which we would all hope to have but is being denied to this person, and the latter is presuming to tell that same person what we 'know' is best for them.

For her part, Mrs Taylor insists that her husband and her parents support her in her decision to end her life, but one can only guess at the long nights of anguish and tears that are behind that statement, and the unshed tears that lie ahead, whatever the outcome.
Again you presume to know what the relationship is between husband and wife in this situation, instead of considering (not that it's any of your business) that her husband supports her position because he loves her and cares what happens to her.

There is no doubt that Mrs Taylor has suffered from terrible illness. Her body has been twisted and racked by two debilitating syndromes - Eisenmenger's and Klippel-Feil - and she has endured much pain and disability.
For this life, she deserves much sympathy, although she does not ask for it; all she wants now is an opportunity to end it. Yet I fear she will not be successful, for no enlightened country could ever be allowed to finish the job she started with her self-imposed hunger strike.
If she isn't asking for sympathy then don't give it (and certainly not the pity you mention in your headline), but don't presume to tell her how and when she can end her suffering.

I wouldn't normally wish suffering on anyone, but I truly hope that one day you find yourself in her position and this still unenlightened country will force you to endure an agonising, drawn out, desperate death.

3 comments:

The Nameless Libertarian said...

Like so many other total idiots, Jan finds it very easy to pontificate about issues that do not directly impact on her life at the moment. Your wish that Jan one day finds herself in this awful position is very harsh but I can entirely see where you are coming from. Jan is much less likely to talk utter tripe if she is facing and undignified, ignoble and painful death. And if no-one is allowed to end her suffering.

Bretters said...

I'd usually withdraw that kind of wish when I calm down, but in this case the article was so patronising and downright cruel it stands.
It's our legislators I am most angry with (as bloody usual) for sidestepping this question again and again and again and thinking that it is more important to enact legislation to privatise some part of the Probation Service instead. WTF?!

Scott Freeman said...

Couldn't agree more. I cannot comprehend how an action between two consenting parties i.e. asking to be put into a coma, and a doctor agreeing, can be illegal. Especially if the parties were to sign soem kind of legal document with witnesses and psychological examinations and so on.