Assisted suicide should not be illegal – but the living and dying both deserve a better world

~ Ryan Essex ~

The UK Parliament is tomorrow set to debate and vote on new legalisation on assisted dying, which would “allow adults who are terminally ill, subject to safeguards and protections, to request and be provided with assistance to end their own life”. This will be the most recent bill in a series of efforts to legalise assisted dying for close to two decades. If passed, it would undoubtedly be a step in the right direction, but it arguably doesn’t go far enough.

To receive approval for any assistance, a judge and two doctors would have to approve the request and the person would need to be terminally ill with less than six moths left to live. Yet the government should not restrict people’s ability to make decisions about their own life, including the choice to end it. I can appreciate why assisted dying may not be the right decision for all, like abortion. However, this legislation still limits people’s right to choose. We should also be deeply suspicious of any process that requires the approval of two doctors and a judge.

Science undoubtedly provides the best chance of understanding the world. In this respect, I hold a similar view to Bakunin who was happy to defer to the authority of the bootmaker when it comes to boots. At the same time, however, the question of assisted dying is not as much a scientific or medical question as a moral one.

Then there is the argument that such restrictions are simply ineffective and result in more harm than good. Assisted dying has been accessible for a number of years abroad. It is estimated that at least one person a week travels to Switzerland from Britain to access assisted dying (at a cost of over £10,000 per person). There are also growing DIY efforts to provide people with the choice of how and when they die.

In saying all of this, I still feel uneasy. We live in a deeply imperfect world, where people are oppressed and commodified. What we value and who is valued is perverted by the state, capital and other forms of domination, tied to one’s ability to be a ‘productive’ member of society. For many, this makes it very difficult to continue living.

For this reason, from an anarchist standpoint, it is not enough to simply assert that agency or (individual) freedom should take precedence over all other concerns. At the same time, we need to build solidarity and support one another. Legalising assisted dying is one thing, but in the face of so many dehumanising forces, the much harder part is to build strong communities, and make the world better for both the living and the dying.

Dr. Ryan Essex is a researcher at the University of Greenwich who is currently writing about the link between anarchism, health and bioethics.