I fully support the autonomous right of all people to make informed decisions about their own lives and on paper the idea is a no-brainer.
But unless the legislation surrounding it is very, very tight it could easily be misused or abused. We already live in societies where people with disabilities - particularly learning based disabilities - are seen as having less value. I have overheard conversations where people pass comment on people with disabilities such as “Can’t be much of a life”, “would’ve been better for them if they’d died at birth” etc etc.
Amongst the first group of people the Nazi’s targeted were people with disabilities that they referred to as ‘useless eaters’ and subhuman.
I’m not suggesting that laws allowing self-euthanasia are akin to fascism so don’t Godwin me. All I’m saying is that without very strong legislation and a lot of checks, laws like this can be used to justify a lot of things.
I fully support the autonomous right of all people to make informed decisions about their own lives and on paper the idea is a no-brainer.
But unless the legislation surrounding it is very, very tight it could easily be misused or abused. We already live in societies where people with disabilities - particularly learning based disabilities - are seen as having less value. I have overheard conversations where people pass comment on people with disabilities such as “Can’t be much of a life”, “would’ve been better for them if they’d died at birth” etc etc.
Amongst the first group of people the Nazi’s targeted were people with disabilities that they referred to as ‘useless eaters’ and subhuman.
I’m not suggesting that laws allowing self-euthanasia are akin to fascism so don’t Godwin me. All I’m saying is that without very strong legislation and a lot of checks, laws like this can be used to justify a lot of things.