A prominent British lawmaker has triggered an outcry by implying that elderly and very ill people should not only have the right, but the obligation to kill themselves rather than become a nuisance. The furor erupted as British lawmakers prepared to vote on a bill that critics worry could be used to sanction the killing of patients in a vegetative state.
"I couldn't bear hanging on and being such a burden on people," said Baroness Mary Warnock, an 80-year-old medical ethicist, philosopher and member of the upper House of Lords, in a weekend newspaper interview.
"In other contexts, sacrificing oneself for one's family would be considered good," she told the Sunday Times. "I don't see what is so horrible about the motive of not wanting to be an increasing nuisance."
"If I went into a nursing home, it would be a terrible waste of money that my family could use far better," Warnock added.
Later in the interview she said: "I am not ashamed to say some lives are more worth living than others," before conceding that "if someone else decides your life is not worth living, that is very dangerous."
Warnock was speaking ahead of a House of Commons vote Tuesday on legislation that would give legal status to "living wills" and allow third parties to tell doctors to withdraw treatment -- or even food and water -- from terminally-ill patients.
"Living wills" are documents that set out how ill people want to be treated if they are no longer able to communicate their wishes directly to medical staff.
The Mental Capacity Bill is highly contentious, with some members of the ruling Labor Party opposing it and calling for the right to vote according to conscience... |