Suicide: scourge and shame
I'd like to congratulate the New Zealand Herald, and the Wanganui Chronicle in particular, for again highlighting the scourge of suicide that shames our society. Editor Mark Dawson's attention to Sir Peter Gluckman's recent report on youth suicide in his editorial was commendable (Chronicle, July 29).
However, it was a twisted irony to have read Steve Baron's opinion column, just the previous day, advocating for euthanasia/assisted suicide as overdue legislation ("We deserve to have the final say", Chronicle, July 28). Annette Beautrais, long regarded as this country's leading expert in suicide prevention, recently spoke at the WDHB "Suicide Summit" in Whanganui. She reportedly appealed to her audience not to "normalise' suicide.
Is no-one joining up the dots here? Suicide IS being normalised! Act leader David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill is not just directed to the terminally ill and elderly in the last days of their life. It is available for everyone over the age of 18 years who is mentally competent and "suffers from either of the following conditions: (i) a terminal disease or other medical condition that is likely to end his or her life within 12 months: (ii) an irreversible physical or mental medical condition that, in the person's view, renders his or her life unbearable". (Clause 6, End of Life Choice Bill)
Steve Baron mocks the intelligence of his readers, assuring us that the availability of assisted suicide "would only be after extensive scrutiny to ensure this was really the best option". The same sort of assurances were given when the abortion bill was introduced in this country. Yet we saw 3270 abortions in 1974 rise to 18,511 over the next 20 years as the mental health provisions of that bill were exploited to become, effectively, abortion on demand.
