Matthew's Journal

I think the issue of whether to legalise assisted suicide is a difficult one, largely because (as you say) there is the unexamined ableism going on that is likely to push people towards a death they don't really want to stop themselves "being a burden". I think it's quite hard to weight up the right of person A to not have to face making that choice with all the pressure from family and friends verses the right of person B to not have to go on living through extreme, untreatable pain. I certainly wouldn't want to be the person drafting such a law and in the prevailing social climate I think it might be impossible to make such a law work as we would wish it.