Conversation with Robin Ince on Assisted Dying
The following is a conversation I had yesterday with Robin Ince who has just become the patron of Dignity in Dying, a campaigning group that is seeking a change in the law in the UK to permit assisted suicide.
It happened on Twitter, and I was delightfully surprised when my response to his tweet announcing his patronage was met with a reply, and a long conversation.
Such is the nature of Twitter that these tweets could easily be lost in a few days, so I've attempted to repost them here as a record of that exchange.
Because of the pace of the conversation, I've sought to arrange tweets in order of their response, rather than simply chronologically. I hope it makes sense.
I'd love to hear your comments.
have
just become a patron of this enlightened campaign Dignity in Dying. here is
Patrick Stewart voicing the campaignhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LPO4Ke1EtQ …
@robinince it doesn't feel very
enlighted to ask someone to kill you, or to opt out of all of life's
experience, including the end.
@baptistjon oh and it is enlightened
to be forced to lie in agony wishing for the choice to die
@baptistjon perhaps read up on how
euthanasia is reduced when the option is there
@robinince Thanks
for replying. I'm not seeking to deny either the pain of those suffering, or
the difficulty of the issues here.
@baptistjon why are
those who believe their life is unbearable not allowed to have a choice to
leave it?
@robinince But I find
myself thinking there simply has to be a better way that ending it. I wonder
about the effects on those asked to help
@baptistjon what of those who die
before they want to because they would be unable to make the journey to
Dignitas when more unwell
@robinince I wonder
what it says about how our enlightened society handles suffering if the best
option is to simply end it forever.
@baptistjon i think it
says very little about our society and more about the sometimes abysmal ways
people go towards their death
@baptistjon my main
argument would be that when people have the choice it appears they are less
likely to decide to die
@robinince but implied
within that is that there will be those who choose to use it, or ask others to
administer it.
@robinince it seems
desperate, rather than dignified.
@baptistjon one can
hope that medical science will find new ways of reducing agony and improving
life
@robinince Suffering
is horrible, but the implications of asking people to help kill each other are
huge
@baptistjon yes it is
desperate, and some people are in desperate situations. did you see the tears
of Tony Nicklinson?
@robinince yes, I did,
and found it humbling, moving, but more than anything sad, sad because he'd
fixed on death as his only option
@baptistjon what were
his other options? I wonder how much easier his existence would have been if he
knew that the option to die was there?
@robinince perhaps
that would've been a sustaining thought. But having it is no placebo.
@robinince there's no
way of getting that benefit without opening up the certainty that people would
want to use it
@baptistjon i think
many against imagine this sort if nonchalant "ooh I feel poorly, can
someone kill me"
@robininceI'm not coming at this provocatively, really, I'm aware of
desperate situations, from time to time I'm drawn into them.
@robinince my fear is
that we open this option before fully questioning, probing, reflecting on all
the implications.
@baptistjon i believe
our desire to live is so great that the will to die is something of such
immensity it takes a huge leap
@robinince Does the
enlightened life have to place self in the centre, regardless of implications
for others?
@robinince doesn't it
deny others the chance to show real love, not by killing, but by sustaining,
supporting, bringing grace and peace?
@baptistjon some
people find it heard to gain grace and peace trapped in their own mind, unable
to communicate or function
@robinince I'm certain
that's true. But an enlightened society seeks to help the person experience
that, surely? not merely switch life off?
@baptistjon this would
never be a throwaway decision, to switch of our consciousness, to end our
existence...
@robinince again, I'm
grateful for the time you've taken to respond. I wonder where the place is we
get to deal with these questions 1/2
@robinince 2/2 in a
spirit of openness and enquiry, rather than entrenched position-defending, so
thanks for this.
@baptistjon i imagine
being a human unable to move so much as a finger.I can understand that for some
it is unbearable - a living hell
@robinince I agree
with you, It would seem that way. And we both know the usual arguments. But
there must be a better way
@baptistjon well the
only better way must be forcing someone who wishes to die to live
@baptistjon i think
you see a greater power in a god, that is your choice, why do I not have my
choice
@robinince You
introduce faith, and of course that informs my own thinking and decisions. But
even without God, my questions stand, no?
@baptistjon but i
think the belief in a life beyond our earthly life will always change a view on
the right to die
@robinince Of course,
and I'm not trying to convert you (I mean, if greenbelt couldn't...) but even
on simply human terms
@baptistjon we are
given freedom of choice for so many things, our own life must surely be one of
them
@robinince to have as
only option to end it all is not dignified. It says we failed to find the way
to cope with all of life.
@baptistjon it is not
the only option, we are talking about when all other options have failed, it is
the final option
@robinince If only it
was final. The decision to involve someone else lives on in them.
@baptistjon it is our
duty to find as many ways to make a life worth living, if life is unbearable to
someone how cruel to make them live it
@baptistjon we are our
minds, some find their minds in agony, we try solace, solace fails, what then?
@robinince Aren't we
more than just minds? Aren't we our complex set of relationships too? Don't we
find and give meaning to each other?
@baptistjon I have to
stop this now. (mind is where all our experience lies, our love, our experience
of others etc. it is where we live)
@robinince I've
appreciated the conversation, thanks
@baptistjon i think
you do not understand what I am saying, so best left now before we waste time
on semantics
@robinince I think the
issue probably isn't not understanding, but rather not agreeing. And that's how
we find a path to truth, I hope.
@robinince There's an
old saying "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another",
thanks again for this exchange.
@baptistjon my point was
once we get to the definition of mind and experience it will go on forever
@robinince quite
possibly. A discussion for another time, and perhaps a side issue here.
@baptistjon yes,
probably better discussed with more than 140 characters a time (but less than
10,000)
@robinince If you're
ever passing through Wolverhampton, coffees (or pints) are on me.
one hour in to being a patron for @dignityindying and
I'm already arguing with a pastor
@robinince @dignityindying Why
doesn't this surprise me. :-\
@LittleJen62 @robinince @dignityindying Hardly
arguing. Some light, not too much heat generated I'd say, surely?
@baptistjon @LittleJen62 @dignityindying I'd
say a good mini discussion to be continued
@robinince @baptistjon @dignityindying Ooh
good! :-) don't like things getting too hot under the dog collar ;-) xx
@LittleJen62 @robinince @dignityindying indeed ;-)
Comments