on july 10th two people died whose lives, though long, were shortened by design and with others’ help. sir edward downes, a british conductor, and his wife joan had travelled to switzerland, where the law on assisted suicide is the world’s most liberal. he was 85, partly deaf and almost completely blind; she was 74 and had terminal cancer. holding hands and watched by their son and daughter, they drank a lethal dose of barbiturates and died.
in most of the western world, suicide is not a crime, but helping another to commit it is. but not all the incapacitated, or terminally ill, or permanently despairing are willing to wait for a natural death, or to take messy and uncertain measures to kill themselves without medical help. increasingly, they travel to switzerland, where assisting suicide is a crime only if it is done for gain (around 100 foreigners each year die at dignitas, a suicide clinic in zurich) and lobby their governments to change the law at home. in only a few places—belgium, luxembourg, the netherlands, the american states of oregon and washington—have such efforts succeeded. most countries muddle along, turning a blind eye to those determined and rich enough to travel to switzerland. dignitas。
british police are investigating the deaths of sir edward and lady downes, as they have previously investigated the deaths of at least 100 such “suicide tourists”. in no case have they prosecuted those who accompanied the suicides. but last week an amendment that would have guaranteed such people exemption from prosecution, subject to safeguards, was defeated in the house of lords. the current law, said its defenders, showed a “stern face and a kind heart”, deterring the avaricious from shuffling elderly relatives off to die before they wasted their assets on nursing-home fees, while refraining from vengeance on the broken-hearted bereaved.
legal fudge is never desirable, and in this case it is unnecessary. it is perfectly possible to frame a law that allows suffering people who are close to death to die quickly and peacefully, if they wish, without declaring open season on old folk. the suicide-seeker declares he is not being pressured to kill himself; two doctors agree, and testify that he is terminally ill and of sound mind. a waiting period before lethal drugs are dispensed ensures that the desire for death is a settled one. apart from switzerland, those places that allow assisted suicide have similar safeguards. such systems do not seem to lead to the normalisation of unnatural death, and thus a steadily rising number of suicides; rather, after an initial surge, the number seeking help to die drops and then stays steady.
a law of this sort would have allowed lady downes to die as she wished in her own country. but it would not have covered sir edward, old, frail and soon to be bereaved one way or another—but not terminally ill. nor would daniel james, a 23-year-old briton whose parents accompanied him to dignitas last year, have come within its remit. he had been paralysed in a rugby accident, and wanted to die, but could not kill himself without help. though severely disabled, he was not terminally ill and could have expected to live for many years.
there is a strong case for allowing people like sir edward and mr james to be helped to die. their lives were their own, and they wanted to end them. but there is too great a danger that if those who are not terminally ill are allowed an easy way out, greedy relations will put pressure on the elderly to choose to die. such people should, therefore, be denied that right—however unkind that may seem. the terminally ill, however, should be offered the help they seek. to deny it to them is to add cruelty to misfortune.
2009年7月10日，l两位老人亲自结束了他们的生命，尽管他们可以活的更久，但却在他人的帮助下有意的缩短了自己的生命。爱德华唐斯，一名英国指挥家，和他的妻子琼前往瑞士——世界上的一个给与人们生命自由的国家。爱德华唐斯今年85岁，他双目失明，耳朵也几乎听不到声音。他的妻子琼74岁，患了晚期癌症。他们彼此手牵着手，在儿女们的注视下，一起服下了致命剂量的巴比妥酸盐，他们共同走向了死亡。
在大多数西方国家，自杀是不是犯罪，但帮助他人则被视为犯罪。但并非所有的丧失劳动能力，患有不治之症，或限于绝望之中的人愿意等待自然死亡，他们也并非愿意在没有医疗帮助得情况下采取混乱和不确定的方法来自杀。越来越多的人前往瑞士——在那里帮助提出需求的人自杀不被视为犯罪行为（每年大约100名外国人在丹尼特斯结束自己的生命 ——苏黎世的一家协助自杀的诊所)。只有少数几个地方——比利时，卢森堡，荷兰，美洲国家的俄勒冈州和华盛顿州的努力取得了成功。大多数国家对那些下定决心和前往瑞士丹尼特斯富有的人视而不见。
英国警方正在调查爱德华及其夫人的死因，警方在此之前已经调查过至少100多起“游客自杀的案件”。一般情况下他们决不会起诉那些陪同自杀者的人。但上周的一项修正案——保证这些人免于被起诉，以保障他们的权利——在上议院被驳回。 现行法律称其捍卫者表现出“严面善心”，虽然自杀会提前结束他们的生命，但这不仅使那些身患绝症的老人身心免遭伤害，同时也减少了在疗养院不必要的资金浪费。
法律从来都不是完美的，在这种情况下，法律就显得不必要了。但是在那样的情况下，是完全有可能建立起法律框架的——使遭受病痛折磨的人在安静和迅速中走向死亡，如果他们愿意，也没有必要向家属公开。想要寻求自杀者称：对于自杀，他没有感到压力。两名医生也同意乐，并且证实他已身患绝症和心智也在衰竭。 在等死亡到来之前，致命的药物已经分发了——这对于确保患者实现死亡的愿望是关键的一步。除了瑞士，一些允许协助自杀的地方也有类似的保障措施。 这种制度似乎并没有引导走向非自然的正常死亡，结果导致想要自杀者的数量在不断增长。然而在经过最初数量的激增之后，寻求死亡帮助的人的数量在下降，然后趋于稳定。
诸如此类的法律能够帮助唐斯夫人实现在她的国家死亡的愿望。但是它却不能实现爱德华先生的愿望——年老、衰弱和即将离去的一种或另一种方式——但不是绝症。 也不会是詹姆斯丹尼尔， 一个23岁的英国人，去年，在他父母的陪同下去了丹尼特斯。 他在一场橄榄球比赛中发生了意外，丹尼尔想要死亡，但他不能在没有帮助的情况下结束自己的生命。 尽管他已经严重残疾，弹他未身患绝症，并且可以继续活许多年。
还有很多像爱德华先生和詹姆斯一样情况，想要获得死亡帮助的人。 他们的生活是自己的，并且希望结束自己的生活。 但是如果他们没有身患绝症而被允许轻易地结束自己的生命，一些贪婪的亲戚可能给这些老人施加压力，迫使他们选择死亡，这对他们是有很大危险的。 因此，这些人应当被剥夺这一权利，这样，不由善就可能被人们识破。然而如果真正身患绝症想要寻求帮助，人们则应当予以理解与帮助。否则那是增加病人的不幸。