The motion of the debate was ‘Assisted Suicide should be legalised: the terminally ill should have the legal right to be helped to end their lives.’ Speaking for the motion was:
- Emily Jackson, professor of law at the London School of Economics
- Baroness Mary Warnock, moral philosopher, and
- Debbie Purdy, the assisted suicide campaigner with multiple sclerosis.
- Lord Alex Carlile QC, barrister
- Patrick Stone, Macmillan Reader in Palliative Medicine, St George’s University of London; and
- Lord Richard Harries, former Anglican bishop of Oxford.
The debate is available for free on itunes, which means readers can also listen to the debate for themselves.
Two votes were taken, one before and one after the debate. The results were:
before
- for: 408
- against: 110
- don’t know: 117
- for: 406
- against: 208
- don’t Know: 34
Dan also reports that Baroness Warnock said that, that unlike gold and platinum, life does not have value in itself. Her claim reminds me of Psalm 134:15-17, which reads:
"The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. They have a mouth, but they speak not: they have eyes, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not: neither is there any breath in their mouths."I found Baroness Warnock's claim - which says effectively that money is more valuable than life - truly frightening. This is the same materialistic attitude that resulted in the lives of countless millions of slaves being sacrificed in the name of profit.
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