Just a few years ago, this story could have appeared (with a few tweaks) as a satire in The Onion, or as a skit on Saturday Night Live – or the many British comedy shows that exist.
But no, a British pro-euthanasia group has created a partner organization — which will challenge satire writers, since the truth here already reads like yesterday’s parody. From The Daily Mail, here is a sample of Outrage as ‘how-to-die helpline’ is launched by euthanasia charity:
A right-to-die pressure group provoked outrage yesterday over plans to sponsor the UK’s first helpline aimed at speeding the terminally ill towards ‘a good death’.
The free phone line, to be set up by a charity called Compassion in Dying, will ‘promote greater patient choice and control where possible’.
The charity is an offshoot of euthanasia campaign Dignity in Dying and is led by the right-to-die group’s chief executive Sarah Wootton, a former sex equality and abortion campaigner.
Its plan to provide the desperately sick with advice on how to end their lives sparked protests from anti-euthanasia activists, who said the helpline would be used to shorten lives.
The charity says it exists to exploit ‘existing end-of-life rights’ and will pass on information to callers.
However, it comes against a background of growing tolerance of assisted suicide by prosecution authorities, increasing political pressure for the legalisation of assisted dying, and a rising toll of Britons travelling to the Dignitas suicide clinic in Switzerland to end their lives.
It’s doubtful there’s any real journalistic energy going into this story. What would real journalism look like in covering this? Here’s a list (not exhaustive) of questions I’d be looking for – directed at Sarah Wootton and others connected to the pro-euthanasia groups:
- What specific types of “advice” will be offered? Will it include instructions on recommended ways to kill yourself?
- Will callers be directed to euthanasia activists who will “help” them commit suicide?
- How will this “helpline” verify that the callers are really terminally ill? How will they sort them out from non-terminally ill people who want to kill themselves?
- How will they screen for callers who misrepresent themselves so they can get information on “suicide” when their intent is to murder an elderly or disabled relative and pass it off as a suicide?
I won’t hold my breath waiting for this kind of inquiry. I see no evidence that the British press is any more competent at covering this issue than the American press. –Stephen Drake