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There has been so much about suicide today on R4 (including Thinking Allowed this afternoon) that I was glad PM didn't spend a great deal of time on anything other than the legal aspects of today's ruling.
It's a complex subject, and must be tough to reduce to a single item in a rolling news agenda without losing its real meaning.
Well done for giving it a good go!
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I am listening to the talking head from the BMA discuss Debbie Purdy's case and he's arguing the toss about an interpretation of the law. This, of course, is nonsense. What we need, and should prosecutions ocurr what we will get, is the Courts setting out precisely what is 'assistance'. Would it be assisting someone if you got them a cup of tea on the plane to Switzerland? If you held a door open for someone? If you drove a taxi to take them to the airport? What would be 'de minimas' assistance?
The law settles these kinds of issues all the time with both statute and caselaw defining what is and isn't murder, for example (abortion? manslaughter? infanticide? murder? You see my point). IF prosecutions are brought against people who accompany the suicidal people who go to Switzerland then we will get a body of caselaw on precisely this point. By not bringing prosecutions, the main thing the DPP does (aside from sparing those who travel with someone using this process) is stop this certainty solidifying. The court's decision today endorses that uncertainty, something which, if I remember my law degree correctly is incompatible with what we consider the rule of law. English law requires certainty - if it rules on property, that must be specific property, a crime must be a specific crime comitted with a specific mental state. All must be known as laws and decisions can't stand in the presence of such uncertainty and I can't for the life of me see why this is any different.
And yes, in addition to a law degree obtained in 1995, I also have relapsing remitting MS, obtained last year so this is a subject close to my heart.
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Oh dear... it looks as if THAT story has siphoned off all the Glass Box commenting energy!
Fear not, PM team, we really DID listen to the other stories as well.....!
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I listened to the plea of the lady who is bravely trying to sort out the legal position regarding her husband's likelihood of prosecution if he travels abroad with her if she seeks assisted euthanasia. I also listened to the comments from the medical point of view that they are happy with the present law.
Let's put this in context. My mother who had lived an active and independent life until a week before her 92nd birthday, suffered a stroke which left her without speech and paralysed down one side. Sixteen days later she suffered an extension. We were subsequently interviewed by the hospital doctor who stated no "rescue plan" was advisable as the stroke had affected the other side of her body. This meant that no drip (for fluid) or tube feeding were to be administered. Day by day I watched my mother slowly dying from dehydration. It took 12 days - the worst 12 days of my life.Is this right? Would you trweat an animal in this fashion
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A well balanced programme tonight considering what was to hand.
To add to Fifi's woes. The assisted suicide case was naive but well intentioned. The CPS and the Courts prefer the Dutch approach which is to let the law fall into disuse.
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Well, Debbie Purdy has my continued and full support, as does this organisation.
http://www.dignityindying.org.uk/
Why is it I wonder, do "we", society, seemingly demand that people who are dying, frequently in the most dire of circumstances, often in great pain and "sensitive" to opiate-based pain-killers (approx. 40%), hang-on to the bitter end?
Who actually decided for us that this should be necessary..?
One day, each and everyone of us is going to die.
Why should anyone other than our adult non-mentally incapacitated selves, have a right to decide when - in the case of terminal illness or catastrophic incapacitating injury - our "end" actually comes..?
TLesley Close is another courageous person who has known the concern of accompanying a loved one to the "Dignitas" Clinic.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7697315.stm
Are "we" really more concerned about Mr Ross and Mr Brand than we are about this issue?
Clearly, it would appear so...
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OK folks, while I compile my "And finally..." set of links (a regular series I do to prove that not all news is bad news!), sit back and relax to Pat et Stanley...
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We've had autumn pictures - how about winter pictures? (complete with John Humphrys joking at Dan Corbett's expense)
Staying on the humour theme, Nicolas still isn't very happy with those dolls, unlike his wife, who has gone on record as saying "I have a sense of humour".
Talking of dolls, a rare Sooty has sold for 3,100 pounds.
Introducing the world's most unusual railway station master ...
A big wedding - in more ways than one...
Shock! Not everyone likes that smartly dressed chap with a taste for martinis and female acquaintances...
And if you're a wannabe megalomaniac hell-bent on world domination, you'll also find links to a couple of handy lists on how to avoid falling into the same traps as all your predecessors...
Bosses 'should embrace Facebook'.
You won't hear this every day - Microsoft comparing themselves to David. And Goliath? 10^100 (mis-spelled). They apparently think they'll eventually slay the giant in the field of mobile phone software...no doubt time will tell...
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Eddie, who do the BBC work for? Is it the listeners?
Shouldn't the BBC just report the truth and let us make our own minds up?
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It seems my comment about the BBC 'losing' that speed camera footage has gone?
It was shot near Wymondham. I have very good friends that live near there.
On Sunday they were involved in a car accident. Their car will probably be written off. The other car wasn't speeding. He just drove along towards a junction with a Give Way and didn't. He hit my friend's car on the NS front wing. He had his wife and kids in the car.
So there you go, a real accident near Wymondham that didn't involve speeding. I was asked to be a god parent for one of the kids in the car.
What do I know about it?
I 've passed the RoSPA RoADAR advanced test twice, failed it once, and passed the IAM test.
In the Summer 2005 issue of Advanced Driving, the IAM Magazine they had a 2 page summary of a report written by Dr. Jeremy Boughton at the TRL. It was commissioned by the DoT, as the number of fatalities on our roads weren't dropping in line as expected with the increased deployment of speed cameras.
Why have not the Ministers banging on this week about deaths on our roads read the report by Dr. Jeremy Boughton? Another inconvenient truth?
Besides paying to have my driving assessed I have several Engineering qualifications.
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Suggestion for a new quiz?
What piece of footage have the BBC 'lost' this week because it doesn't agree with an official government message?
Or, how about 'Who are the BBC working for this week?'
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The law must stand. The fear of aiding suicide must stay in place. Our family has had a father smashed up by a speeding car, with years of suffering. A young mother die of cancer that destroyed her slowly. But worse was the long term effect of a childhood suicide on another child.
Especially in the current climate no support should ever be allowed for suicide. It gives the wrong message to those youngsters that can not see a future for themselves. Some of them have their whole lives ahead of them to suffer, not just their final years.
Even the pressure on the healthy party is totally unfair. Who even thinks they have the right to ask. What exactly do you expect to leave behind. A partner that killed you, or one that loved you. However, I will not have people go out of their way to keep me alive unless I can demand it. This is the lottery of living, but I am fair both ways; no help and no hindrance.
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Examining the [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator] spreadsheet for Road Casualties Great Britain: 2007 is interesting. Bearing in mind that multiple factors can contribute to the same accident, these are the top ten factors:
35% - failed to look properly *
19% - failed to judge other person's path or speed *
17% - careless, reckless or in a hurry
15% - loss of control *
14% - poor turn or manoeuvre *
10% - slippery road (due to weather conditions)
10% - travelling too fast for conditions
7% - sudden braking *
6% - exceeding speed limit #
6% - following too close #
Categories:
* - driver error or reaction
# - injudicious action
Slippery road - road environment contributed
Careless - Behaviour or inexperience
-oOo-
So the rise in speed cameras and chevrons is because they're about the only two factors the government can directly control. However, as the above shows, by far the majority of accidents are caused by driver error - which can't be legislated against. Hazard perception is an element of the theory test, but of course (a) a simulation cannot hope to match the variety of real-life situations a driver is likely to encounter, and (b) the majority of drivers on the roads today will not have studied hazard perception.
Periodic compulsory re-testing of drivers could perhaps reduce the statistics, but would probably be even more of a lead balloon with the public than a massive increase in cameras.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Let's try pointing to the location of those statistics again (IIRC, you're not supposed to link directly to documents)...
It's on the DFT website, under the heading Road Casualties Great Britain: 2007. The main page is here.
The spreadsheet I linked to before is called "Article 4 - Contributory factor statistics (Excel 243 kb)", about half way down the "Downloads" column on the right hand side.
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