poetry

The rewritten lyrics of “Lust for Life” by Iggy Pop into “Assisted Suicide/Deniable Democide” by Ruth Jacobs, writer and human rights advocate, critiques the rushed through Assisted Dying bill, which is avoiding vital parliamentary scrutiny by being pushed through as a private members bill, when something so significant that changes our society, how we value life and each other, and how we trust institutions and professionals meant to keep vulnerable people safe, and make the unwell well, not unalive them. It must also be disclosed which MPs, especially on the Assisted Death Committee, have shares in the companies that will spring up to provide death as a business. This bill has been repeatedly misrepresented by pro-assisted death advocates as safe, while removing safeguards and voting down amendments in Parliament that would have gone some way to safeguarded the vulnerable. It is unacceptable that fully informed consent to an assisted death is not a requirement. Nonconsensual sex is rape. Therefore nonconsensual suicide is murder. This bill’s ever loosening safeguards risk "deniable democide" targeting vulnerable populations, appearing to commodify death with an immoral approach to euthanasia, prioritising a political agenda and profit over providing the social and palliative care people need to live. Our palliative care is mostly charity run and inaccessible to most who don’t have cancer or aren’t white. Investing in helping people live is the moral imperative.