I think there are so many issues here that go far beyond whether this man had a right to end his life or not.
People commit suicide for all manner of reasons. Be that because of depression/terminal illness/financial problems/other mental illnesses/ breakdown of a relationship and so the list goes on. On the whole suicide can be seen as the ultimate selfish act, because when someone commits suicide it is the people who are left behind that are essentially left to pick up the pieces. And we also find it hard to understand the reasons behind suicide because we cannot ever imagine being in that place where things are so desparate that the only way to make things better is to die. It is a human instinct to want to live, so wanting to die goes against that in ways most of us find very hard to comprehend.
And I think that becoming disabled is something we also find hard to understand if we have no experience.
I find it hard to sympathize with people who lose their sight and who then go on to say how miserable their lives are and how depressed they are etc because really it?s not that bad. But I can speak from experience because I have no sight and I am independent.
But if I lost the use of my arms and legs tomorrow I honestly don?t know how I would feel. Yes I know that people who are in wheelchairs are capable of living fulfilled lives, but if I suddenly went from being independent to having to rely on other people, and having to adjust to doing things in a different way, I cannot hand on heart say how I would cope with that. That doesn?t mean I?d be booking a one-way ticket to Switzerland, but I do think it would take time to adjust from the life I had then to the life I would have now, iyswim? And I think that is something that can be acknowledged without the feeling that suicide needs to be thought of as the only way out. I would like to hope that I could gain the right support to make that transition though, and that those around me would be willing me to live my life rather than supporting me to end it. It must be that much harder to accept the way your life has turned out when, rather than looking for the positives and encouraging you to live, those around you are reinforcing your belief that your life is not worth living by supporting your choice to die.
The other issue for me is the fact that there are people who are prepared to help other people to die, seemingly for whatever reason they feel necessary. That makes me very uncomfortable. I can see the argument for assisted suicide in the event of a terminal illness, where the person is going to die anyway and wants to do it with a bit more dignity. If I developed dementia I think I would want to go down that route. But assisted suicide for other reasons I am not comfortable with. Where does one draw the line? Disability? Depression? What about marriage breakdown, would that be acceptable too? Or assisted suicide rather than plunging your family into bankrupcy? I think ethically it?s very very dodgy, and I question the morals of anyone who is prepared to help someone else to die under any circumstance, especially as motivation must clearly be money (am presuming a visit to this clinic doesn?t come cheap).
I guess in summary my view is that Daniel James was not wrong to want to end his life, after all at that point he felt that it was not worth living, and who are we to question that. But I think that it was wrong of people to support him to do it, because life is about much more than just looking at the here and now, and that if they?d supported him to live his life rather than to end it, he might have got past the point of believing his life was not worth living, to a point where he was living his life.