By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Guernsey Deputy, Lester Queripel, told the Health & Social Care Committee [HSC] that the States’ financial problems provide an ideal opportunity to revisit the issue of assisted suicide.
The Guernsey Press reported on August 30 Queripel saying:
‘no stone should be left unturned’ as committees battle to save millions of pounds a year in spending. And he urged HSC to accept that ‘considerable savings could be realised if assisted dying was to be introduced here in the island’.
‘Those savings obviously wouldn’t just be exclusively financial, because islanders with terminal illnesses could be saved from months of unnecessary excruciating pain and suffering if they were permitted to end their own life whenever they choose to,’ he said.
The Guernsey Press reported that Queripel asked the HSC:
In written questions to HSC, Deputy Queripel asked how many had been kept alive, against their wishes, in the past five years, how much their medication and treatment had cost taxpayers, and how many staff hours had been taken up keeping them alive.
Queripel continued with his position by stating:
They say we need to look at everything, so this is the next logical step.
‘Many people don’t want to keep on living and I think we need to put a figure on that.’
Guernsey has debated assisted suicide on several occasions. A screening of the film: Fatal Flaws in Guernsey helped to defeat the assisted suicide bill in May 2018.
Editor’s note. This appeared on Mr. Schadenberg’s blog and is reposted with permission.