The Peace of Death: Six Skills for Assisted Suicide

by Antony Adolf · 2010-03-04 14:21:00 UTC
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Gustav Klimt: Ria Munk On Her Deathbed by freeparking.Why should the peace so many of us strive for in life be denied to those who, physically or mentally unable to be at peace, strive for it in death? Is not world peace a composite of all our individual or inner peaces, the absence of which makes social and collective peace less likely?

Guidelines for helpers in assisted suicides aimed at reducing prosecutions against them have been issued by the British government, despite the fact that it insists that the country's euthanasia laws are not being rewritten. Framing the issue not as the right to life and/or death, but the right to peace in life or death, makes the guidelines and the skills they advocate into an inter-individual peacemaking effort.

The basic principle for the new guidelines is a shift in the litmus test for prosecution from the characteristics of the person deprived of peace (e.g., degrees, location, duration etc.) to the motives of the person (e.g. malicious or benevolent intent) providing the peace of death to them. The six most salient skills set out in the guidelines in this sense are:

1. Persuade Otherwise First: Without first making every effort possible to convince the peace-deprived that peace can still be found in this life, participating in their peace of death is unconscionable.

2. Act out of Compassion: A gay BBC television documentary star assisted in the suicide of his partner in the 1980s (although it was just revealed two weeks ago), who was deprived of physical and mental peace in suffering the final stages of AIDS. Police are investigating but no charges have been pressed.

3. Document the Informed Voluntarism: The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, said that evidence that the assisted suicide was voluntary and informed on the part of the peace-deprived is paramount.

4. Report the Suicide: Being the person who reports the suicide to the authorities can be the first step toward not being charged with murder.

5. Admit the Extent of Your Role: Being candid about who did what and how can be the second step toward not being charged with murder.

6. Be Reluctant: To reinforce skill number one, assisted suicide is the ultimate last result, and anyone too willing to assist has questionable motives by default.

Euthanasia is legal only in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington, although debates are ongoing at both federal and state levels. To be clear: advocating that killing another person is permissible is to pursue any of the many opposites of peace, but denying the peace of life or death is likewise.

Photo credit: freeparking (Gustave Klimt, Ria Munk on Her Deathbed, 1912)

Antony Adolf is the author of Peace: A World History, and a teacher, public speaker and independent scholar. He is the publisher of One World, Many Peaces: Current Events Creating the Future.
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