Who Draws The Lines?

Keir Starmer was born in 1962. He has just been asked to become God.

The Law Lords, in their final action before morphing into a supreme court (I suspect they wanted to go out with a bang- they did!) have ruled that The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) – the aforementioned Mr Starmer – must publish guidelines on prosecuting those who help others to die.

This has come about through the campaigning of Debbie Purdy, a multiple sclerosis sufferer. She wanted to be sure her husband would not be prosecuted if he were to help her die when the disease got worse. The thing is, she knows he won’t….

The DPP have trodden a careful line on what they will and will not do as regards such prosecutions. Of the over 100 cases of British assisted suicides at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, no friend or family member has been prosecuted. This is sensible. There is no need to add pain to grief. But it doesn’t make it right, and that is why the DPP have been careful not to say anything either way- until now.

Much as everyone can sympathise with Debbie Purdy and the dreadful illness she has to carry, it’s important to note she is also a member of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, an organisation keen to promote euthanasia (dictionary definition: The act or practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition). So what was the real motive in appealing to the Law Lords?

Keir Starmer has a problem. He is not God. The moment he responds to the Law Lords and sets out a practice to be followed, he either has to prosecute cases or open the door for what one newspaper described as ‘decriminalised suicide tourism’.

So who draws the lines? One woman’s freedom to choose the time of her death may be a future child’s moment of condemnation. Does a Downs Syndrome child not deserve to laugh? Does a paraplegic accident victim not deserve to love? Does a mentally disabled schoolboy not deserve to breathe? Who can possibly make these decisions?

In matters of life and death, only God can draw the lines.