Western civilisation is in terminal moral decline
A Labour MP called Kim Leadbeater made history in the UK parliament last week when her proposed new piece of legislation passed its first hearing. If it becomes law, her bill will allow terminally ill adults to seek help to end their own life.
The Assisted Dying Bill (some call it a Suicide Bill) saw MPs spend an entire day in Westminster talking about the need for pain-free deaths and dignity in dying. Some were wringing their hands in angst; others even managed to squeeze out a few tears during the often emotional and passionate debate which had political commentators in the media making lofty claims about this being one of Westminster’s “finest hours”.
“I’m also really proud and really pleased that we had a very respectful debate in parliament,” Leadbetter told journalists after her victory. “It was robust but it was compassionate. Lots of people with different views, and I think parliament showed itself in its best light today, and I’m very proud of that.”
One of the greatest fears was that an overwhelming number of MPs would abstain, but after five hours of debate in the crowded chamber, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was passed in the House of Commons with 330 voting in favour and 275 against. The result was a bigger majority than many were predicting, after a similar bill was defeated in 2015.
We’ve had more than a week of heated discussion on the subject until the formal scrutiny of the bill began when Leadbeater rose to her feet to speak on Friday. MPs were given a “free vote” on the issue, meaning that they could vote according to their conscience and were not bound to follow a party line.
This courtesy was not given to them in the heated debate calling for a ceasefire in Gaza on 16 November last year. Conservative or Labour MPs wanting to vote according to their conscience were threatened with being sacked by their then party leaders, the proud Zionists Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.
16 November 2023 was the day that they sanctioned a genocide
As it was, 222 MPs opted for the least line of resistance by abstaining. Since that shameful episode more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed by Israel. Most of our elected politicians probably would not have realised it, but 16 November 2023 was the day that they sanctioned a genocide.
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Kim Leadbetter didn’t vote for a ceasefire; she abstained. While Leadbetter spent most of last week with lots to say as she sought to convince naysayers and abstainers to support her private members bill, I wonder if she gave any thought at all to the dead and dying Palestinians in Gaza. The business of life and death is a daily challenge for most Palestinians. Nobody in Gaza has the luxury of a pain-free death because Israel has blocked the delivery of humanitarian aid to the enclave, including medicines and medical disposables. It is a fact that patients are dying from shock because surgeons are having to operate without anaesthetic or pain relief of any kind.
Leadbetter’s bill dominated the news as the media speculated about the dignity of dying and having a “good death”. And for the entire week my mind was occupied by the final hours of a six-year-old Palestinian child. I cannot tell you her name, for I do not know it, but she has been in my thoughts throughout this almost ethereal discussion on the merits or otherwise of assisted dying.
I’ve no photograph to hold and no one is left in her family to tell me about her character. I can only rely on the eyewitness account of an incredibly brave British doctor who turned up for duty after an Israeli air strike near the grounds of Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir Al-Balah which killed at least four people. The video went viral, but is now restricted viewing as Israel is becoming increasingly sensitive about the growing evidence of its war crimes, of which an air strike on refugee tents in a supposed safe zone is but one of many.
Dr Nick Maynard from Oxford has spent the past 15 years travelling to and from Gaza to volunteer in the hospitals there. One Monday morning he walked into chaos as the triage system had completely broken down. With relatives screaming for attention for their loved ones, he saw a child lying on the floor writhing in agony. She was burned severely and no one was there to call out on her behalf.
“She was all alone, I think her parents were dead. Her burns were so bad you could see her facial bones,” recalled Dr Maynard. “In truth she could have been taken to any hospital in the Western world and they would have all said the same: she can’t be saved. Even the finest burns unit in any London hospital would have come to the same conclusion.”
She was destined to die in agony
This wretched Palestinian child lay in agony on a floor in one of the operating theatres. She couldn’t even be given a bed. There was no morphine, no pain relief available and she was destined to die in agony.
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Maynard added in one interview with TRT that he saw things at Al-Aqsa Hospital which still keep him awake here in England. I listened to him in horror. “I am sorry, I do not know,” he told me when I asked him for the girl’s name. “No one did.”
Whoever that child was, she fought for her life for more than five hours, the same time it took British MPs to debate the merits of dying with dignity. Where were these MPs during the debate on a ceasefire in Gaza? Where was their concern about dying with dignity then?
The Israeli military dares to call itself the “most moral army” in the world and yet it bombs, kills and maims Palestinian civilians without a second thought. That air strike on the tents housing displaced people at Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza killed four people and wounded scores of others, including the child with no name. How many like her have spent their final hours on this earth in unimaginable agony without a hand to hold or anyone to comfort them?
If you live in Britain, please contact this website and tell your MP about this Palestinian child. Instead of these high and mighty politicians congratulating each other on pushing the Assisted Dying Bill through parliament, they need to be told about the genocide and its consequences of British support which allows the occupation state of Israel to act with impunity and treat international law with contempt. The reluctance of hypocrite Leadbetter and her colleagues who abstained in that ceasefire vote last November condemned Palestinians like that poor little girl to an agonising and very undignified death.
What punishment do British politicians deserve for their complicity in genocide?
In the UK, intentionally helping another person to end their life is currently illegal under the Suicide Act 1961, and carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. What punishment do British politicians deserve for their complicity in genocide wherein killing Palestinian children, women and the elderly has been normalised?
Everyone deserves a pain-free exit from this life, but there’s no pain relief in Gaza for the living or the dying. By ignoring the plight of the Palestinians while supporting the war crimes of the Zionists, these liberal politicians have just knocked another nail in the coffin of western civilisation. Their self-satisfaction about making it easier for people to kill themselves in Britain, while being unable to take tangible steps to stop the wanton destruction of life in occupied Palestine exposes the terminal moral decline of the west. They should be ashamed of themselves.
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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.