Yesterday in an article here on CentreRight Zac Goldsmith made the case for judicial leniency in cases of assisted suicide and, in this particular case, an involuntary form of this action.
Now it is possible to have sympathy for the victim and, in our relative comfort, feel that such a life is not worth living. Impossible as it is to truly understand, we end up mentally transposing ourselves into their situation, finding that which we do not know to be an unbearable shock, and coming to this conclusion. It is also possible to have sympathy for the family, burdened by their loved one, and again mentally transposing ourselves into their situation, finding that which we do not know to be an unbearable shock, having some sympathy perhaps for why they did it.
It would be all too easy for us to romanticise the tragedy of the dire reality, with sadness deem that the actions were in love, and decide to turn a misty eye by granting clemency for ‘mercy killings’. We may then feel merciful, compassionate and civilised, but life is seldom so simple and the road to Hell so often paved with good intentions.
We live in such an individualistic world today that we sometimes forget that which is universal and for all of us. Law is not and cannot be about individual cases; it’s about all of us, for any of us could end up in such a situation and need its protection. The laws on killing are there to protect all of us, not just those of us society today deems have lives worth defending, and that defence is as much about being a deterrent as being a punishment.
If it becomes law that killings deemed mercy killings are accepted, a great many others will become victims of such killings and killings claimed to be such but which are not. Whatever sympathy we have for the despair some people are in, we must deny ourselves the comforting ease of legal mercy, if not as punishment on behalf of the victim then as deterrence for the sake of those others.