Debbie Purdy, in constant pain from MS, says last week’s proposals that GPs could help the terminally ill to die don’t go far enough.
Euthanasia campaigner Debbie Purdy and her husband Omar Puente of Bradford, West Yorkshire.
We’re in the middle of a conversation when Debbie Purdy suddenly goes rigid. “Woah,” says her husband Omar, pulling her feet on to his lap and holding them tight. “It’s a bad one.” Her face contorts and her back arches in her electric wheelchair. Then a few seconds later, it is over. “There,” she says wearily. “Where were we?” Talking about the right to die, actually, in the wake of last week’s report by the Commission on Assisted Dying. But that’s not as grim as it sounds when you’re in the company of Debbie Purdy and Omar Puente. Yes, she has multiple sclerosis and is in constant pain. Yes, she spends most of her days on the phone or computer at her specially adapted terraced house in Bradford campaigning for the medical profession to be allowed to help people like her kill themselves. But this feisty 49-year-old is full of wit and energy and – it must be said – life.
“I want to live for as long as I am able, actually,” she says, looking over at Omar, who is now massaging her feet. Their love story is a remarkable one, and it is visibly still unfolding. “Life is not a b—-. I have so much to be grateful for. But I am in a lot of pain, there is a lot of suffering, and when the moment comes that I can no longer cope with all that, I want to be able to choose to end my life, knowing that the man I love will not go to prison for being there and helping me.”
That is why she started a legal action that led to an historic ruling in the House of Lords two years ago. She wanted to know what would happen to Omar – a musician from Cuba, who can make your heart leap when he plays the violin – if he came with her to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, to hold her hand while she took a lethal dose of barbiturates. Their Lordships agreed that the law was not clear. “I was gobsmacked when we won,” she says, “but I think the Law Lords understood they were not giving me permission to die. They were giving me permission to live.” The Director of Public Prosecution issued new guidelines which suggested it would not be in the public interest for someone like Omar to be arrested, if they were obviously acting out of compassion. Since then, 31 people from Britain have travelled to Dignitas to die, and none of their companions have been prosecuted, according to the Commission on Assisted Dying. This panel of peers and medical professionals was set up in the wake of Purdy’s victory, which had opened up the debate on suicide in a new way. After a year of deliberation the Commission said on Thursday that the law was “inadequate and incoherent”. It called for doctors to be allowed to give lethal drugs to patients who have less than a year to live, who have the mental capacity to know what they’re doing, and who can take the final dose themselves.
“I don’t believe it goes far enough,” says Purdy, who would not be helped by the proposed scheme because of the nature of her illness. “But what it does say is a no-brainer. Most people in Britain would agree. If politicians can’t bring it into play by the summer then they are failing to protect people in this country. And I hope they will then go further and have a debate about a law that can protect the vulnerable at the same time as helping people like me.”
What does Islam say about such an act under the circumstances? I suffer from the same disease, and while I would hate to be a burden on anybody, especially my family, I would not like ANYBODY, to take Allah’s place, in taking my life.
I would be really interested in how our Jama’at would address this issue.
Suicide and euthanasia are explicitly forbidden in Islam. We read in the Holy Quran “Do not take life, which Allah made sacred, other than in the course of justice. Qur’an 17:33”. Also we read in the Holy Quran “Destroy not yourselves. Surely Allah is ever merciful to you. Qur’an 4:29”
The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah taalah be upon him) said: “Amongst the nations before you there was a man who got a wound, and growing impatient (with its pain), he took a knife and cut his hand with it and the blood did not stop till he died. Allah said, ‘My Slave hurried to bring death upon himself so I have forbidden him (to enter) Paradise.’ ”
Sahih Bukhari Volume 4, Book 56, Number 669
The Holy Prophet of Islam (Peace and Blessings of Allah Taalah be upon him) said: “Amongst the nations before you there was a man who got a wound, and growing impatient (with its pain), he took a knife and cut his hand with it and the blood did not stop till he died. Allah said, ‘My Slave hurried to bring death upon himself so I have forbidden him (to enter) Paradise.’ ”
Sahih Bukhari Volume 4, Book 56, Number 669
Destroy not yourselves. Surely Allah is ever merciful to you.
Qur’an 4:29
Thanks for these responses about which I knew, already, i.e. that the same applies to euthanasia as suicide, but, in today’s world such a disease can leave one totally dependent on others who don’t have the means of looking after one. Then what?
Of course, the person probably wishing euthanasia probably does not want to die, and all s/he wants is not to be a burden on those around. Since Allah looks at the motives of the actions of people before punishing them…., what is everybody’s opinion, then?
Not wanting to be a burden on others may sound like a good and noble intention, however, the verses quoted above have precedent over this.
With the same noble intention one could say ‘let’s kill any children above two because they will be a burden’ … (a uso billa…).
The family and the society just has to look after those in need (and in the end they usually do, right?)
I know someone with cancer. His response to learning of his diagnosis was: ‘Good. That means I will pay for my sins in this life and in the next life I can go straight to heaven’.
Inshallah…
Excellent points made by Mr Tschannen. When my dear mother in law passed away after suffering for eighteen years from Parkinson disease, I had a question in my mind ‘she was a pious lady why she suffered so much?’. Raja Masood Ahmad Sahib the head of the Wassiyyat department in London handed me three printed pages describing the ‘great blessings’ of sufferings leading to one’s death. What I read answered all my questions, additionally I read that those who had a ‘rather comfortable passage’ to the next life when they would see the ‘great blessings’ showered upon those who suffered before their death, would want to come back to this life only to endure some suffering before moving on to the next world.
God bless you all for all of the responses to my questions above and thank you very much for them.
This morning while reciting the Holy Qur’an, I was given the much needed answers in Surah Zumar verses 33-42. It seems that Allah also was trying to get through to me! Alhamdulillah.
Yes, I know that somebody or the other ALWAYS comes to our aid when the need comes up, just like brother Rafiq mentions, above.
And now, though not talking about myself, but, trying to understand why people commit suicide or are pro-euthanasia.
Couldn’t it be because, they not only feel burdensome but, the people around them make them feel this way…? And the sufferer kind of finds that s/he has no reason for living?
When reading some stories of ‘assisted suicide’ the cases mentioned are usually people of some means who even have people around them who care (they cannot go to the ‘assistants’ without help). Therefore it is more likely the ‘no reason for living’ part. Without faith in the next life the reason I mentioned does not arise. Therefore probably in most cases a lack of religion is a major factor. (Just my humble view, without being an expert student of this subject)…