A British maestro and his wife killed themselves in a suicide pact — and not at home.
British maestro Edward Downes, who conducted the BBC Philharmonic and the Royal Opera but struggled in recent years as his hearing and sight failed, has died with his wife at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland. He was 85 and she was 74.
The couple’s children said Tuesday that the couple died “peacefully and under circumstances of their own choosing” on Friday at a Zurich clinic run by the group Dignitas.
For our German reading audience here is Dignitas’ website. Here is some info from their website in English.
Here’s a Daily Mail article from 2007 comparing the Dignitas clinic to a backstreet abortion clinic.
The head of Dignitas calls the “right to die” the last human right and tries to include it in the panoply of human rights from the Magna Carta down to his organization. Swiss law allows assisted suicide so long as it’s not for “selfish motives”.
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When is suicide not inherently selfish?
So called “assisted suicide” is for incompetent cowards and “wards of the state”. If you can’t figure out a way to off yourself, by yourself, then you deserve to continue to live.
Not to make too light, but just ask Lane Meyer.
Two dollars!
I don’t see where they discuss fees on the site. I’m wondering just how rich these bastards are getting from this.
It’s interesting to me that Europe has a rapidly shrinking population, which means fewer kids to support the burden of the elderly. Suddenly, Europe is leading the charge to get rid of the sick and infirm. Coincidence?
You know, on this one I’m actually somewhat willing to agree with the political extremists in our own country: Maybe us caucasians really are just fundamentally sick and twisted. I mean, you’d never see this kind of behavior in Africa or Asia…it’s just us honkey mofos who seem intent on killing people.
Sigh. Depressing.
Republibot — er, you are saying that you don’t see Asians killing themselves? Have you never heard of suicide in Japan, for instance?
I just dealt with my mother slowly dying for 3 years. I can definitely enumerate a number of situations where I would choose a fast exit.
They were talking about this on the local radio station the other day, so I’ve actually been thinking about this.
I do think it should be illegal to provide the service. I do think suicide is wrong. I do think it it’s a terrible slippery slope and we’d do well to not get anywhere near it.
However, I don’t fault the guy for wanting this and choosing it. I know that sounds screwed up, let me try to explain. Especially if the guy wasn’t a believer, there was nothing left for him, from his perspective. He was losing his life partner, someone he loved deeply and he was losing his sight and hearing, both HUGE losses for a conductor. He’s lived a long full life, but it’s starting to get hard, why wait till it gets worse? If he doesn’t believe it’s a sin, or that there is a bigger perspective than what he feels, there’s no reason for him not to choose this.
Please understand that I don’t condone suicide, I think it’s a selfish, angry, immature thing to do, and I ought to know as I have attempted it. But I do understand the desire to end the hurt and have some control.
Peter Hitchens had a great column about this, comparing it to the abortion industry. Soon we will be getting rid of anyone who is not “convenient”.
Oh, believe me, us ‘Asians’ would love to follow suit but are too gutless to try it first. Once this practice becomes more prevalent in Europe, Asians will pressure their governments to legalize it the same way homosexuality and abortion were. I see strong Asian opposition to it only in the Islamic countries and the Phillipines.
@ Fritz – No, of course Asians kill themselves, for honor, or a lack thereof, for the normal squishy emotional reasons that everyone does it, but they don’t tell their grandparents to kill themselves because they’re old and therefore useless.
I’m not even saying that Suicide is wrong – I’m not Catholic by a long shot – I’m just saying that just like prostitution and gambling, once a government gets involved in it, it’s universally perceived as “Right” (or at least “Acceptable”), and things tend to go south from there.
Republibot — maybe I’m not catching something in the article, but I read nothing about their grandchildren telling them to die and I read nothing about any government involvement. So I’m not sure where you are going with this.
Wow — they named their kids Caractacus and Boudicca. That must have caused some awkward times in child-rearing.