Double Standards ?

The BBC and other liberal media give sympathetic and generous coverage to the 'right to die' lobby. It seems that being able to take your own life is a basic human right - and that if you're ill it's fair enough for someone to 'assist' you.

Save in one instance.

When those who wish to die are prisoners, then it suddenly becomes of primary importance to prevent their suicide.

I wonder why ? Do our liberal ruling class care more about keeping prisoners alive than they do about keeping old people alive ?

Only asking.

The great Dalrymple (a prison doctor) has written before on prison suicide.

"The suicide rate in British prisons has doubled despite—I use the word despite in its loosest possible sense—official attempts to reduce it. Although the average citizen is probably not too deeply concerned about this rise, there has been a great deal of adverse publicity about it. It is one of the many ways in which compassionate liberals wear their hearts on their sleeves."

'Compassionate liberals wearing their hearts on their sleeves'. Sound of nail struck firmly on head. Where were the liberals when Martin James committed suicide ?

UPDATE - Peter Briffa in great form ...

"Tomorrow's Guardian today:

WE ARE ALL DIMINISHED BY THIS MAN'S DEATH

The sad news of Harold Shipman's death yesterday should bring neither joy nor happiness to anyone hearing it. Certainly, he was a very bad man, and it is not being overtly judgmental to say so.
The murder of over two hundred pensioners should never be glossed over. Yet perhaps it is time to put this all in perspective. During the time period Dr. Shipman was busy acting - as he no doubt saw it - as an Angel of Mercy, over twenty women and children were being killed on the streets every hour, by drivers, alcoholics, and husbands. The combined total of Shipman's victims could be crammed into a small one bedroom flat in Glasgow.

In no way does this diminish what Shipman did, but it is worth thinking about the next time you hear some right-wing commentator describe Dr. Shipman as evil."

And for what it's worth - people have been asking why Dr. Shipman did what he did. Here's my simple answer.

Because he could.

UPDATE 14/1/03

It's hard to caricature the Guardian, who seem to have forgotten their frequent calls for the right to die. Surely they should be calling for prison doctors to help people like Dr. Shipman 'die with dignity' ?

David Ramsbotham asks 'how could it happen ?' - not the deaths of a few hundred pensioners of course, only the death of their murderer. After all we shouldn't 'focus on the crime committed rather than the future life of a fellow human being.' Perish the thought.

The Sun strikes a slightly different note with the headline 'Ship Ship Hooray !'

"Wesley Jones, whose gran was among the 260 people murdered by Dr Death, spoke for scores of families when he said: “I’m delighted. I’m glad he has gone.”

Machine operator Wesley, 34 — who lives in the GP’s old hunting ground of Hyde, Greater Manchester — added: “When I heard he was dead I just thought, ‘Absolutely brilliant, yippee’.”

Jean Pinder, whose aunt died at the hands of the monster, said: “I am happy for all the relatives who lost loved ones to this man. I am happy for taxpayers who were forking out thousands of pounds to keep him in prison.

“Justice has been done, although he should have been hanged by the state.”

Thea Morgan, 65, who lost her 90-year-old mother, said: “It couldn’t have happened to a nicer man.” "

But what do they know ?