The name Daniel James will not be known to many on this side of the Atlantic, or, indeed in his home country of the UK. Nevertheless, in his own way Daniel James represents the perfect example of a victim. He’s the victim of a social system that has become endemic in the western world; a system of control, of manipulation, that renders the ordinary person a slave to the dictates of those who would impose their will on others, while utilizing a different set of laws to regulate their own, wealth-ridden, lives.
Daniel James is dead. He died, of his own free will, in a Swiss clinic. Daniel James chose assisted suicide in Switzerland, because his home country – like much of the western world, including America (with the exception of Oregon) – denied him the right to die with dignity, after an accident during a rugby match left him paralyzed from the neck down, the result of a badly crushed spine.[1]
Daniel James was twenty-three. Being of sound mind, he decided his body had become a prison. He wished to end his life. He tried several times to kill himself, without success. Eventually, he achieved his wish by traveling to Switzerland.
His parents, distraught and in need of comfort at the loss of their son, are being harassed by police demanding statements, with a view to possible prosecution, because they may, in some way, have committed an offense if they helped their son achieve his wish. Such “help” includes purchasing his air ticket, driving him to the airport, daring to accompany him on the plane.
HOW DARE THEY? Who do they think they are? Do these inhumane creatures who dare to legislate such monstrous laws think they have the divine right to harass and torture individuals already overcome with the grief of bereavement? Do the God Almighty Lords and Ladies of English aristocracy, the toffee-nosed, high-falluting, US senators of Congress, truly believe they alone hold the right to decide if an individual may, or may not, consider his life too unbearable to endure?
Frankly, my contempt for these autocrats knows no bounds. My greatest joy would be to urinate on them from the top of a very high building. They are, to coin a phrase, sanctimonious bastards.
My heart goes out to the parents of Daniel James. Let the law do its worst, for the law is an ass.
Blackmail is the lowest of crimes, yet the law cavorts with blackmail when it twists the arm of people like Daniel James, by threatening their relatives and friends if they dare to defy “They Who Must Be Obeyed”.
It’s a fact that the older one grows, the less one knows. When we’re young we think we have all the answers. As we grow older, we realize we don’t even understand the questions. There’s one fact I have learned, however, in my sixty two years on this planet: it’s that those who hold the power to make the rules, are not worthy of our respect. The rules are always for their benefit, never ours.
Daniel James – may he rest in peace. And may his parents take comfort that at last he’s found it.
[1] “Parents speak on assisted suicide” BBC, October 17th 2008
Filed under: The hypocrites
