Back under cloud cover again today. Getting to bed half an hour earlier helped me get up a bit earlier, just after an excellent Thought for the Day by Catholic journalist Catherine Pepinster in which she spoke about the Christian concept of Conscience on this day when Parliament debates the draft bill on assisted dying. The public debate so far has been very interesting, as it has raised a host of practical questions and doubts whose seriousness may have escaped the attention of proponents of the bill. The very last stage of life is often fraught with physical suffering and mental anguish.
I can understand what makes this intolerable for some, and leads them to hasten their own death. It already happens legally in ten countries under certain conditions and probably in many more countries outside the gaze of the law. 'Thou shalt not kill' is a moral imperative widely ignored when it comes to war. For better or for worse medical science prolongs life and on times, it does so when it be more compassionate to stop treatment and let a person die naturally.
Actively helping people on their way is a different issue, however, and very complex. The law is a mess on end of life issues. I wouldn't want to be kept alive if I was too so sick that relationships with my nearest and dearest were no longer possible, but let my end be natural not managed. Others may think differently. Suicide is no longer against the law. Accountability for assisting someone to die on their own terms must be under strict scrutiny, but with criminal sanctions used as a last resort. And that's where it gets very complex. One thing that will keep coming to the fore is the fact that not enough is invested in caring for the elderly vulnerable, in end of life care and palliative care. Let's hope that the very fact of this present debate will help shift priorities.
There are also questions to consider about there being a right to take one's own life. Is this right the ultimate consumer freedom? Customising your demise goes way beyond customising your funeral just because you can, whether or not your choices please others. How does duty and responsibility towards others fit with 'rights'? It's painfully individualistic, choosing to cut all interpersonal bonds, ignoring the community nature of any farewell ritual imposing your choice on others who feel obliged to carry out your dying wishes without an honest say in the affair? Nobody should have to suffer, not have too much say in how others mourn your passing.
While I was making breakfast, I had a call from Ruth about the podcast. She had concerns about a few of the things she had mentioned. I made a note of them and reassured her that I could edit them out, rather than her needing to come around and re-record. I got to work after breakfast, and after an hour and a half of tinkering with the audio, she was satisfied with the outcome. Meanwhile the aroma of Christmas fudge and the sound of Clare beating it in the kitchen reached me in the front room.
We had a salad lunch including Greek gigantes beans that Clare slightly overcooked, which gave them an interesting slightly caramelised flavour. Then I went out early for a walk, up to Western Avenue and down the east bank of the Taff to the Millennium Bridge and back home. I was interested to see what traces there were of the river overflow last weekend. There are still treacherous patches of mud on the hard of the path which haven't yet dried out, branches and twigs carried by water caught up in bramble patches and in occasional pieces of fencing. Low hanging trees and undergrowth have trapped plastic sheeting and bags, a sad and ugly sight, with little likelihood of the plastic being removed.
In the five o'clock news, we learned that Parliament has adopted the assisted dying bill. That means it will be scrutinised, subjected to modification by both Houses. Today's debate will I suspect, continue a process that will eventually lead to effective legislation. What the eventual outcome will be remains to be seen.
The whole world was treated to news video footage of the interior of Notre Dame de Paris during today's visit by President Macron today. It's a wonderful sight, with the stonework and stained glass cleaned of seven centuries of grime, so it now looks as it did when it was first completed seven centuries ago, full of light and warmth. Restoration cost €700 million, most of it raised from donations. It was inspiring to hear one of the carpenters working on rebuilding the roof speak on the Today programme this morning. Asked about the reason for using medieval wood working tools to fashion the oak roof beams, he said this was necessary to obtain the highest quality most durable timbers to work with. It seems that mechanical saws stress the wood cutting too much across the grain when the older slower gentler implements didn't. There's a lesson about life to be learned in this, one which I'm sure the luthier working on Dad's 'cello will be well acquainted with.
We went out for supper at Stefano's for a change. When we got back I scanned another batch of negatives from a 1997 hike in Haute Savoie, I think, though I'm not sure where we walked. It may have been up the mountain behind La Baume. Lovely times.
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