Dr Irwin was not employed by UNICEF as a medical doctor so should have been addressed as Mr Michael Irwin, according to the rules, but I can only ever think of him as Dr Michael Irwin possibly because, when he left UNICEF, Bangladesh, it was to take up the post of Medical Director of Health, UN, New York Headquarters, a post he had held previously.
It was known that Dr Irwin was a supporter of Dignity in Dying; but I never heard of him using his position to further his personal agenda in this matter. It was only later when he very publicly claimed to have assisted some friends to end their own lives – in the face of legislation in the UK which absolutely forbade such actions, that he was accused of breaking the law.
The link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1240007/ clearly describes Dr Michael Irwin’s beliefs and actions, and consequences. I commend it to anyone interested in the subject.
*****
The reason for the prologue above, is that over the last two nights, my wife and I sat through 6 hours of ‘TRUELOVE’, a TV series which launched in the UK on Channel 4 early in January, 2024, and which may be watched, free-of-cost on the catch-up platform ‘4’. It deals with assisted suicide as a drama. Speaking personally, I found it sympathetic and very thought provoking. Is it because my wife and I are rapidly approaching that time of life when we need to prepare for our own exit ?
It strikes me that UNICEF spends a lot of time, resources and energy promoting the welfare of children from conception to adulthood, while they neglect to devote the same energies towards making one’s departure from this world a reasonable process. The government and the major religions seem very concerned that arcane principles should be applied irrespective of the effect that they might have on the dying, especially where the vast majority of the population admit to wanting to be allowed to determine the manner and timing of their own death, something along the lines of ‘My body, my decision’ ?
*****
Ken Gibbs can be contacted via kengibbs1941@gmail.com
While the elderly may be very worried about UNICEF, the UN agency for children should probably not unduly worry about the issues of the elderly. I also see some societal responsibility towards every child, even across border, while decisions of how to die remain a rather individual matter.
ReplyDeleteWithout wanting to split hairs in this matter – I would agree absolutely that it shouldn’t be UNICEF’s role to have anything to do with old folks wanting to die since UNICEF was originally set up for the welfare of children, not geriatrics.
DeleteHowever, pushing the matter to one side on the basis that it is a matter of personal choice might risk someone asking whether the creation of a child isn’t also a matter of personal choice ?
We can choose not to have children (or to have them), by simple physical and/or chemical/biological means. Think back to James Grant who was keen to promote Family Spacing which has a direct impact on child survival, just to know that Family Spacing is a choice.
If we have a choice to create life (or to decline to do so), then it would seem logical for us to want to have a choice to end our lives (or not to end our lives). What I suspect that Dr Michael Irwin was seeking to do was to promote this choice where it seems to be warranted. The fact that politicians and jurists and religions want to have control over what others wish to do, does not make the choice itself wrong. Or am I wrong in this supposition ?
Interesting info as regards who is and is not a Dr. in UNICEF - we used to have a geologist who strutted around the world dispensing advice on health issues calling himself a Dr. That must have been wrong on many levels.
ReplyDelete