A British politician is calling on the government to legalize euthanasia by touting the “benefits” of “assisted suicide.”
Lester Queripel, from the British Channel Island of Guernsey, argues that introducing radical euthanasia laws would save the government money.
As Slay News has been reporting, several Western nations have relaxed their laws regarding euthanasia.
Initially, countries such as Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland changed their laws to allow people with terminal illnesses to choose “assisted suicide” to avoid dying in pain.
However, many nations have been increasingly relaxing these laws.
Since Belgium introduced “assisted suicide” laws in 2002, the nation has euthanized a staggering 27,000 people.
The country now even allows convicted criminals to choose euthanasia over going to prison.
In Canada, doctors are now euthanizing people with depression, hearing problems, and even those suffering from poverty or homelessness.
The nation is also expanding these laws to include children.
In the UK, Queripel appears to be inspired by these nations advancing their euthanasia laws.
Queripel told the Health & Social Care Committee that Guernsey is suffering from financial problems.
According to the politician, “assisted suicide” could help them save money.
Claiming they need to save £1 million ($1.22M) per year in spending, he argued that “considerable savings could be realized if assisted dying was to be introduced here in the island.”
Queripel further asked the committee how many people had been kept alive over the past five years when they could have died instead.
He continued by questioning how much medication, staffing, and treatment had cost taxpayers.
His proposal was strongly condemned, however.
The board said they support assisted suicide.
Nevertheless, they said that speaking about it from a financial perspective was distasteful.
“From a HSC perspective, consideration of assisted dying should be from the core principles of health, dignity and pain management,” HSC President Al Brouard said.
“HSC considers that discussing such an important and emotive subject through an economic or financial lens is inappropriate.
“The committee does not support the terminology being used in this question.
“Our goal is to support people to have a dignified death, free from avoidable distress and suffering, and it does not count or evaluate patient experience in this way.”
Other assisted suicide advocates complained that Queripel’s words harm the assisted suicide movement.
Still, Queripel doesn’t regret his words.
“They keep on saying they need to make savings, so I put in a simple question,” he said.
“They say we need to look at everything, so this is the next logical step.
“Many people don’t want to keep on living and I think we need to put a figure on that.”
In 2018, Guernsey rejected the legalization of assisted suicide.
Meanwhile, another Channel Island, Jersey, is moving toward legalization by 2025.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and obviously HSC has no will to do this work,” Queripel complained.
“Jersey [is] ahead of us and so are many other places.
“This is an issue that won’t go away.”
READ MORE: Doctors ‘Euthanized’ Woman by Suffocating Her with a Pillow, Family ‘Heard Her Screaming’
