Scandalous and homicidal government cuts force woman to seek assisted suicide
Marie Lopez.
A commenter came to This Site today, expressing a belief that the Department for Work and Pensions wants sick or disabled claimants to die – and that the government would have its way because people like him will become suicidal.
He wrote: “They just want us to die. They may get their wish when people like me feel suicidal and worrying for the future.”
That isn’t the answer. This Writer always tries to dissuade people who say they are considering suicide in response to government cruelty.
I wrote back: “Do not give in to suicidal thoughts.
“That is exactly what the Tories want because then you are off their books and they can claim the death is nothing to do with their policies.
“If you feel like a burden to them, be a burden to them! They are causing you enough trouble, aren’t they? I mean, if you’ve been pushed so far you might actually try to take your own life, I would say that is indicative of being caused more trouble than you deserve – and by people who should be helping you.
“Never let them have an easy time of it.
“Fight them, tooth and claw.
“I know it’s hard because I have done it. But defiance is the only way.”
Of course, direct DWP cruelty is slightly different from that suffered by Marie Lopez in the Sunday Mirror‘s story. She was saying she had been let down by Buckinghamshire Social Services.
But it is true that people with Crohn’s Disease are ill-served by Personal Independence Payment assessors. According to Crohn’s and Colitis UK, the PIP descriptors “include a much narrower range of activities than DLA, and focuses only on those activities required for the bare essentials of existing.
“Crohn’s and Colitis UK are concerned that the new system focuses on a much narrower range of activities is less sensitive to the complex needs of people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).
“The PIP assessment fails to adequately recognise or measure the additional disability costs and barriers to participation encountered by people with little understood conditions such as IBD.”
From the account given by Ms Lopez, it is clear that she is not in receipt of PIP.
So, challenged by not one but two brutal bureaucracies, no wonder Ms Lopez is suicidal. But This Writer cannot condone her decision.
She needs somebody to fight for her – not to give up and let the Tories add another death to their already-horrifying tally.
Wracked with pain, and after eight years on morphine, Marie Lopez has finally chosen death over a life blighted by illness and cruel spending cuts.
This once vibrant businesswoman has spent her every last penny paying for her own care after social services left her to suffer in agony.
Now she is using her last £10,000 to buy an end to her ordeal at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland, even though she is not dying.
And she blames Government cuts for her decision to die at the Lifecircle Clinic in Basel.
When he heard of Marie’s plight, [I, Daniel Blake film] director [Ken] Loach told the Sunday Mirror: “So many people have been treated with great cruelty by the DWP (Department for Work and Pensions), it’s not surprising to hear of one more.
“Everyone’s heart should go out to anyone contending with both a debilitating illness and a brutal bureaucracy”.
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has you state mike giving in to these devils never but far to many have we lost far to much pain only to give up nah fight back untill that door opens up giving up ones lifes well that defeat and using the help we give each other to atleast get some dignity
The commentator was correct in her analysis – they ^do^ want “useless eaters” to die. I wrote about this extensively in my latest blog article – In it, I quote Vox Political.
https://cultureandpolitics.org/2017/02/26/low-lying-fruit/
It is not just that this Tory Government is leading people to suicide, but they are creating the conditions where death will be inevitable due to lack of finance by sanctioning or due to maximum funding limits being reached.
They are also reducing benefits to a level which may not sustain life. They are pushing people not only to their limits, but to far exceeding their limits, hence the increased risk of suicide.
This is all at the same time that Local Authorities are also being squeezed and limited of finance and by this many, if not all councils now have insufficient funding to finance the many legal requirements that these councils have and the Government burden councils with even more responsibilities. The Government are eager to pass responsibilities to councils so that they can state they are supporting devolved Government, but are not providing sufficient resources to ensure they can do this effectively.
When this Government wish to create finance they are able to do so, which they are doing for a UK space program and even more so with the decision to replace Trident, a system that we will never use and if we do will not be around after.
Their values are not in the best interests of the majority of the UK.
When you have a government that pays DWP workers bonus’ for sanctioning people what else can you expect?