SOARS: An Interesting New Society

The picture is the banner on the homepage of a new British Society: SOARS. It stands for "Society for Old Age Rational Suicide." SOARS, founded in December 2009, states its purpose like this:

Presently, the main objective of SOARS is to begin a campaign to get the law eventually changed in the UK so that very elderly, mentally competent individuals, who are suffering unbearably from various health problems (although none of them is “terminal”) are allowed to receive a doctor’s assistance to die, if this is their persistent choice. Surely the decision to decide, at an advanced age, that enough is enough and, avoiding further suffering, to have a dignified death is the ultimate human right for a very elderly person.

Basically, what they are asking for, is what Dying With Dignity Canada stands for, a change in the law, so that those who have a good reason to die may receive assistance to do so. The first annual SOARS lecture was given this year by Baroness Mary Warnock on 17th September. Baroness Warnock has written, with Elisabeth Macdonald a very good introductory book on assisted dying entitled Easeful Death. You can access SOARS by clicking on this link: SOARS