Issues are complicated and need much debate, he says
By K. C. Vijayan, The Straits Times, 20 Mar 2013
CHIEF Justice Sundaresh Menon has made it clear it is for Parliament to decide if voluntary euthanasia, or assisted suicide, is to be allowed in Singapore.
But the choice is a complicated one, requiring plenty of debate.
When he delivered the Singapore Medical Association's annual lecture titled "Euthanasia: a matter of life or death?" two Saturdays ago, he highlighted the example of Singaporean lawyer Suzanne Chin to show that even science did not have all the answers.
After she collapsed in Hong Kong in 2009, her family was informed she was brain dead. Her husband was advised to switch off the ventilator as there was no hope of recovery. Three days later, she revived. Eight days later she was discharged.
"I make these points to make the point that there are limits to what we know and what science can tell us," said CJ Menon, who explained that issues relating to accelerated and assisted dying were profound, with so many deeply different views that no "categorical conclusion" might be reached.
Euthanasia is illegal in Singapore but in certain cases under the country's Advance Medical Directive (AMD), a terminally ill person whose condition will soon lead to death can instruct doctors not to keep him alive by artificial means such as respirators. The Act, introduced in 1996, was preceded by much debate in Singapore.
CJ Menon noted that the AMD Act, "a carefully structured statute", does not condone, authorise or approve euthanasia, mercy killing or the abetment of suicide. He said: "... nothing in it authorises any act that causes or accelerates death as distinct from that which permits the dying process to take its natural course."
But he believes that the topic of assisted dying should continue to be a matter of "public debate, private conversations with our loved ones and personal reflection".
He listed several issues to guide the discussion, such as to what extent can the experience of other countries in legalising assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia be relevant to Singapore.
He also asked "how slippery and steep might be the slope that starts with a narrow exception permitting assisted suicide in limited circumstances".
He added that experiences from abroad perhaps suggested that "the choices about these matters are best not left to the courts". He cited a US judge who said that the answers "are not known to the nine Justices of the Supreme Court any better than they are known to nine people picked at random from the... telephone directory".
Instead, "the challenge for the courts will be to deal with particular issues as they arise from time to time" based on "well-developed principles", and "any development would have to be incremental".
He added it would be "presumptuous and certainly unfeasible" for him to give answers to resolve the issues raised at the lecture.
About 300 people, including lawyers and doctors, attended the talk.