Moving on from ‘Euthanized’, it seems Wellington lawyer Lecretia Seales’ hopes of dying on her own terms, via an assisted suicide, have been declined.

This terminally ill, brain cancer sufferer’s only hope now is to follow the lead of a particular British man in a similar predicament, and take her quest to die peacefully to another land which is not so bloody determined to uphold a senseless law which, for the record, goes against everything that we, as supposedly ‘free’ citizens of New Zealand value so much, stating that regardless of a person’s current, or indeed projected, condition or quality of life, that person must be forced to endure as much of the aforementioned life as is physically possible, before further enduring their inevitably painful and possibly horrific, also grotesque but indeed, natural, death.

I could never quite understand the law claiming that suicide was illegal; I mean, once the carcass is lying dead on the floor, who’s going to get punished? Is it supposed to act as a deterrent, as in, “Don’t forget buddy, despite your impending total loss of motor function resulting in your becoming completely dependent on others – including for your most personal and humiliating needs – if you kill yourself, you’ll be breaking the law, so you’d better not eh, because I don’t want to have to go through life having been affiliated with a known law-breaker.”?

Bullshitty as that is, even more ridiculous is the story of the Danish radio DJ who staged an on-air slaughter of a rabbit, which he then took home and cooked for his family, in protest to the hypocrisy involved at the way that humans somehow perceive a difference between killing for fun and killing for food…

In my opinion, it was a brilliant showcase of that exact double-standard and certainly, he made a marvellous point – he slaughtered the animal for the purpose of that night’s family meal therefore there shouldn’t have been an issue with his actions – yet because he killed a ’cute little bunny’ rabbit rather than the more widely known ‘scourge of the land’ rabbit – also the fact that he did it over national radio – this man has been vilified by the nation of Denmark.

…Killing is killing, suffering is suffering; death is death. Regarding the Dane, while some will assuredly argue the point, he did kill that rabbit humanely; certainly more humanely than many rabbit hunters would, anyway. It was the fact that he did it with public knowledge, the fact that he didn’t try to hide the extremely taboo subject of death, that people find so difficult to palate.

Just like Lecretia Seales. Her biggest mistake was allowing her death to become visible to the public eye – doesn’t she realise the public are generally dickheads? Now, on account of that disastrous folly, unless she heads abroad to die, this woman who once gave so much to her country will now perish slowly, while effectively suffering at the hands of said nation.

Dickheads.

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Di Inna Payne

Photography by Peter Rabbit