\u2018These days no one talks about death.\u2019 It\u2019s a line from Surplus to Requirements. These days it\u2019s not completely true. In the lead up to the so called \u2018Assisted Dying Bill\u2019 there has been more talk about death; the sort of death we want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It seems that most of us think we should be able to choose how and when we die. Yet we did not choose to be born. Many more aspects of our lives were lived at the whim, desire or choice of others, sometimes long since dead. If we have a national religion now it would be choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not everyone has as much choice as I do. I could choose to retire even though as a 50s woman I was cheated of six years of my pension when I retired in 2019. The choice to do so had pros and cons. For me the pros outweighed the cons but many 50s women will not live to claim the state pension they should receive. On the day the Bill was debated I turned 66 and began to receive mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Choice involves cost. The word \u2018bill\u2019 has several meanings and, ducks aside, the one I\u2019m wondering about is what the cost of this Bill will be. I don\u2019t so much mean the financial cost, although I accept we don\u2019t know the answer to that. I\u2019m concerned about the social cost and that is essentially what Surplus to Requirements is about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lorem Ipsum has been the industry\u2019s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What might a society that has opted for \u2018assisted dying\u2019 look like in the future? How about in twenty-five years time? It\u2019s a work of my imagination based on true events that have already happened. They say those that don\u2019t learn from history are destined to repeat it. The book is about a lot of repeated history, especially in the North of England, my adopted home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also includes things that I imagine might happen if we continue to entrench inequality in our society, especially for people with disabilities. It\u2019s a \u2018what if\u2019 book, but then life is very much like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What if I live to be 67? I don\u2019t know. But I\u2019m willing to find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Janet lees, 1st December 2024, Longdendale.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018These days no one talks about death.\u2019 It\u2019s a line from Surplus to Requirements. These days it\u2019s not completely true. In the lead up to the so called \u2018Assisted Dying Bill\u2019 there has been more talk about death; the sort of death we want. It seems that most of us think we should be able… Continue reading The Bill<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dystopia","category-fiction","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplustorequirements.org.uk\/strblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplustorequirements.org.uk\/strblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplustorequirements.org.uk\/strblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplustorequirements.org.uk\/strblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplustorequirements.org.uk\/strblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/surplustorequirements.org.uk\/strblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75,"href":"https:\/\/surplustorequirements.org.uk\/strblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplustorequirements.org.uk\/strblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplustorequirements.org.uk\/strblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplustorequirements.org.uk\/strblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}